Charlie Baker wants lots of new housing around MBTA stations. Not so fast, towns say. – The Boston Globe

Easy on paper. Harder in actual life. As Governor Charlie Baker’s administration drafts guidelines for the way the regulation can be applied, greater than 5 dozen communities are balking on the new necessities, in accordance with letters they’ve submitted in current weeks to the state that have been obtained by way of a public information request.

In Hamilton, for instance, officers warned that “group character can be severely compromised and certain degraded by poorly designed, cheaply-built tasks which can be incongruous with the group.” Topsfield officers say extra properties would ultimately imply hiring 4 new cops and 6 new firefighters. In Nahant and Ipswich, the worry is that roads and colleges might be overwhelmed.

Then there are communities such because the South Shore city of Plympton, the place the co-chairs of the open house committee requested to be exempt solely, citing, in a letter, the city’s lack of developable land, faculty house, and infrastructure.

Not complying with the regulation places communities prone to dropping out on state grant applications similar to MassWorks, which gives a whole lot of hundreds of {dollars}, and typically tens of millions, towards utility and avenue enhancements. Additionally in danger: grants of as much as $250,000 from the state’s Housing Alternative program, which MBTA Communities Watertown, Medway, and Swampscott, for instance, have used for upgrades to bike and pedestrian paths.

Communities that embrace state housing pointers can get further factors on grant functions. However, in the event that they don’t meet the brand new zoning guidelines, they might be ineligible for any of that cash.

“Relatively than a carrot method, it’s now a stick method,” mentioned Tina Cassidy, planning board director for town of Woburn.

She pointed to a different wrinkle. Woburn, Cassidy mentioned, has permitted 2,600 multifamily housing items prior to now decade — 58 % of that are close to one of many metropolis’s two practice stations. However they don’t depend beneath the principles as at the moment written, she says, as a result of they have been permitted by way of particular permits, not normal city zoning.

“It appears that evidently the work we’ve got been doing domestically — a few of us for years — appears to not be acknowledged as a part of the brand new regulation,” Cassidy mentioned.

The 175 communities coated by the regulation stretch from Fitchburg to Bourne, from Salisbury to Seekonk. (Two communities, Boston and Avon, are exempt) The regulation says these districts must be inside a half-mile of a transit station, the place relevant.

In writing pointers for the regulation, the Baker administration outlined “affordable dimension” as no fewer than 50 acres in every group and set a minimal variety of multifamily items for every city, primarily based on the extent of transit entry and quantity of current properties in the neighborhood.

The 50-acre minimal irked many municipal officers, in accordance with the Globe’s evaluation of remark letters, because it may enable for no less than 750 new items even in small communities with out commuter rail stations of their very own similar to Holliston, or Groton. And, many cities must construct far more beneath the brand new regulation, double or triple that quantity, relying if they’ve subway, bus, or commuter rail service, or if the closest station is within the subsequent city over. Newton, as an illustration, with its Inexperienced Line service, would wish to zone for greater than 8,300 multifamily items.

Most officers who wrote in to complain took subject with no less than considered one of these minimums, saying their communities are ill-equipped to deal with the dimensions of growth the brand new zoning would allow. In some cities, if the utmost quantity have been truly constructed, the housing inventory may develop by 25 % or extra; on the tiny peninsula of Nahant, the variety of properties may swell by almost 50 %. Some additionally famous that there isn’t any requirement that any of the housing be income-restricted at inexpensive costs.

Rosemary Kennedy, a Hamilton choose board member, felt strongly sufficient that she wrote a private letter, along with the one submitted by the city, warning that unreasonable density would damage the city’s potential to offer fundamental providers to its residents.

“It’s unfair and can destroy the well-being of our group,” Kennedy added.

Clark Ziegler, govt director of the Massachusetts Housing Partnership advocacy group, says these fears are overblown. He contends the laws is a blueprint for future growth — particularly in areas the place land surrounding practice stations isn’t well-utilized — not an specific requirement to construct the utmost quantity. He notes it steers way more growth to places with excessive ranges of T service, paving the best way to place extra housing the place folks and jobs are already concentrated.

“Native zoning through the years has tended to actually strongly discourage multifamily and encourage sprawl and huge single-family heaps,” Ziegler mentioned. “The concept that communities are being required to construct X hundred or X thousand is simply not true.”

Ziegler argues the state has constructed far too little housing for much too lengthy, a serious motive house costs listed below are among the many costliest within the nation.

“The housing market stress goes to be there with or with out this new regulation,” Ziegler mentioned. “All these development points are necessary long-term issues that want consideration.”

Issues about stress on municipal budgets are actual, however so is the housing disaster, mentioned Adam Chapdelaine, the outgoing city supervisor in Arlington.

“It’s been irrefutable for a very long time, however continues to develop into more and more irrefutable, that the area is affected by a housing disaster and we should be open to many various options for addressing housing affordability,” Chapdelaine mentioned. “I don’t suppose we’re able the place we might be rejecting options, or potential options, given the dire nature of the disaster.”

Officers within the Baker administration say that they got here up with the 50-acre minimal by drawing a circle with a half-mile radius round transit stations, calculating that the realm spanned about 500 acres. The minimal district dimension was designed to be one-tenth of that space. In a lot of the 175 municipalities, state officers mentioned, 50 acres characterize lower than 1 % of their complete land space. The aim of a district of this dimension is to encourage long-term, neighborhood-scale planning, as a substitute of utilizing zoning to approve tasks on a site-by-site foundation.

That the controversy is heating up now, greater than a yr after being finalized by the Legislature, displays the size of time it took for the Baker administration to draft the proposed guidelines and to start soliciting enter.

The laws that contained the zoning guidelines additionally contains Baker’s “Housing Alternative” proposal, which diminished the voting threshold wanted for cities to alter zoning for brand new housing. Whereas the MBTA mandate wasn’t a precedence of Baker’s, he resisted calls by the highly effective Massachusetts Municipal Affiliation to veto it when lawmakers included it in final yr’s financial growth invoice.

State officers stress the laws pertains to zoning alone, and isn’t a mandate to construct or produce new housing items. They’re now reviewing the suggestions from the cities and cities, in addition to enterprise and advocacy teams.

“The Administration has made clear that it intends to take a considerate method in growing compliance standards in accordance with the brand new regulation,” a state spokesperson mentioned in an e-mail to the Globe.

One factor almost everybody agrees on: Massachusetts faces a housing disaster, and must construct extra. However how, and the place, will get very tough, mentioned Greg Vasil, chief govt of the Higher Boston Actual Property Board. He mentioned placing cities on the defensive may damage the trigger.

“To get communities to construct these items, I believe there actually needs to be a give and take,” Vasil mentioned. “The communities don’t must play alongside. … Until you could have the communities embrace some of these things, they’re going to struggle you tooth and nail, and also you lose.”

Catherine Carlock may be reached at catherine.carlock@globe.com. Comply with her on Twitter @bycathcarlock. Jon Chesto may be reached at jon.chesto@globe.com. Comply with him on Twitter @jonchesto.