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Boston Globe
2 days ago
- Business
- Boston Globe
Towns lose their latest challenge to controversial state housing law
'The Municipalities have neither pled specific costs for anticipated infrastructure costs, nor provided any specific timeline for anticipated construction projects,' Gildea wrote in the ruling. 'Instead, the only allegations and averments before the court are generalized comments about large-scale issues they forsee, which are insufficient to sustain the Municipalities' claims.' The ruling is the latest legal blow to towns that have sought to avoid passing new zoning rules under the four-year-old MBTA Communities Act. Advertisement Last year, the Supreme Judicial Court The suits Gildea dismissed Friday were filed after State Auditor Diana DiZoglio's office Advertisement Gildea rejected that opinion in his ruling. He also said towns had misinterpreted the auditor's opinion by making broad claims about infrastructure costs under the law, when the opinion instead focused on the administrative costs associated with designing and passing new zoning rules. 'We are pleased the courts have again affirmed the intent of the MBTA Communities Law, and we look forward to working with the remaining communities to complete their zoning changes,' Housing Secretary Ed Augustus said in a statement Friday. Of 177 municipalities covered by the law, 134 have now passed new multifamily zoning, and more than 4,000 units of housing are in the development pipeline in those districts, state officials said. Housing advocates — who view MBTA Communities as one of the state's more consequential housing laws of the last several decades — celebrated the ruling Friday, saying it clears the path for the law to move forward. 'Today's ruling is a great victory for all Massachusetts residents, but particularly the communities of color and low-income individuals hardest hit by the affordable housing crisis,' said Jacob Love, Senior Attorney at Lawyers for Civil Rights, a legal advocacy groups that has sued towns for defying MBTA Communities. 'Increasing multi-family housing stock is critical to advancing fair housing in the Commonwealth and this decision preserves one of the most important tools we have in the fight for housing equity.' Andrew Brinker can be reached at
Boston Globe
28-02-2025
- Business
- Boston Globe
Middleborough sues Healey, state over MBTA housing law requirements
Middleborough, the town said in the lawsuit, has already built housing near its commuter rail station in recent years, and should not be forced to make room for more. Adhering to the law's requirements would be a 'significant expense' because the town does not have the infrastructure to accommodate more development, it said. Lawyers for the town added that the state has gone too far in punishing towns it deems noncompliant, carrying out a 'campaign of threats, intimidation, and coercion.' Advertisement Middleborough, a town of 24,000 about 30 miles south of Boston, has been The town wrote to DiZoglio's office last year requesting her opinion on the law, and when officials there received her opinion last week calling it an unfunded mandate, they moved quickly to prepare a lawsuit. For the Healey administration, this is yet another roadblock for a law it inherited from former Governor Charlie Baker but has become central to its housing strategy. The administration Related : Advertisement But towns have not taken kindly to the law. Some see it as an affront on Massachusetts' tradition of local government decisions over land-use rules, and many do not want to encourage the production of more homes, particularly apartment buildings. The law requires 177 cities and towns with access to the T Attorney General Andrea Campbell Middleborough officials say the town created a multifamily zoning district in 2021 that has since yielded 174 multifamily units, a quarter of which are set at affordable rents. And over the last 20 years, the town has seen 881 housing units built within a mile of its commuter rail station. Related : It argues that should be enough to satisfy the requirements of MBTA Communities. But under the law, the town has to create zoning that makes room for at least 1,471 units. The zoning the town passed in 2021 only allows for 549 units. Lawyers for the town said it has been unfairly punished for not complying with the law's requirements 'through the withholding and/or recission of more than $6.5 million in funding for school programs, infrastructure projects and other initiatives that are necessary to provide the very housing the Act was enacted to create.' Advertisement Andrew Brinker can be reached at
Boston Globe
24-02-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
Auditor calls key state housing law an ‘unfunded mandate,' raising prospect of more lawsuits
The office of State Auditor Diana DiZoglio issued an opinion late last week calling MBTA Communities an 'unfunded mandate,' citing a law that requires the Legislature to allocate funding for new laws that impose costs on municipalities. The Auditor's Division of Local Mandates issued the decision after several towns requested the office to weigh in, and determined that 'The MBTA Communities Act does not provide a funding mechanism for compliance with its provisions,' the office wrote. The decision effectively provides a new pathway for municipalities to challenge the law in court, though it is not clear how much weight the auditor's decision would hold in such a case. Related : Advertisement The opinion blindsided and enraged some housing advocates, who accused DiZoglio of standing in the way of a law that is meant to spark the production of much-needed homes in a state where housing prices 'It's very unfortunate that the auditor is throwing a wrench into a critical policy that is meant to see more housing built in Massachusetts,' said Marc Draisen, executive director of the Metropolitan Area Planning Council. 'We are decades behind in producing the homes that people need, and this law is one of the few times that the Legislature has chosen to address this issue.' The auditor's opinion, which comes four years after the law was signed by then-Governor Charlie Baker, came after three towns requested DiZoglio's office weigh in on the issue: Wrentham, Middleborough, and the auditor's hometown of Methuen. (DiZoglio, who was a state senator when MBTA Communities was passed, voted for State Auditor Diana DiZoglio. Erin Clark/Globe Staff Her office argued that the law constitutes an unfunded mandate under the Local Mandate law because the Legislature did not appropriate funds when it first passed the legislation in 2021, even though the state has since doled out millions of dollars in grants to towns to pay for consultants to help draft their zoning. Advertisement 'Establishment of the grant programs... did not occur contemporaneously with the enactment of [MBTA Communities],' the office wrote, which is a requirement of the Local Mandate law. DiZoglio's office said municipalities may be able to petition the Superior Court for an exemption with the opinion. Typically, in cases of unfunded mandates, the auditor's office conducts a fiscal analysis to precisely determine the burden of a mandate on cities and towns. DiZoglio's office did not do that analysis for MBTA Communities because it would require 'further data collection,' which it said it would conduct in the future. Related : Draisen, whose organization has provided funding and technical assistance aimed at helping communities write compliant zoning, rejected the notion that MBTA Communities is a fiscal burden on towns. The state, he said, 'has gone overboard to try and provide either funding or assistance to communities to help them with this effort.' Attorney General Andrea Campbell, who sued Milton last year after residents overturned an MBTA Communities zoning plan, pushed back against the opinion, saying that it does not carry any weight unless a court makes a similar determination. 'The Auditor's claim that the MBTA Communities Law is an unfunded mandate is wrong, and, more importantly, this letter has no effect whatsoever on implementation of the law,' Campbell said in a statement. 'If those who oppose housing affordability try to make a similar claim in court, the state will vigorously defend the law, and we intend to be successful, as we have been so far.' Advertisement Still, the opinion has empowered opponents in many communities, who see it as an opportunity to either secure an exemption for their town from their law, or undermine it statewide. The Select Board in Wrentham, Mark Germain, chair of the Middleborough Select Board, wrote on Facebook that 'the short version is, the State Auditor has ruled that the MBTA Communities Act is an unfunded mandate and is unenforceable.' Middleborough is one of six communities that the state now considers out of compliance with the law after it missed a February deadline to submit a plan to comply. Housing advocates and some developers said they're frustrated by the opinion because it give towns more runway to challenge the law in court, even after the Supreme Judicial Court issued 'Despite the modest progress to restore production, Healey and her team have worked very hard, and to have the Auditor attempt to throw a wrench into the process is grossly irresponsible,' said Jay Doherty, CEO of development firm Cabot, Cabot & Forbes, which has several projects planned under MBTA Communities. 'It's purely political.' Andrew Brinker can be reached at
