A Superior Court judge on Friday tossed a lawsuit brought by nine municipalities challenging the MBTA Communities Act, ruling that the controversial zoning-reform law is not an unfunded mandate.
Plymouth Superior Court Justice Mark Gildea granted the Healey administration’s motion to dismiss the latest challenges to the 2021 law, which supporters see as a key tool to spur development of much-needed housing in more than 170 eastern Massachusetts cities and towns.
Marshfield, Middleton, Hanson, Holden, Hamilton, Duxbury, Wenham, Weston and Wrentham had each filed legal complaints against the law in recent months, contending that it should not be enforceable after the Division of Local Mandates in Auditor Diana DiZoglio’s office deemed the measure an unfunded mandate.
Plaintiffs said allowing multifamily housing by right in at least one reasonably sized zone as the law requires could force them to absorb significant new infrastructure costs with no state assistance.
But Gildea concluded the possible costs are “indirect,” which means the law is not an unfunded mandate, and that grant programs are available to help shoulder some of the burden.
“Even if [the law] was an unfunded mandate, the Municipalities have failed to allege sufficient facts concerning any anticipated amounts associated with future infrastructure costs beyond a speculative level,” Gildea wrote in a 40-page decision.
Some of the plaintiffs laid out their own issues with the law as well, such as Middleton arguing that it should not be classified as an MBTA community and therefore should not be subject to the mandatory zoning reforms.
Jason Talerman, an attorney for some of the towns, said in an email that plaintiffs are “disappointed with the result and find the decision to be contrary to applicable law.”
Most of the 177 communities subject to the law have approved new zoning reforms, putting them in compliance, according to the Healey administration.
In January, the Supreme Judicial Court upheld the MBTA Communities Act as a constitutional law the attorney general can enforce with legal action. The high court required the Healey administration to redo the regulation-setting process.
