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The town of Holden, one of the first to defy the state’s MBTA Communities transit-oriented zoning law alongside Milton, has agreed to fall in line.
The town submitted an action plan to the state Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities Tuesday, the first step in complying with the law’s requirement that towns and cities in Greater Boston pass zoning that allows a degree of multifamily development to be built as-of-right within their borders.
While the town of Milton was sued by Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell after voters overturned a town meeting-passed zoning plan in a referendum last year, Holden officials had refused to even take the first step of submitting the outline of a plan to state officials.
That move drew a lawsuit from Boston-based Lawyers for Civil Rights, with pro bono support from Boston law firm Brown Rudnick, in the name of the Central Massachusetts Housing Alliance, which alleged the town was violating the MBTA Communities law and state fair housing laws.
In an email to the press, LCR characterized Holden’s decision as “victory for housing justice in Massachusetts.”
“LCR, Brown Rudnick, and our clients are thrilled with this outcome,” LCR senior attorney Jacob Love said in a statement. “We look forward to reviewing the final zoning changes made by Holden and other municipalities, and to the proliferation of multi-family housing across Massachusetts.”
Holden officials’ decision follows a January decision by the state Supreme Judicial Court in Milton’s case, that confirmed the constitutionality of the MBTA Communities law.
Holden Town Manager Peter Lukes wrote to state officials that he plans to bring a zoning proposal to Town Meeting before the town’s final compliance deadline of July 14, 2025.
Holden officials will have to find ways to zone for 750 multifamily units as-of-right, with the option of including existing multifamily buildings in those districts to bring down the total of potential new units that could be built.
The town currently has no multifamily zoning districts, however “due to Holden’s vast waterway and wetlands, along with huge tracts of conservation land, it is likely that any district will have to be overlayed on existing development,” Lukes wrote.
