The deadline for the final batch of communities to submit plans on how they expect to boost multifamily housing near transit is now just two weeks away, but the controversial MBTA Communities housing law saga will drag into 2026.

Most cities and towns, the state housing office regularly emphasizes, have gotten on board and submitted plans to zone for a district of multifamily housing near MBTA service areas, as called for in the 2021 law. But a group of holdouts is banking on the very court that declared the legislation mandatory – and enforceable – in January to rule that the mandate is illegal without dedicated funding included in the law.

Marshfield was one of a bundle of towns that wanted a Plymouth County Superior Court judge to declare they cannot be forced to rezone and bear the potential burden of more density. Lawmakers are not permitted to hand down “unfunded mandates” that create financial obligations on cities and towns without a way to pay for them.

But Superior Court Judge Mark Gildea dismissed suits brought by Duxbury, Hanson, Holden, Marshfield, Middleton, Wenham, Weston, and Wrentham, plus taxpayers in Hamilton. Gildea said the towns’ anticipated possible costs were “indirect,” nonspecific, and therefore not in need of dedicated funding from the state. Beyond that, he wrote, there are already available grants for infrastructure needs and the process.

Marshfield appealed to the Supreme Judicial Court, which agreed to take the case directly to consider the unfunded mandate question. The town argues that Gildea should not have agreed to dismiss the case, asserting that they did describe all the elements of an unfunded mandate in their complaint.

“In addition to suffering a irreparable loss of awarded grant funds in enumerated grant programs, it is/was foreclosed from all other discretionary grant funds not mentioned in the statute,” the town argues in its brief. Plus, the town says, there were costs associated with evaluating and drafting the zoning bylaws and presenting them to the Town Meeting, and they expect to have additional costs based on the rezoning.

The Healey administration has provided nearly $8 million worth of technical assistance and grants to more than 150 MBTA Communities to support the implementation of this law, the housing office said.

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Published by MassINC