Gov. Maura Healey (center) speaks at a State House press conference on April 16, 2026 about her administration's economic development proposal. She's flanked by Economic Development Sec. Eric Paley (left) and Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll (right). Photo by Ella Adams | State House News Service

Economic development bills are generally seen as “must-pass” legislation on Beacon Hill, leading to governors and legislators alike to tack on policy measures that they care strongly about.

This year is no different, as Gov. Maura Healey has added a number of so-called “outside sections” designed to boost housing production to the bonding bill she filed late last week.

Chief among them: a proposal to codify a process known as “site plan review” that housing advocates and land-use lawyers say has been getting out of hand in towns and cities across Massachusetts.

“‘Wild West’ is an accurate description,” said Christopher Vaccaro, a partner at Dalton & Finegold LLP in Andover.

‘Subjective’ Process Used to Block Housing

The process – which the state’s Chapter 40A zoning law never authorized, but has nonetheless become a major tool for regulating development at the local level – has evolved from making sure fire lanes were the right width to a highly subjective one that local officials have used to deny projects that otherwise meet a town’s or city’s zoning rules, said Vaccaro, who regularly contributes legal analysis columns to Banker & Tradesman.

With more towns adopting by-right multifamily zoning districts as part of implementing the MBTA Communities Act, the importance of setting down rules governing site plan review of otherwise-legal developments has added importance.

“There are towns that apply this to every non-single-family home. I know there are some towns that have tried to apply this to every project in town. There literally were no rules and each town sort of made it up as they went,” said Shawn McCormack, an attorney and shareholder at the Boston-based law firm Davis Malm.

That lack of standards meant local officials could move goalposts in the middle of a review process even when a project would have been allowed under a parcel’s zoning, McCormack said, leaving developers without a clear route for appeals if a town or city didn’t spell out a process in its own bylaws. That level of uncertainty puts off some developers from even proposing projects, he said.

Healey’s Site Plan Review Reforms

To combat this, Healey’s bill proposes to make towns and cities come up with specific, theoretically objective standards for things like traffic circulation, pedestrian safety and the bulk or height of a proposed building. The bill also says a simple majority of the relevant board would be able to grant site plan approval, and sets out an appeals process.

“The good thing about what the governor wants to do is, it’ll set standards so site plan review won’t be used as a subjective reason to deny a project,” Vaccaro said. “On the other hand, if the bylaw says that your wheelchair ramp has to be 50 feet from the loading dock, that’s something a town could hang its hat on.”

Notably, McCormack said, Healey’s bill would also set rules for how a town could regulate a building’s aesthetics when it otherwise would be legal to build under local zoning.

Healey’s proposed changes to site plan review were designed to not limit local control, said Dana LeWinter, chief of public and community engagement at the Massachusetts Housing Partnership.

“The process to get to this language was a pretty broad set of stakeholders. The goal is not to remove local control. It’s just a matter of codifying it,” she said. “It allows communiteis to say, ‘These are the things we’re going to look at.”

Rules Wouldn’t Cover Boston

Taken together, he added, the changes – if passed – could also streamline court cases appealing decisions.

“Projects that should succeed on their merits, the pro forma just can’t bear a one-year trip to the Land Court and a one-year trip to the Appeals Court,” he said.

Of note, the site plan review rules Healey is proposing wouldn’t apply in Boston, whose zoning is covered by its own, special section of state law.

Healey’s bill also includes an opt-in zoning that would help towns and cities streamline the conversion of commercial properties to housing. Greater Boston’s suburban office sector, for example, is laboring under a nearly 24 percent availability rate, according to first-quarter research by commercial brokerage Colliers.

But Vaccaro said this proposal is not likely to move the needle on housing development as it doesn’t contain any incentives that would help deal with the financial burden – real or perceived – that new housing might place on a town, especially when it’s replacing a commercial property that’s theoretically capable of delivering more tax dollars.