MILTON, Mass. — With rail service comes responsibility -- at least in Massachusetts. The 2021 MBTA Communities Act requires the 177 municipalities served by the transit system to approve a zone for multi-family housing.
Milton, however, is not playing ball. While the town did approve a zoning plan last year, residents voted it down at town meeting in February. That led Attorney General Andrea Campbell to sue the community, which lies just south of Boston’s city limits.
“I did not make a decision lightly to sue a municipality,” Campbell said. “For months we worked with Milton to assist them with compliance.”
But Milton’s attorney, Kevin Martin, said the attorney general does not have the authority to sue -- because the legislature never gave it to her. He contends that the law, as written, includes only a financial penalty -- the loss of state housing grants.
The case has gone all the way to the state Supreme Judicial Court, with lawyers making their arguments Monday.
“Under this court’s precedence, the attorney general lacks the ability to (sue) because the statute specifies a different consequence for non-compliance,” Martin told the justices. “The AG seems to be arguing that she can always seek injunctive relief in addition to statutory remedies -- unless a particular statute forbids her from doing so. But that decision ignores the relevant precedence from this court.”
Eric Haskell, attorney for the Commonwealth, said the financial penalties included in the law should not be interpreted as exclusive punishment.
“There is going to be a concrete consequence for not complying,” he said. “It’s going to be automatic and it’s going to be swift and it’s going to be certain. But it does not in any way take the place of the power of the attorney general to enforce this act.”
The objective of the MBTA Communities Act is to help ease the Massachusetts housing crisis. It doesn’t require the building of multi-family dwellings -- only creation of a zone where such structures can be built.
“Our supply and demand is so out of whack,” said Jesse Kanson-Benanav, executive director of Abundant Housing Massachusetts. “In the thirty years prior to 1990, Massachusetts built about 950,000 homes. In the thirty years since, we’ve built half as many.”
In order for the state’s economy to continue to grow, Kanson-Benanav said about 200,000 units are needed in the short-term --- perhaps double that in 15 years.
“We think as the chief law enforcement officer of the Commonwealth, Campbell has the authority to uphold this law,” he added.
One thing that came out during Monday’s court hearing is the fact that Milton has not gotten any state housing funds in 12 years. That would seem to indicate the town has little to lose by non-compliance.
And while Milton is the only community currently not in compliance, others that don’t want to comply, such as Holden, are facing deadlines.
Campbell said if the justices rule in Milton’s favor it will do more than add to the housing crisis.
“It will do significant damage to the rule of law and how we see it, how we view it and how we depend upon it,” she said.
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