State legislators and governors in New York and California are pushing ahead with far more ambitious efforts to build their way out of their own housing crises than Massachusetts’ MBTA Communities zoning reform.

You just know someone at the state’s housing and economic development department was cheerfully banging out a good-news press release as I wrote this column Thursday. 

The deadline for complying with the MBTA Communities Act arrived on the last day of January, and 168 of 175 cities in the T’s service area have now submitted plans for more housing near train stations and subway stops. 

“96 Percent of Communities Comply with New State Housing Law” might read this hypothetical press release, complete with an upbeat quote from Gov. Maura Healey praising local officials for their efforts to fight the housing crisis. 

If it sounds like heard this all before, well you probably have. 

Battling runaway home prices and rents with a barrage of happy talk has been the playbook governors have used for the past quarter century when it comes to our state’s crazy housing market. 

But here’s wishing that, with Healey, that finally comes to an end. 

Devil in the Details 

If, between my Thursday deadline and this issue of Banker & Tradesman hitting doorsteps and inboxes, Healey was presented with a press release or prepared remarks that were filled with a bunch of airy happy talk about these rezoning action plans, I hope she ripped it all to shreds. 

Instead of more hollow cheerleading, in my fantasy the governor would instead declare firmly and clearly that her administration is done with business as usual when it comes to battling the housing crisis. 

And she might go on to say that while the MBTA Communities Act is a step in the right direction, a much broader, intensive and far-reaching effort will be needed to clear away the red tape and local roadblocks that have stymied the development of new housing for decades now. 

So, isn’t the fact that so many suburbs and towns have submitted a T station housing plan a good thing, you ask? 

Sure, it can’t hurt, but the devil is in the details. 

Just 46 towns and cities have filed plans that have been approved by state housing officials, with another 168 “under review.” 

We have no idea what those plans are, at the moment – although the state does plan to post each action plan online “in the coming weeks” – and how many might just be simple placeholders or attempts by local officials to meet the minimum requirements and not lose grant funding, one of the consequences of noncompliance.  

After all, among the cities and towns whose plans are being review is Kingston, which had mulled shutting its T station down to avoid having to comply with the MBTA Communities Law. 

And there are plenty of other suburbs where local officials have very publicly grumbled about the new law, and mused about ways to get around it. 

That shouldn’t fill anyone with a whole lot of confidence when it comes to the actual nuts-and-bolts implementation of these plans. 

Mass. Must Go Bigger 

But even if implementation goes smoothly, at the end of the day, the MBTA Communities law in and of itself will not be enough to spur the kind of dramatic leap in housing production Greater Boston – and Massachusetts as a whole – needs to stabilize its housing market, let alone bring down prices. 

Sure, there is a modest appetite for building new apartments near train stations and T stops, but similar, more targeted efforts in decades past, like Chapter 40R, resulted in a relative trickle of new units, not the tens of thousands of new apartments and condominiums proponents had promised. 

Massachusetts, and the Healey administration, needs to start looking at what other states are doing, and then start moving in that direction, and fast. 

In both California and New York, where housing costs have also gone through the roof, state leaders have come to the conclusion that excessive local control over new housing development is one of the main barriers to a functioning housing market. 

The Golden State has begun to see a significant jump in housing production after a series of broad reforms that revamped zoning pretty much in every corner of the state, not just near transit. 

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, for her part, has taken the Bay State’s T-stop housing plan and put it on steroids, requiring three times more housing per acre. 

Scott Van Voorhis

Suburbs and cities are being given housing production goals under her plan, with downstate communities on the hook to expand their housing stock by 3 percent a year. 

Back in Massachusetts, the Baker administration conceived of the MBTA Communities plan as a halfway house between previous, more targeted housing efforts and a grand California-style rezoning. 

But there is no way we are going to get the hundreds of thousands of new homes, apartments and condos our state needs over the next decade or two relying on this law, alone. 

It’s too narrowly focused, and with weak penalties as well – something that local officials are more than well aware of. 

Baker is gone and the Healey era has arrived. And if our new governor truly wants to make a dent in the housing crisis, getting rid of the happy talk and getting real about the housing crisis would be a great place to start. 

Scott Van Voorhis is Banker & Tradesman’s columnist; opinions expressed are his own. He may be reached at sbvanvoorhis@hotmail.com.