Judges appear skeptical of Marshfield's challenge to MBTA housing law

Were MBTA Communities costs unfair, or a self-imposed expense?

DID THE controversial MBTA Communities housing law force towns to shell out money to devise carefully crafted multifamily zoning plans, or were any expenditures a voluntary choice that municipalities made to navigate thorny local politics? Justices on the state’s highest court are wrestling with that question in a lawsuit brought by the town of Marshfield. After a lower court last year shot down arguments from a group of municipalities that they…

Judges appear skeptical of Marshfield's challenge to MBTA housing law

Judges on the state’s highest court did not appear swayed Wednesday by arguments that the MBTA Communities zoning law amounts to an unfunded mandate imposed on municipalities by the Legislature. The controversial 2021 law is intended to spur development of housing in more than 170 cities and towns that host or are adjacent to MBTA service by requiring those communities to adopt at least one zone where multi-family housing is allowed by right. Bu…

SJC Judges Appear Skeptical of MBTA Communities Challenge

What the SJC will decide as it wrestles with the town of Marshfield's lawsuit may turn on a simple, pointed line of inquiry: “What were the expenses?”