Senate 5-34, rejected an amendment to the current law, known as the MBTA Communities Act, which according to the state’s website, requires that an MBTA community “must have at least one zoning district of reasonable size in which multi-family housing is permitted as of right and meets other criteria including minimum gross density of 15 units per acre; and a location not more than 1/2 mile from a commuter rail station, subway station, ferry terminal or bus station. No age restrictions can be applied and the district must be suitable for families with children.”
Cities or towns that do not comply with the MBTA law are in danger of losing various state grants. The amendment would put the law on hold for two years for any municipality categorized as an “Adjacent Community” or an “Adjacent Small Town” without direct access to MBTA service.
Amendment supporters said the Healey Administration’s Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities is not being flexible and is pulling funding from some cities and towns that are not complying. They said that the delay in implementation of the law will give some communities additional time to work out a solution.
Amendment opponents said that current law already allows some flexibility for these adjacent communities or adjacent small towns by establishing lower capacity requirements and greater flexibility over where they site their districts. They noted that the Office of Housing and Livable Communities currently has the administrative ability to offer some flexibility to these communities and said the amendment is not necessary. They argued that the amendment is unfair to more than 100 communities that have already done the work and complied with the law and sends the message that deadlines don’t mean anything.
(A “Yes” vote is for the amendment that would put the law on hold for two years for any municipality categorized as an adjacent community or an adjacent small town” without direct access to MBTA service. A “No” vote is against the amendment.)
Sen. Patricia Jehlen No