Tuesday night’s vote may finally be the end of a saga that has flamed political tensions in Milton since 2023, and, MBTA Communities supporters say, could mark a broader shift in the fight over the law. A year ago, tensions in town were so high, it was hard to imagine a housing plan passing with strong support. But it did, and the same is taking place in some other towns that have been holdouts against the law.
“Tonight’s decision by Milton Town Meeting to advance a compliant plan is a strong signal that we are prepared to put the rancor of the past behind us and become a part of the solution to the housing crisis,” said Select Board Chair Ben Zoll, who has been pushing for the town to comply.
Advertisement
Still, it was not without controversy. The plan passed at a special Town Meeting that went on for two nights, during which some community members gave impassioned speeches against complying with the law, and argued the town should continue its legal dispute with the state.
“In every neighborhood, I meet people who tell me they saved up everything they had to move out of the city to live in Milton,” Denny Swenson, who helped organize the referendum in 2024, said at the meeting Tuesday. “Many left the city and stressed the importance and value they place on having their own driveway, that tree by the sidewalk, that stitch of land in their backyard. They paid dearly to live in their neighborhood that is zoned as it is. This zoning article is changing that on them.”
There may still be one last push from opponents. Under the town charter, residents can trigger a referendum on a Town Meeting vote if they collect signatures from at least 5 percent of Milton’s registered voters. There have been rumblings that opponents of the plan may try to force another town wide vote.
The long fight over MBTA Communities in Milton began in 2023, when the Select Board passed a state-mandated zoning plan that would theoretically make room for 2,461 housing units. The plan was controversial, and after it passed Town Meeting in December 2023, opponents quickly gathered enough signatures to force a referendum.
The lead up to that vote in February 2024 was filled with intense campaigning, and some 54 percent of the 9,500 voters in the referendum ultimately rejected the plan, some citing concerns over traffic, infrastructure, and state oversight.
Advertisement
Milton’s deadline to meet state guidelines was the end of 2023, so when voters rejected the plan, Attorney General Andrea Campbell sued the town for noncompliance. Milton countered that the law is unconstitutional, and that its regulations had improperly classified Milton as a “rapid transit community” — which carries a higher housing requirement than other community classifications under the law — because the Mattapan Trolley runs along its northern border.
In January, the Supreme Judicial Court ruled mostly in favor of the state, saying that MBTA Communities was indeed constitutional, but that the guidelines that shaped the law’s rollout needed to go through a formal regulation process. The state began that process earlier this year.
After the ruling, the town’s planning board designed two plans for Town Meeting to consider, one that would comply with the town’s full requirement as a rapid transit community, and another, smaller plan designed for a scenario in which the town is reclassified to a different community category, and therefore a smaller housing requirement.
It was the bigger plan that passed Tuesday night, while the smaller option was sent back to the planning board for further study.
“We have a housing crisis, there’s no question,” said Anthony Cichello, a Town Meeting member. “The MBTA Communities Act is an effort by the Legislature to try to address that housing issue. Its not going to fix the problem. But its a step, and its the law.”
Advertisement
The vote puts Milton with a growing list of communities that have fiercely debated, yet ultimately passed, an MBTA Communities plan. More than 75 percent of the 175 cities and towns covered by the law have enacted zoning plans intended to comply with it, state officials have said, and some 4,000 units are in the development pipeline in those zoning districts across Eastern Massachusetts.
Earlier this month, a Superior Court judge ruled against a group of nine communities that sued for relief from the law.
Andrew Brinker can be reached at andrew.brinker@globe.com. Follow him @andrewnbrinker.