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Milton approves zoning for MBTA Housing Law
The measure clears the way for zoning that could allow up to 2,461 multifamily housing units.
After hours of intense and, at times, contentious debate over the course of two nights, Milton Town Meeting members voted to adopt new zoning regulations aimed at increasing multi-family housing and bringing the town into compliance with the state’s MBTA Communities Act.
The measure, listed as Article 6 in the meeting warrant, passed Tuesday night at a Special Town Meeting. It clears the way for zoning that could allow up to 2,461 multifamily housing units near transit.
The zoning proposal came from a citizen’s petition and aligns with state requirements that MBTA-accessible communities zone for a “reasonable size” district permitting multi-family housing as of right, depending on the town’s transit access and size.
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To become compliant with the law, each MBTA community must have a multifamily zoning district with a family unit capacity equal to or greater than the caps set by the state.
Milton is classified as a “rapid transit community” by the state, and as such, is mandated to have a minimum multifamily unit capacity of 2,461 units, or 25% of the town’s total housing stock. However, local officials and residents made clear that any potential number of units built will likely be much lower.
‘Let’s comply with the law … [for] the people in our Commonwealth’
While the vote marks a significant step toward legal compliance, it doesn’t resolve the long-running tensions surrounding Milton’s compliance with the law.
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A competing 3A proposal (Article 5 in the meeting warrant), backed by the Milton Planning Poard and the warrant committee, was also brought to the Special Town Meeting. It would allow for a multifamily unit capacity of just 10%, via a hypothetical reclassification of the town as an “adjacent community.”
Adjacent communities have a lower multifamily unit capacity than rapid transit communities, with the multifamily unit capacity set at 10% of the town’s total number of housing units. The planning board asked the state to reclassify Milton in September 2023, but the state pushed back to assert its rapid transit designation. Milton has not formally pursued a lawsuit to adjudicate its classification, although Town Meeting member Sean Fahy urged his fellow members to consider reclassification.
“We have an opportunity to pursue adjudication of our classification, we just have to do so. I believe responsible town management would be demonstrated by resolving the classification question of rapid transit,” he said Tuesday night.
However, proponents of the higher density plan, like Town Meeting member Kathleen O’Donnell, said Milton should simply follow the law and the state’s requirements, urging her fellow members to vote in support of the 25% plan.
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“If in some random fashion we get reclassified by some way or some manner, we can come back to Town Meeting and do our job and do a different zoning plan. But let’s comply with the law, let’s do our best to support the common good of the people in our Commonwealth,” she said.
Ultimately, Town Meeting members voted to refer the 10% zoning option back to the Planning Board for further study.
Another referendum on the horizon?
Despite passing the 3A zoning article, opponents could still push back.
According to the town’s charter, residents can trigger a referendum to overturn a Town Meeting vote if they collect signatures from at least 5% of registered Milton voters. The tactic has been used before to overturn 3A zoning in the past. Town Meeting approved a zoning plan in 2023 that complied with the MBTA law, but it was later overturned by voters in a 2024 referendum.
In February, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court upheld the constitutionality of the MBTA Communities law in a case involving Milton, reinforcing the attorney general’s power to enforce compliance. However, the court also found that the state’s housing office had improperly implemented its rules and ordered new regulations, which were released as emergency guidance.
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Municipalities – including Milton – that had fallen behind their end-of-2023 or 2024 deadlines were given until July 14, 2025 to submit district compliance plans. Milton was recently deemed interim compliant with the law after submitting an action plan to the state, and will be expected to meet the mid-July compliance deadline.
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