The MBTA Communities law is not an MBTA proposal or policy. It’s state legislation conceived and promoted by then-Gov. Charlie Baker and continued under current Gov. Maura Healey to incentivize building new multifamily housing by connecting state funding to local rezoning. The law requires new multifamily housing zoning in the 177 communities that have MBTA rapid transit, bus or commuter rail service and some communities contiguous to those that host such services.
The law, passed in January 2021 and signed by Gov. Baker, mandates zoning for new housing units at a minimum density of 15 units per acre within a half-mile of stations, with some exceptions. Key to the law is that developers should be able to build housing without special permitting as long as they meet the standards the town and state have already put in place.
There is broad consensus that Massachusetts has housing issues that threaten the state’s economic health. People are leaving the state, especially those in the prime-age workforce (aged 26-34) and higher-income earners.
Housing costs have risen 74% since 2016, and the state has the fourth most expensive housing market in the nation with an average single-family home price of nearly $650,000. Residents who’d otherwise prefer to stay are leaving, often because of housing-related issues – overburdened by rents, intolerably long commutes and little hope of buying a home.
For Needham, the law requires drawing a zoning district that is at least 50 acres in size, with an average density of at least 15 units per acre, and allows for a minimum capacity of 1,784 units of housing in which multifamily housing — apartments, condos, duplexes, townhouses, etc., known as “the missing middle” — is allowed by right. It does not require any units to be built, only that they be possible.
Learn more about the MBTA communities and where they are in the process toward compliance.
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