04.11.2025

Howie Carr’s blood feud with former MassGOP chief | Fidelity to exit downtown Boston headquarters building | State lawmakers skittish amid backlash to MBTA Communities | Spurned by City Hall, Boston policy wonk sees vindication | The economics of tariffs | Another veteran BPDA planner leaves |

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Wheels coming off the MBTA Communities housing drive? House boss says critics of controversial state law designed to ramp up apartment and condo construction may have a point

Massachusetts holds a rather dubious distinction.

After decades of rising prices and rents, we are one of the most unaffordable places on the planet.

Now one of the state’s most ambitious efforts to tackle the state’s housing crisis looks to be in political trouble.

There has been increasingly fierce local pushback to the MBTA Communities Act, which requires cities and towns across the Boston area to open their doors to new condos and apartments.

And that appears to be spooking state lawmakers.

To whit: House Speaker Ron Mariano is suddenly raising all sorts of doubts about MBTA Communities as a small but growing number of cities and towns challenge the state law and its multifamily zoning requirements.

On Thursday, Mariano raised eyebrows, telling reporters that Milton, which is challenging the new law in court, has a “legitimate complaint” about the controversial zoning mandate, per this State House News story that just ran in Banker & Tradesman.

Milton’s beef? The town is considered a rapid transit community under the 2021 law, meaning it would have to rezone for a larger number of new apartments and condos than other communities.

The comments come on the heels of a Contrarian Boston story that questioned whether the House boss was starting to get gun-shy over zoning reform, including additional proposals aimed at boosting the production of starter homes.

House Speaker Ron Mariano

“I felt that if I was the judge, and I’m not, all they got is this crazy little trolley car. They don’t have a train, they don’t have bus access and stuff,” Mariano told reporters Thursday. “So I said, If I looked at it, they don’t have enough to really be a full-fledged thing in MBTA Communities.”