Getting to yes on housing in Massachusetts – The Boston Globe

Over the next decade, state housing officials estimate that Massachusetts will need another 222,000 homes. These homes are necessary to attract young professionals, to prevent families with young children from leaving, to empty the homeless shelters, and to let seniors age in their communities.

More housing is also needed to mitigate climbing prices that are hurting not only lower-income residents, but even those who are solidly middle class. The median price of a single-family home in Massachusetts this year, as of November, was an astonishing $640,000, according to The Warren Group.

Zillow ranked Greater Boston as the fifth most expensive rental market in the country, with average rent hovering just under $3,000 a month, according to the Boston Foundation’s 2025 Housing Report Card.

But if Massachusetts is to build the housing our residents need, it will take a conscious effort to simplify the building process.

In editorials this year, the Globe has focused on specific deregulatory steps that would help cut red tape and make it easier for the state to build its way out of the housing shortage.

One aspect of this is being open to changing rules that may have made perfect sense at one point, but haven’t kept up with changing circumstances. For example, advances in fire safety technology made some of the rules regarding stairwell requirements and building height obsolete. Changing these rules to account for modern technology could make it financially feasible to build bigger buildings.

There are also well-intended rules that have had unintended consequences — like disability accessibility codes that apply more stringently in communities with lower property values than in wealthier towns.

But the biggest thing that needs to change is harder to write into law. Communities need to move from a default “no” on housing to a default “yes.”

That problem is especially hard to tackle because, officially, it doesn’t exist. There is no specific regulation saying that certain Massachusetts towns don’t want housing. But actions speak louder, and more honestly, than words.

The presumption that new housing is bad — and the burden is on developers to prove it isn’t — is implicit in many of regulations adopted across the region and in the way developers are frequently treated like unwelcome interlopers. Communities too often use approval processes to impose unreasonable requirements or arduous review processes on builders who want to create the multifamily housing the state needs.

One solution is for the state to set clear ground rules for what authority cities and towns have — and don’t have — when it comes to housing approval.

For example, the state has its own environmental standards for septic systems, but they are a minimum, not a maximum. If policy makers were to forbid towns from imposing stricter standards without proving they are environmentally necessary, it would prevent municipal officials from using overly strict rules to block denser housing. Similarly, the Legislature could impose guardrails on what municipal planning officials can consider as part of the site plan review process and how long reviews can take.

When a planning or zoning board rejects or reduces the size of an apartment project, or imposes unreasonable and costly conditions, that directly undermines the public good. They should be expected to explain why their actions were truly necessary.

After all, no housing decision occurs in a vacuum. Even allowing high-end development serves the public: If people who can afford million-dollar condos have plenty to choose from, they won’t outbid less-wealthy families for more modest housing.

Many individual regulations came from a noble instinct. Shoddy construction is dangerous; communities should make sure it’s safe. Fire safety is important. New buildings can disturb animal habitats and degrade the environment. Ensuring that people with disabilities can access housing units and public spaces is vital. There is value in soliciting public input.

But these regulations have proven too easy to co-opt as tools to stop development, rather than improve it. Often, communities have a fear of change.

Regulations that pose obstacles to housing must be expected to pass a stringent test to prove that they are actually necessary and not just convenient pretexts for NIMBYism. Policy makers must fully consider the trade-offs, because while each new housing regulation may seem minor, they add up.

Massachusetts is a great place to live. We should be seeking ways to let more people live here, not closing the gate behind us.

Editorials represent the views of the Boston Globe Editorial Board. Follow us @GlobeOpinion.