The MBTA Communities Act requires all communities in the MBTA service area to rezone at least one area of the city or town so multifamily housing can be built there by right. The Democratic-controlled Legislature passed the law in January 2021 as part of economic development legislation, and former governor Charlie Baker, a Republican, signed it into law. Four years later, the state’s highest court ruled against Milton in a case seeking to overturn the law, or at least exempt Milton from its more onerous requirements. Grudgingly, the town this year approved a zoning plan that brings the community into compliance with the state law.
But Winthrop and a handful of other communities remain noncompliant. For some local communities, opposition is fairly straightforward. They don’t want the state telling them what must be built within their borders. They insist that’s a local, not a state, decision.
The question is how far they should take their opposition. By almost any standard, compliance is not optional. Indeed, the Supreme Judicial Court affirmed the law’s constitutionality and held that the state attorney general can enforce compliance.
In Winthrop, a densely populated peninsula at the north entrance to Boston Harbor, the battle has already cost the town $1.2 million in state climate grant funding, with millions more at stake if the community continues its refusal to come into compliance.
Remarkably, Winthrop is refusing to comply with the state law even though town leaders have determined that Winthrop can comply with state requirements via a plan that would create overlay districts in already developed areas.
Jim Letterie, chairman of the Winthrop Town Council, which has twice rejected compliance plans, suggested that the state’s acceptance of a rezoning plan requiring no new housing to be built might be some sort of trick.
“The plan that the Planning Board brought to us technically does result in zero new units,” he said at a recent campaign debate. “The purpose of the law … is to increase density and increase housing. If that’s the purpose, why are they going to allow Winthrop to not [add] any units? It makes no sense.”
At that debate, Letterie’s opponent, councilor Hannah Belcher, said Winthrop officials had met with state officials “to advocate for Winthrop’s unique position, both geographically and with our current density, and they did allow us to present a plan that results in zero additional units.” She suggested it makes no sense to forgo state grant money to oppose a law that will have no impact on the community.
Belcher also noted the MBTA Communities Act is the law. “We have seen in several court cases that it is both constitutional and enforceable,” she said. “We took an oath as counselors to uphold the laws of the Commonwealth.”
Letterie took a different stand. “I took an oath to protect the citizens of Winthrop,” he said. “The citizens of Winthrop do not want this law. It’s a badly written law.”
Attorney General Andrea Campbell has indicated she won’t be patient much longer with the communities refusing to comply with the MBTA Communities Act. She stated she is prepared to bring an enforcement suit against any community not in compliance by January 2026.
“Five years will have passed since the act was signed into law,” Campbell’s office said in a July advisory. “By that point, every MBTA Community will have had ample time — and considerable state support — to establish the legally mandated zoning. Because facilitating additional residential housing development is a foremost state priority — in the interests of those who reside in the Commonwealth and those who hope to, and essential to the success of our state economy — five years is more than sufficient time for each community to have achieved compliance.”
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