Frequently Asked Questions

Everything you ever wanted to know about MBTA Communities Zoning, but were afraid to ask...

LAST UPDATED: April 2, 2024 @ 9:30 am
New questions added to the end of the thread below.

Q0: What is MBTA Communities/ Section 3A?

A0: The MBTA Communities law. or Section 3A. requires that 177 communities in eastern MA with access to MBTA service, including Belmont, amend their zoning to allow multi-family housing. The goal is to address the  housing  crisis  by  encouraging  new  housing  production  in  close  proximity  to  public transportation. Informed by community input and existing Town priorities. volunteer residents in the MBTA Communities Advisory Committee, with assistance from staff and MAPC, are in the process of developing a proposed zoning overlay plan in appropriate areas of the community and encourages multi-family housing in a variety of sizes and price points, near transit, retail, and other services. Please see Q18 below for more information as to why the state created this requirement.

Q1: Do we really have a housing crisis? I don't see any evidence of it whatsoever. I think it's a made up crisis to serve some special interest.

A1: On one hand this is a simple example of supply and demand. On the other, it's a perfect example of embracing being exclusionary. Since the 1980's, municipalities in eastern Massachusetts near universal practice of adopting zoning that prohibited nearly every housing type except large-lot single family homes, have prevented any type of housing from two-families to large apartment buildings or complexes from being built. Initially this wasn't a problem because at that time, a building boom had just concluded and there were plenty of apartments and other types of units available. The stricter zoning, while prohibiting any multifamily, at least led to a boom in single-family home development in many price ranges. However, as the 1980's and 1990's ended, land available for even single-family development started to become more scarce and much of the available land was steep, rocky, or wet. While extreme tightening of zoning in the 1970's and 1980's was the contemporary crimp on housing supply, it was preceded by early zoning enabling legislation that granted municipalities the power to restrict housing and other development. This article in the Globe provides a lot more background on how zoning contributed to the housing shortage, but the bottom line is that sine the 1980's, very little non-single-family housing has been built and most of that "little" has been in Boston and the few cities surrounding Boston. It just so happened that just as housing was getting harder to build, Massachusetts economy started exploding with healthcare, tech, biotech, and other cutting-edge industries fueled by a large concentrations of institutions of higher learning, which led to a huge number of jobs being created, particularly in the Boston metropolitan region. So it's pretty easy to see the connection between choking off the pipeline of building new housing and an ever expanding economy with new households. Housing becomes more scare and prices rise. So yes there is a clearly significant housing crisis. Additional reporting on this side of it can be found HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE.

On the exclusionary side of the equation, while many communities with restrictive zoning would point to their concern over higher taxes, school children, traffic, and environmental degradation, typically the underlying reason communities are exclusionary is that they do not want the people that new multifamily housing construction would bring. It probably isn't a coincidence that restrictive zoning in Massachusetts coincided with forced busing. What isn't more widely known is that many if not most of the prospective tenants and buyers for multifamily housing are public employees like teachers, conservation agents, and fire fighters; administrative personnel like receptionists and clerks; service workers like home health care aides, store managers, bus drivers, or maintenance and landscaping workers. These are the people that are the most housing-marginalized, forced to accept substandard housing, drive long distances to find an affordable home, or make some other even less palatable compromise. The worst case scenario for Massachusetts is that they give up on the state and move elsewhere, which they are doing now more than ever which ironically somewhat softens the deficit and extends the crisis.

The last point to be made is that up to the time when the MBTA Communities zoning law was passed, the state had mostly used incentives to try to get suburban communities to encourage building more multifamily housing. Programs like Housing Choice were intended to incentivize building needed additional housing units. But clearly either the incentives weren't sufficient or more likely, they never would be. It became clear that the state, in order to compete economically and provide sufficient housing for its residents, had to act more forcefully, and did so with MBTA Communities, all within its statutory authority.

Q2: What kind of MBTA Community is Belmont? Can we be reclassified?

A2: Belmont is a "Commuter Rail" Community is per the EOHLC Compliance Guidelines site. Specifically, the state defines such a community as follows, "Commuter rail community means an MBTA community that (i) does not meet the criteria for a rapid transit community, and (ii) has within its borders at least 100 acres of developable station area associated with one or more commuter rail stations." Compliance requirements for Belmont, as a Commuter Rail Community, are provided below. Belmont may not be reclassified unless it decommissions its commuter rail stations. Not likely.

Q3: What exactly does Belmont need to do to comply with the law?

A3: In general,MBTA communities shall have at least one zoning district of reasonable size in which multi-family housing is permitted as of right (by-right) and meets other criteria set forth in the statute (1) Minimum gross density of 15 units per acre; (2) Located not more than 0.5 miles from a commuter rail station, subway station, ferry terminal or bus station, if applicable; and (3) No age restrictions and suitable for families with children. Belmont, as a MBTA Commuter Rail Community, must have a minimum land area of the multi-family zoning district of 28 acres, which is 1.5% of the developable land in Belmont as per EOHLC formula. Commuter rail communities must also zone for a capacity of 15% of total housing units in Belmont. Belmont has 10,882 housing units so must zone for 1,632 multifamily units.

Q4: What is the compliance deadline for Belmont?

A4: Belmont must have zoning in place by December 31, 2024 and the plan is currently to take this to a Special Town Meeting in September of 2024. At this point, there are no options for an extension and if it fails at Town Meeting, the Town will be out of compliance after the deadline.

Q5: What does "by-right" mean?

A5: The MBTA Communities / Section 3A law requires Belmont to have at least one zoning district of reasonable size in which multi-family housing (any residential property containing three or more housing units) is permitted by-right. By-right means that a discretionary special permit is not part of the process of project approval. Construction of any new development will still require applying for a building permit, submitting plans, completing inspections, and may require site plan review. Individual property owners will have the option to decide if they want to redevelop their property under the new zoning. No property owner is required to change their property or develop new housing.

Q6: What percentage of new housing will be affordable?

A6: Belmont's current zoning has a sliding scale that requires that 10% of new units be affordable (i.e. income restricted) if the project has 6-12 units, 12% for 13 to 20 units, and 15% of dwellings be affordable in projects of more than 20 units. Under the current bylaw, a special permit is required to trigger the inclusionary provision. As such, it would not be applicable to MBTA Communities as this is a discretionary approval. Belmont will need to amend Section 6.10 to eliminate the special permit provision. Note that under Section 3A's guidance, municipalities must provide justification for affordability requirements greater than a rate of 10%. The Committee has contracted for the necessary feasibility analysis showing that our current rates above 10% are economically viable, and we expect that our 12% and 15% inclusionary thresholds will be acceptable to the State.

Q7: We don't need any affordable housing. Can't we just leave that off the plan?

A7: While MBTA Communities Zoning does not require that communities include an affordable housing component (a certain amount set aside for affordable units), the Town already has an inclusionary zoning (IZ) bylaw (Section 6.10 of the Zoning Bylaw). This requires that housing development projects of a certain size (sliding scale starting at minimum 6 units) provide either 10%, 12%, or 15% of the units as affordable. This should be seen as a positive since the Town is short of meeting its 10% requirement on the Subsidized Housing Inventory (SHI) which means that the Town is still open to 40B developments until it reaches that 10%. Right now we are at 6.21% and every market rate home built increases the denominator and lowers the Town's SHI. If all MBTA units were market rate, our SHI would drop down to 5.4% or lower. By using our existing IZ bylaw with a minor amendment, we can make sure we do not drop further in SHI percentage and hopefully gain some ground.

Q8: How will this impact traffic and parking?

A8: There will be additional traffic and need for parking generated by any new development but the project team is aware of these and other potential impacts. There will likely be some minimum parking requirements developed as part of the bylaws but this number hasn't been determined yet. Parking issues are not solely solved through zoning and we'll need to think about parking issues more holistically beyond just the scope of the MBTA program. Walkability, biking, ebikes, van and car pools, car sharing (Zip Cars), paratransit, and mass transit will also be important components of a mobility solution for Belmont. Even with parking minimums, developers and real estate management companies will provide the parking that they feel their customers want and need. Finally, trends for car ownership are diminishing generationally and it may be forward thinking to calibrate looking to the future rather than past trends.

Q9: What about trees, private green space, and open space? How can this be sustainable and good for the environment?

A9: One of the general principles of the MBTA Communities law is to "minimize impacts to sensitive land." The law does not override state or local environmental regulations. New development that may occur within multi-family districts still will need to comply with all applicable state and local provisions. More specifically, there is no public open space included in the proposed zoning changes. Denser, walkable development is actually the most sustainable type of development that there is. Encouraging proximity to workplaces, being walkable to shops and services, minimizing single-occupant vehicle use, and encouraging green public transit are all positive metrics of sustainability. But sustainability also involves two other "e's" including economy and equity, so this program also may be beneficial in those realms as well.

Q10: Will there be an impact on our public schools? Do our schools have the capacity for more students?

A10: Pending

Q11: Why build multi-family housing near MBTA public transit?

A11: Building multi-family housing near public transit makes housing more accessible to those who may not be able to afford a car or prefer not to use one. It also encourages walkable and bikeable neighborhoods where residents can access daily needs, like local shops, jobs, schools, restaurants, parks, etc. Housing near transit reduces the need to use a car for short trips, which can reduce traffic congestion, decrease carbon emissions, and improve air quality. It also stimulates economic activity by creating more opportunities for people to shop in Belmont’s local businesses.

Q12: Why doesn’t the proposed MBTA Communities zoning district mandate fully electric buildings or compliance with standards like Passive House?

A12: Actually, since Belmont passed the Opt-In Specialized Energy Code in the fall, all multifamily buildings over 12,000 s.f. must be built to passive house standards, which is as strict as there is currently.

Q13: Would Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) or two-family houses count towards compliance?

A13: No. Multi-family in 3A is defined as “a building with 3 or more residential dwelling units, or 2 or more buildings on the same lot with more than 1 residential dwelling unit in each building.” A variety of building types, including townhomes, triple-deckers, single-family cluster developments and townhouses could all meet this definition. These are often referred to as the “missing middle” or “workforce” housing types. 

Q14: Why is this important? How does creating zoning for multi-family housing help resolve the housing crisis?

A14: The lack of zoning for multi-family housing is a barrier for developing new housing, particularly “the missing middle” or “workforce” housing.

  • Massachusetts has among the highest, and fastest growing, home prices and rents of any state in the nation.
  • Rising costs have dramatically increased financial pressures on low- and middle-income families, young families, singleincome households, and our aging population, often forcing sacrifice of other priorities to pay for housing costs.
  • Lack of available housing and high housing costs are a primary driver of homelessness.
  • This may put our economy and businesses at a disadvantage as we compete economically against peer states. The risk of future job growth moving outside Massachusetts is rising due to the high living costs.

Q15: How many new housing units will be built in Belmont as a result of this Law?

A15: There is no mandate to build any new housing. Belmont is only required to adopt a multi-family zoning district that would allow the development of multi-family units by right. The zoning must allow 15 units per acre average throughout the entire district(s) and the district(s) area must accommodate for 1,632 multi-family units. Once again, there is no mandate to build even a single unit. The Committee and the Town’s consultant are currently working hard to develop districts and subdistricts that will meet the law's requirements that are in the best interests of Belmont. Also note that in some cases, districts will be mapped over existing residential areas where there already is housing. Change in these areas may not occur or may be very slow and any net gain of units will be the sum of new units less old units.

Q16: What will this cost Belmont?

A16: Any projects are created under this zoning, will be constructed and financed by developers and property owners. The Law does not require a municipality to install new water or wastewater infrastructure or add to capacity of existing infrastructure to accommodate future multi-family housing within the district. New development will generate new tax revenue of varying levels based on the type of use and for residential, the number of bedrooms. The expectation is that rather than revenue negative or neutral, that MBTA Communities can be revenue positive for Belmont if done right.

A more detailed answer is that the fiscal impact of MBTA Communities Zoning is not yet known but it is one of the goals of the Committee to achieve a zoning scenario that is not only revenue neutral but could be revenue positive. Currently Belmont is considering a town-wide market and fiscal impact analysis project that would include MBTA Communities Zoning as one revenue scenario. This data may be available before a Special Town Meeting in the fall of 2024 when the zoning would be considered. Additionally, the Town of Milton engaged with RKG Associates to answer the same question for Milton residents and this report can be found HERE.

Q17: What if Belmont doesn't comply with the law?

A17: A MBTA community that does not comply is not eligible for funding from three Massachusetts programs:

  • The Housing Choice Initiative—Belmont is not a Housing Choice Community as of January 2024
  • The Local Capital Projects Fund
  • The MassWorks Infrastructure Program—12 programs focused on housing and economic development, infrastructure, and community. This program funds many things including water and sewer work, sidewalk and road improvement, housing, and much more.
  • The State has indicated compliance with the Law will be taken into account for many other discretionary grants from the Commonwealth. The following discretionary grant programs will take compliance with Section 3A into consideration when making grant award recommendations:
    • Community Planning Grants, EOHLC
    • Massachusetts Downtown Initiative, EOED
    • Urban Agenda, EOED
    • Rural and Small Town Development Fund, EOED
    • Brownfields Redevelopment Fund, MassDevelopment
    • Site Readiness Program, MassDevelopment
    • Underutilized Properties Program, MassDevelopment
    • Collaborative Workspace Program, MassDevelopment
    • Real Estate Services Technical Assistance, MassDevelopment
    • Commonwealth Places Programs, MassDevelopment
    • Land Use Planning Grants, EOEEA
    • Local Acquisitions for Natural Diversity (LAND) Grants, EOEEA, and
    • Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness (MVP) Planning and Project Grants, EOEEA

Additionally, The State’s Attorney General issued an advisory dated 3-15-23 indicating that:

  • All MBTA Communities must comply with the Law.
  • Non-compliant communities may be subject to civil enforcement action and risk liability under federal and state fair housing Laws and anti-discrimination Laws. The Town of Milton may serve as a good example of non-compliance. They have already lost a grant and have been sued.

Q18: Can we zone for mixed use in our village centers and business districts to make sure we maintain our character?

A18: The State EOHLC has recently come out with revisions to the 3A MBTA Communities guidelines that do allow for a (mandatory) mixed use district to be created in existing village centers/downtown areas who wish to retain the mixed use development. This district can offset up to 25% of the required capacity for units for the municipality but the land zoned in this smaller district is excluded from the overall acre requirement for MBTA zoning. Think of it like a donut, the donut portion counts toward our total needed acreage, but the hole in the donut would be cut out and excluded from the total needed acreage count. This district cannot have requirements for minimum parking for non-residential uses, there is a percentage cap on floor area for non-residential uses and is only allowed on the ground floor only, the districts must be pre-approved by the State.

Q19: What is a mandatory mixed-use district? Is it a "compliant" district?

A19: A mandatory mixed-use (MMU) district, referred to as a “mixed use development zoning district” in the 3A Guidelines, is a zoning district where multiple residential units are allowed as of right if, but only if, combined with non-residential uses, including, without limitation, commercial, institutional, industrial or other uses. A mandatory mixed-use district is not a 3A compliant district. Section 3A of the Massachusetts Zoning Act (“Chapter 40A”) requires compliant districts to allow multi-family housing as of right (by-right). Mixed-use development does not qualify as multi-family housing because of the non-residential uses. However, a mandatory mixed-use district can affect the reasonable size requirement by offsetting a portion of the required multi-family unit capacity. In summary, MMU does not contribute to zoned area or % of contiguity (but does allow contribute to contiguity, if that makes sense). It also only contributes 25% of the number of units zones in these areas as part of the compliance model. You can read more about mandatory mixed-use districts HERE.

Q20: I heard that MBTA zoning eliminates local review of projects, how can they do that?

A20: No, MBTA Communities zoning is the same type of zoning that authorizes local governments to conduct local reviews, either administrative or through the Planning Board via site plan review. The only thing it does not allow is applying a Special Permit to a project. The zoning is fully applicable and does not have any workarounds like MGL 40B or Dover Amendment projects.

Q21: Why did the state create this requirement?

A21: The law was created because the greater Boston region and Massachusetts generally, for some time now, has been going through a housing crisis. The State’s Future of Work study estimated a shortage of up to 200,000 housing units. Municipalities play a key role through zoning and permitting in determining whether or not housing is built. To relieve our housing crisis, the law requires communities to amend their zoning and permitting to encourage greater housing production. Additionally, the state notes that:

  • Before COVID19, Massachusetts faced a core challenge in creating enough housing to support young families, workers, and an aging population. The pandemic has further highlighted these needs.
  • Massachusetts has among the highest, and fastest growing, home prices and rents of any state in the nation.
  • Rising costs have dramatically increased financial pressures on low- and middle-income families, forcing them to sacrifice other priorities to pay housing costs. High housing costs are a primary driver of homelessness.
  • The lack of housing production is a significant impediment to community and economic development.
  • These high costs are a disadvantage as we compete economically against peer states. The high cost of living risks future job growth moving outside Massachusetts.

Every community in Massachusetts is responsible for addressing this problem. The law ensures that Belmont, along with 176 other communities, are working to address it together and not leaving this to others to shoulder the load.

Q22: Why are all or most of the areas proposed for MBTA Communities close to the rail stations? Why can't they also be located on bus lines near stops?

A22: For Belmont as a "Commuter Rail" designated community, Belmont must site at least 50% of the land area of the district and the unit count within 1/2 mile of one, other, or both of the commuter rail stations. Belmont must also comply with the contiguity requirement which states that at least 50% of the required area of the district must be in one contiguous piece. This severely limits land area that the Town may designate outside of commuter rail 1/2 radii. However, we can and may locate some district areas on bus lines, for example:

  • Waverly is served by the 73 and 554.
  • Belmont Center is served by the 74 and 75.
  • Concord Avenue is served by the 78 which also runs through Brighton/Blanchard.

Q23: Isn't more development an environmental issue? Won't this create problems for stormwater, wildlife, wetlands, air quality, etc.? What about traffic, noise, and crime?

A23: Actually, the way that 3A is being implemented, it may actually have substantial environmental and sustainability benefits. Denser, more compact development is more walkable and bikeable, it takes up a smaller development footprint, often has less pavement and parking, and encourages carbon-neutral transit use. Much of MBTA designated zoning area already has a development footprint and any new development is not likely to take much additional land area. The new units will be energy efficient and may integrate other sustainable practices into development standards. 

Q24: Can Belmont use restrictive dimensional requirements and high open space percentages to lower the number of units to be zoned for? Is there anything else we can do to reduce numbers, particularly of new units that could be built?

A24: The state EOHLC and Attorney General's Office are both very aware of local communities considering these strategies and such measures are likely to be flagged during the pre-review process as unacceptable. The law intends for multi-family housing construction to be not only feasible but unimpeded by local protective actions and laws. Some communities are trying to zone land that already contains the required minimum densities as a way to limit new development. While that is permitted, it is likely that such areas will be scrutinized closely. The bottom line is that any effort to try to circumvent the intent and purpose of the law and guidelines is almost certainly going to be rejected.