"Five years after it began, the fight over a controversial state housing law is nearly over.
The final compliance deadline for the MBTA Communities Act — the 2021 law that requires cities and towns served by the T make room for more multifamily housing — came and went at the end of 2025. And after a series of sometimes-bruising local fights, 165 of the 177 cities and towns the law covers have passed zoning intended to comply with it.
The remaining noncompliant towns are: Carver, Dracut, East Bridgewater, Freetown, Halifax, Holden, Marblehead, Middleton, Rehoboth, Tewksbury, Wilmington, and Winthrop.
That just 12 communities are considered out of compliance represents significant progress for Governor Maura Healey’s administration, which embraced the nearly-passed law when Healey took office in 2022."
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Note: the map is 'inaccurate' at least as far as Franklin is concerned. While we have made zoning changes, there are a couple of technical changes out for Planning Board approval to come back to the Town Council for approval to bring us into full compliance. We were almost there when the whole MBTA community thing started due to the work we had already begun with Franklin For All. Prior maps usually were shown as compliant, or pending, or not. We were in the pending status previously.
