For the past two years, the state’s new approach for taking on the housing crisis by prompting towns to rewrite their restrictive local zoning rules has been embroiled in controversy. Residents and some local officials have pushed back, and lawsuits have been filed.
But on Tuesday, Governor Maura Healey made it clear: She believes the state is winning this fight over housing and local control.
Healey and her top housing officials, along with a group of mayors, municipal planners, and housing advocates gathered in Somerville Tuesday — in front of a new mixed-use project in Somerville’s Union Square — to celebrate what they see as growing momentum in favor of the state’s housing efforts.
The event came as the controversial law behind the strategy — MBTA Communities — faces a critical Supreme Judicial Court case and a spring Town Meeting season that will bring dozens of new zoning votes that could define the future of housing in Greater Boston.
“We know the folks that don’t approve housing sometimes grab all the attention,” Lieutenant Governor Kim Driscoll said Tuesday. “Frankly, we are winning this fight for housing. People are standing up… to say, ‘No.’ We can build the housing that we need in Massachusetts to keep our communities strong, to drive our economy, and to deliver for that better future that our younger generation is looking for. “
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So far, Healey said, 75 out of the 177 communities in Eastern Massachusetts have revised their zoning rules under MBTA Communities, which requires cities and towns served by the T to loosen their land use rules and allow for more housing. Thirty-six of those plans have been either fully or conditionally approved by the state.
“Towns and cities across Eastern Massachusetts are in fact embracing this opportunity … and they understand the importance of removing [zoning] barriers that have existed for far too long,” Healey said.
And some of that new zoning has already proved effective. There are approximately 1,600 new multifamily units in the pipeline in new MBTA Communities zones, Housing Secretary Ed Augustus said Tuesday. That includes more than 600 units in Lexington, and applications for 20 new smaller-scale projects Somerville.
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The Healey Administration is hoping a new $15 million grant program will convince local skeptics by paying for infrastructure projects such as sewers and sidewalks related to housing construction in communities that comply with the law.
While there has been opposition to MBTA Communities across the region, only around one dozen communities have formally voted against adopting new zoning, and most still have until the end of 2024 to get compliant zoning on the books before they are formally considered in violation of the law by the state housing office. Some are holding out for the results of Attorney General Andrea Campbell’s lawsuit against the town of Milton, which was supposed to have new zoning on the books by the end of last year, but failed to pass a plan after a local referendum on the issue. The case will be heard in the Supreme Judicial Court starting next week.
“The housing crisis is a statewide issue that needs a statewide response,” Campbell said Tuesday. “We aren’t afraid to enforce the law when it is not being followed.”
Andrew Brinker can be reached at andrew.brinker@globe.com. Follow him @andrewnbrinker.