Monday, May 19, 2025
TARR IN THE NEWS 5.19.25
TARR IN THE NEWS | 5.19.25
‘MBTA zoning law subject of multiple amendments in Senate’
Boston Herald Article | Matthew Medsger
““We are trying to find a compromise, we are trying to find some middle ground here,” Tarr told the Herald. “We are trying to spend less time and fewer resources and less energy on confrontation, and litigation, and vilification of our communities, and more time creating paths to build housing.”
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The proposed rule change would require that every three years the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities “study, analyze, and make determinations” on the number of homes produced under the law, the effects on “municipal water supplies, wastewater treatment, and transportation infrastructure of such units,” and the impacts of increased housing stock on local school districts.
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Another Republican proposal (offered as more than one amendment) would allow municipalities to appeal to the state for relief from the zoning law if they find that compliance would result in an inability to meet drinking water or sewage treatment requirements for new units, or would negatively impact the safety on municipal roads, or for “any adverse environmental impacts attributable to the developments of housing units.”
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“A proposal offered by Sens. Dooner, Tarr, Peter Durant, and Ryan Fattman would aim to give those cities and towns not directly crossed by an MBTA route but nevertheless defined as an “Adjacent Community” or an “Adjacent Small Town” a further two years to come into compliance with the law.”
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According to Tarr, none of these amendments represent a “free pass” for cities and towns not to comply, but rather an acknowledgement that “very real problems” have been identified by those municipalities attempting to.
“We can’t ignore those if our goal is to build housing as opposed to just the blind pursuit of strict technical compliance,” he said.
Link to the full article here: https://www.bostonherald.com/.../mbta-zoning-law-subject.../
