Massachusetts

Everything you need to know about the MBTA Communities law but are perhaps afraid to ask – The Boston Globe

Published

2 years ago

April 26, 2024

Everything you need to know about the MBTA Communities law but are perhaps afraid to ask – The Boston Globe

And it’s controversial. Housing is a lightning-rod issue, particularly when it is proposed close to home. Already, one town is in court battling the state over the law, and a few other communities have publicly considered following suit.

All of that has propelled the law into the spotlight and created a lot of confusion about what it actually does.

Here’s what you need to know about MBTA Communities, and what it might mean for your community.

What is the law?

MBTA Communities was included in a broad economic development bill that was signed into law in early 2021 by then-Governor Charlie Baker.

Very simply, it requires 177 communities, mostly in Eastern Massachusetts, to write new land-use rules allowing multifamily housing by-right — meaning developments do not need a special permit — in at least one district of town. The district should be within a half-mile of a transit station, if the town has one, and provide a density of at least 15 units per acre — which could be a single five- to six-story building, or a cluster of townhouse condos.

Communities have quite a bit of flexibility on where to place their zone and what to allow in it. A town could draw a relatively small zone that allows for denser, taller buildings, or a larger zone (or zones) that keeps buildings smaller.

An aerial view of single-family homes in Arlington on Aug. 14. In October, Arlington passed new land-use rules to comply with a state zoning law that requires communities served by the MBTA to zone for denser housing.Vincent Alban For The Boston Globe

What are the guidelines and how were they created?

The statute itself is relatively short and charges the state housing office with creating the law’s parameters — which it did in August 2022.

The most significant piece of the guidelines created “unit capacity” targets that each community’s zoning must hit. The state established four categories of communities with varying levels of obligation under the law.

The first — rapid transit communities, the 12 cities and towns served by the T’s light rail system (the Red, Orange, Green, and Blue lines) — have the greatest obligation, a requirement to create zones that would, theoretically, allow for enough units to increase their housing stock by 25 percent or more. So if a town has 7,500 housing units, they’d have to allow for an additional 1,875. The 12 rapid transit communities had to draw up plans by the end of 2023.

The other categories — commuter rail, adjacent community, and adjacent small town — have lesser obligations. Commuter rail communities, for example, must zone for an additional 15 percent of existing units. Adjacent communities have to zone for five percent. Their plans are due by the end of this year — setting up key votes at spring and fall town meetings in many communities.

Does the law require communities to build all this housing?

No. Not at all. MBTA Communities only requires towns to write new zoning rules. Building the housing is largely up to the market, and that’s where things start to get really complicated.

For starters, those “unit capacity” numbers the state requires are basically a measurement of what would get built in a given zone if the land was entirely empty. Of course, in urban and suburban Massachusetts, empty land is exceedingly rare. And many towns are targeting their most developed areas — downtowns — for their new zoning.

When the state says Newton needs to create a zone that can accommodate 8,330 units, it really means that, in a theoretical scenario where every building in whatever zone the town draws is razed to the ground and then rebuilt at maximum density and height allowed under the zoning, 8,330 units could fit there.

Of course, there are lots of buildings already there. They’re owned by someone. That owner would have to agree to sell before any developer could replace them with something bigger. Most won’t.

There’s also the economy. Interest rates and construction costs are already slowing new housing construction. And — if a town rezones two-story parcels to hold three stories, as Brookline and Newton did last year — there’s not much money in it for a developer, who would have to buy the building, raze it, and then rebuild it just to add one additional floor of apartments.

At its core, MBTA Communities is a zoning law, not a housing production requirement. It asks towns to update antiquated rules that were often passed after towns were built out with more modern ones. That will spark some new development, but only so much.

Does the MBTA have anything to do with the law?

No. Despite the name, the MBTA is in no way involved in the law. MBTA Communities simply applies to cities and towns that have an MBTA stop or are adjacent to a community that has one.

The idea behind the law is to create housing near transit stations — many (though not all) of which are in relatively dense town centers. It aims to encourage transit use and walkability, and it means that most of the density that might result from the law would be clustered near transit stations, generally not in the single-family neighborhoods many residents want to protect.

Whose law is it, anyway?

The law was signed by Baker, but it wasn’t his idea. Housing advocates and some legislators had been kicking around a transit-oriented housing law for the better part of a decade before MBTA Communities was tucked with little fanfare into a 3,000-page economic development bill. Baker did resist calls to veto the measure though, and his administration wrote the guidelines that communities are grappling with today. Governor Maura Healey inherited the rollout of MBTA Communities when she took office in 2023 and has enforced it enthusastically.

The Mattapan Trolley crossed Capen Street in Milton on Sept. 28.Lane Turner/Globe Staff

What’s going on in Milton?

Because the Mattapan Trolley runs along its northern edge, Milton is classified as a rapid transit community under the guidelines and was supposed to pass new zoning rules by the end of 2023. It did, with a compliant zoning plan that was approved by Town Meeting late last year.

But opponents quickly forced a referendum, and in February, the town’s voters overturned that zoning plan, making Milton the first community in the state to be formally out of compliance with the law.

Attorney General Andrea Campbell sued the town a few weeks later, and the case is set to be heard by the Supreme Judicial Court this fall. Milton, in its legal filings, has claimed that the law’s guidelines are not legally enforceable and put too great a burden on towns. It objects in particular to the town’s “rapid transit” classification, saying the train is too slow and doesn’t hold enough passengers to be in that category. (The state has rebuffed multiple requests from town officials to have Milton reclassified.)

Communities across Eastern Massachusetts are watching closely.

Does the state have legal authority over zoning?

This question is really at the heart of the debate over MBTA Communities, and it’s a question that will be answered by the Supreme Judicial Court later this year.

In their filings, attorneys for Milton argue that the town has constitutional claims to local zoning control under Home Rule, the amendment that grants municipalities the ability to pass their own local rules. They’ve also argued that the attorney general does not have the legal standing to force local governments to adopt certain zoning provisions.

Campbell, as the state’s chief law enforcement officer, sees it differently. MBTA Communities is a state law, she argues, and towns are obligated to comply. Legal experts have told the Globe recently that zoning powers ultimately lie with the state. Municipalities, they say, are creatures of the state, and there are other longstanding state zoning laws that override local control.

The SJC will ultimately rule on a couple of key questions, including whether and to what extent municipalities are obligated to comply with the requirements” of MBTA Communities “and the related [guidelines] issued by what is now the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities,” according to recent filings.

Whatever the ruling, it will have huge implications on local zoning and the state’s broader efforts to address the housing crisis.

Andrew Brinker can be reached at andrew.brinker@globe.com. Follow him @andrewnbrinker.

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Massachusetts

Massachusetts gas prices slightly declined from last week. Here’s how much.

Published

2 hours ago

January 11, 2026

Press Room

Massachusetts gas prices slightly declined from last week. Here’s how much.

State gas prices slightly declined for the second consecutive week and reached an average of $2.86 per gallon of regular fuel on Monday, down from last week’s price of $2.88 per gallon, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

The average fuel price in state declined about 8 cents since last month. According to the EIA, gas prices across the state in the last year have been as low as $2.86 on Jan. 5, 2026, and as high as $3.11 on Sep. 8, 2025.

A year ago, the average gas price in Massachusetts was 3% higher at $2.95 per gallon.

>> INTERACTIVE: See how your area’s gas prices have changed over the years at data.southcoasttoday.com.

The average gas price in the United States last week was $2.80, making prices in the state about 2.3% higher than the nation’s average. The average national gas price is slightly lower than last week’s average of $2.81 per gallon.

USA TODAY Co. is publishing localized versions of this story on its news sites across the country, generated with data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Please leave any feedback or corrections for this story here. This story was written by Ozge Terzioglu. Our News Automation and AI team would like to hear from you. Take this survey and share your thoughts with us.

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Massachusetts

Massachusetts police watchdog decertifies five former officers

Published

14 hours ago

January 10, 2026

Press Room

Massachusetts police watchdog decertifies five former officers

The state commission charged with oversight of Massachusetts police decertified five former officers from around the state, including a former deputy police chief convicted last year of raping a teenage girl while serving as a school resource officer.

Former Hopkinton Deputy Police Chief John “Jay” Porter was convicted in June of conducting a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old student off-campus between 2004 and 2005. He was sentenced to seven years in prison.

Porter’s decertification last month by the Massachusetts Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) Commission means he, along with the other four decertified officers, will be permanently prohibited from serving as police officers in the state. The decertifications bring the total to 75 since the POST Commission was created in 2020.

The woman in Porter’s case did not come forward to report the assaults until 2022, MassLive previously reported. The Middlesex County District Attorney’s Office said previously the student often sought support from Porter when she was in the 9th and 10th grades, but their relationship changed when she was 15, “going from a trusted adult and student to a flirtatious, then sexual one.”

The case also implicated former Hopkinton Police Sgt. Timothy Brennan, who was fired from the department for not reporting Porter to law enforcement after the victim confided in him about the assaults. She first informed Brennan of her inappropriate relationship with the former deputy chief in 2017 and told him not to report Porter, saying she would deny the information if he did so. She ultimately came forward to the district attorney’s office at his encouragement.

According to the decertification order released Dec. 19, Porter did not respond to mailings from the commission or defend himself against its allegations.

The commission redacted information from its decertification order detailing the misconduct allegations against Porter. In past cases, the board has redacted information covering criminal charges against officers or their personal information.

State Police Trooper Calvin Butner

Retired Massachusetts State Police Trooper Calvin Butner of Halifax was also decertified in December after he pleaded guilty last year for his role in a bribery scheme to provide Commercial Driver’s License credentials to unqualified applicants.

Between May 2019 and January 2023, authorities say, Butner and three others within the State Police Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) Unit, which is responsible for administering CDL skills tests, agreed to give passing scores to at least 17 applicants, regardless of whether they passed the test. In exchange for the passing grades, the troopers involved in the scheme received thousands of dollars in gifts and services, MassLive previously reported.

Authorities say Butner gave passing scores to three people who failed the test and five who did not take the test at all. He was sentenced in August to three months in federal prison followed by one year of supervised release, with the first three months in home confinement.

Butner did not respond to the POST Commission’s communications or defend himself.

Hull Police Sgt. Scott Saunders

Scott Saunders, a former Hull Police Department sergeant, was also decertified in December, and the related decertification order was redacted. Saunders was charged in 2023 with assaulting his 72-year-old neighbor, with whom he had a reported history of disputes. The case in Plymouth District Court was continued without a finding in August, allowing it to be dismissed if Saunders meets the conditions of probation.

The neighbor told the media at the time that Saunders hit his car with a paddleboard as he drove past him that day. When the neighbor got out of the car to confront the sergeant, he said Saunders pushed him down and punched him.

The Hull Police Department immediately placed Saunders on leave after the incident.

Saunders did not respond to the POST Commission’s communications or defend himself. MassLive was unable to contact Saunders for comment.

Greenfield Police Officer Christopher Hewitt

The reasons behind the decertification of former Greenfield Police officer Christopher Hewitt are unclear. Much of the commission’s December decision was redacted.

The POST website cites a section of Massachusetts General Laws that says, “The commission shall immediately suspend the certification of any officer who is arrested, charged or indicted for a felony.”

Hewitt also did not respond to the commission’s allegations against him. MassLive was unable to contact Hewitt for comment.

Peabody Police Officer Gerald Fitzgerald

The final officer decertified last month, Gerald Fitzgerald, formerly of Peabody Police Department, signed an agreement with the commission to have his certification permanently revoked and waive his right to contest the facts of his decertification in the future.

Fitzgerald was accused of falsifying an incident report from a November 2023 armed robbery by writing that a female suspect had assaulted two people at the restaurant where the robbery took place.

After being instructed by a supervisor to review the surveillance footage from the incident to verify his account, Fitzgerald said he had done so and added more information to the report.

Another detective who later viewed the footage determined the allegations that led to the assault charges against the female were false. Fitzgerald admitted he had not watched the entire footage as instructed, and the assault charges against the suspect were dropped.

According to the decertification agreement, Fitzgerald had previously faced disciplinary action on four occasions since 2015 for missing court dates, not completing required training and showing up to firearms training while intoxicated.

Stoughton Police Deputy Chief Robert Devine

The POST Commission voted last month to decertify Robert Devine, a former Stoughton deputy police chief accused of misconduct involving Sandra Birchmore, MassLive previously reported.

Birchmore, who was 23 and pregnant, was found dead in her Canton apartment on Feb. 4, 2021. Her death was initially ruled a suicide, but on further investigation, it was ruled a homicide. Former Stoughton Police Officer Matthew Farwell has since been charged federally with killing Birchmore to hide a sexual relationship they began after she joined a police youth program as a teenager.

The commission accused Devine, who oversaw the program, of coordinating a “sexual encounter” with Birchmore while he was on duty in December 2020. He has not been charged criminally in connection with the case and denied the POST Commission’s claims against him.

State lawmakers established the oversight commission in 2020 after the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer.

The nine-member board, appointed by the governor and attorney general, has broad power to set standards that all law enforcement agencies and officers in Massachusetts must abide by and to investigate and decertify police officers accused of misconduct.

Many of the officers it has decertified have been convicted of criminal charges, automatically leading to the loss of their certifications. However, the commission can also decertify officers it finds liable for egregious but noncriminal misconduct.

The commission reports the names of decertified officers to a national registry, a move intended to alert departments in other states to their troubled histories.

If you are a victim of sexual assault, you are not alone.

Rape Crisis Centers in Massachusetts offer free, confidential services for adolescent and adult survivors as well as their loved ones.

Crisis centers operate a 24/7 toll-free hotline for phone counseling, questions and referrals. For a full list of regional crisis centers, click here.

SafeLink offers a 24/7 toll-free hotline:
- (877) 785-2020
- (877) 521-2601 (TTY)

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Massachusetts

A 5,000-square-foot solution to the Massachusetts housing crisis – The Boston Globe

Published

1 day ago

January 10, 2026

Press Room

A 5,000-square-foot solution to the Massachusetts housing crisis – The Boston Globe

Andrew Mikula is chair of the Legalize Starter Homes ballot committee.

I came across Baxter Village after a Google Maps perusal of one of the country’s fastest-growing regions. Completed in 2014 and billed as a “traditional neighborhood development” with a walkable town center and intimate, tree-lined residential streets, the village is downright idyllic. The architecture is clearly inspired by early 20th-century New England — a Norman Rockwell-style vista of homes with raised front porches, wood clapboard siding, steep roofs, and dormer windows.

But Baxter Village isn’t located in New England. It’s in South Carolina, about 15 miles south of Charlotte.

The reality is that 15 miles outside of Boston, Worcester, or Lowell, Baxter Village would almost certainly be illegal, for a variety of reasons. First, the development’s home lots are small, often only slightly larger than a basketball court. Local zoning codes in suburban Massachusetts frequently preclude such small lots, and New England in particular has high minimum lot-size requirements for new homes, compared to most of the country.

Given that Massachusetts has the nation’s toughest home buying market for young adults, many voters are open to reducing these lot-size minimums. A May 2025 Abundant Housing Massachusetts/MassINC poll found that 78 percent of Massachusetts voters support “allowing homes to be built on smaller lots,” and 72 percent support allowing the subdivision of large lots into smaller lots. Doing so would open up more housing options in the suburbs, creating opportunities to build smaller, lower-cost homes suitable for first-time buyers and downsizing seniors, colloquially called “starter homes.”

That’s why 12 housing experts — urban planners, academics, land use attorneys, and advocates — and I recently filed a petition with the Massachusetts attorney general’s office that would make it legal to build on lots about the size of a basketball court (5,000 square feet) statewide. As long as the lot has access to public sewer and water service, as well as a 50-foot border with the street, the site could host a single-family home, although it may be subject to other regulations like wetlands protections and limits on short-term rentals.

Our committee — Legalize Starter Homes — cleared the first signature-gathering hurdle needed to place this measure on the ballot this year, and Secretary of State William Galvin’s recent certification has advanced this potential ballot question to the next step in the process.

Research has shown that Massachusetts’ large minimum lot-size requirements increase home prices and reduce new production. One Harvard study found that in Greater Boston, a quarter-acre increase in the minimum lot-size requirement was associated with 10 percent fewer homes permitted between 1980 and 2002. Separately, a 2011 study found that Eastern Massachusetts minimum lot-size requirements can increase home prices by as much as 20 percent or more and that these price effects tend to increase over time.

Other states have acted on such facts amid a nationwide housing crunch. In June, Maine capped minimum lot sizes in “designated growth areas” statewide at 5,000 square feet when served by public sewer and water systems. This is remarkable given that Maine has both a less severe housing shortage than Massachusetts and a much larger volume of undeveloped, inexpensive land.

The Massachusetts Legislature has tried to enhance the production of starter homes before, offering incentive payments under Chapter 40Y to municipalities to adopt new zoning districts that allow for them. But more than three years after Chapter 40Y was enacted, the state has yet to finalize regulations that would allow for these zoning districts to be created. Meanwhile, builders struggle to justify much new construction given high interest rates, tariffs on building materials, and labor shortages in the trades.

Our ballot petition creates a framework for allowing starter homes that is more easily implemented and doesn’t require municipalities to adopt new zoning. And unlike the MBTA Communities Act, it would solely allow for the creation of single-family homes, most of which would probably be owner-occupied.

Recent public polling data, research findings, precedents in other states, and the urgent and extreme nature of Massachusetts’ housing shortage all suggest that now is the right time to limit minimum lot sizes in places with sufficient infrastructure for new housing. The result could be a far-reaching expansion of opportunity for a new generation of homeowners in Massachusetts.

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