Massachusetts towns yet to comply with the MBTA Communities Act and lack direct service will not be granted additional time to come into compliance, as they continue to lose state grant funding.
The state Senate has rejected a budget amendment seeking a two-year compliance extension for small towns and adjacent communities without direct MBTA service.
Sen. Kelly Dooner, a Taunton Republican who represents a handful of small towns in Bristol and Plymouth counties, authored the amendment. She based the need for an extension on a lack of infrastructure to support development and a lack of cooperation from the state housing office.
Dooner highlighted how the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities stripped one of her towns, which she did not disclose during budget debates, of an unspecified $450,000 grant.
“We need to recognize that not every municipality has the same resources and infrastructure or transportation access needed to meet these mandates,” Dooner said in the Senate Chamber on Wednesday. “And they shouldn’t be on the same timeline.
“Many smaller and adjacent communities are being asked to comply with significant zoning and planning requirements,” she added, “despite lacking direct MBTA service and facing ongoing challenges related to water capacity, sewer infrastructure, public safety resources, and local planning.”
Attorney General Andrea Campbell filed a lawsuit in January against nine towns that were out of compliance with the MBTA Communities Act.
The law, approved under the Baker administration, required communities to create compliant zoning districts to boost housing near MBTA stations by July 14, 2025, and some 165 out of 177 communities have met the mandate so far.
Compliance with the act has been a hot-button issue at Town Meetings across Eastern Massachusetts this spring.
Sen. Julian Cyr, who chairs the Joint Committee on Housing, responded to Dooner’s appeal for a compliance extension, highlighting that adjacent communities were required to file zoning districts by the end of 2024, and adjacent small towns had until the end of 2025.
“This amendment is unfair to the more than 130 communities that have done the work,” Cyr said. “Granting another two years to the communities who are furthest behind sends a message that deadlines do not matter.”
Cyr received pushback when he said that the housing office has an “administrative pathway” for communities that have yet to comply and need more time.
“All they’re asking for is an extension,” Dooner said. “I am grateful that you brought up an action plan because EOHLC is not following it.”
Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr, a Gloucester Republican, echoed Dooner, saying that the “current mechanism isn’t working to provide that additional time.
“Proper planning and proper housing development,” he said, “sometimes requires time and the recognition of obstacles encountered by communities who are trying their very best to recognize it.”
Earlier this year, Dooner pressured Gov. Maura Healey on a potential blockage of fire safety grants to towns resisting compliance with the MBTA zoning law. After an exchange, Healey alerted the senator that the grants were pending, and her administration has “never denied or withheld fire safety grants for noncompliance.”
“That will be our practice with respect to those,” the governor said.
Some state officials have apologized for how they’ve communicated over the withholding of funding, in particular instances. Late last year, the state Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation said it “mistakenly informed” two schools that they were not eligible to receive state money for a student financial literacy program.
