MARBLEHEAD, MA — State Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell said defiance is ultimately not an option for the town of Marblehead after the Select Board on Wednesday night declined to call for a special town meeting to reconsider this past spring’s rejection of multi-family zoning changes that comply with the state MBTA Communities Law.
A crowd of residents packed Wednesday night’s meeting with chants of “No Means No!” when it came to a proposed reconsideration of the zoning change that would put the town in line with the state law requirements by the Dec. 31 deadline. Cities and towns that do not comply with the law by that time risk the loss of state grant funding and additional state litigation.
“A coalition of Democrats and Republicans passed the MBTA Communities Law, and it’s my job to enforce it,” Campbell said in a statement to Patch on Thursday. “Compliance with the law is mandatory, and this law is an essential tool to address our housing crisis, which sadly is leading to more and more residents leaving Massachusetts.”
In May, Marblehead town meeting members rejected a proposal that would allow multi-family construction by right in additional areas of the town to be in line with the law by a margin of 410 to 377. Select Board Chair Erin Noonan said on Wednesday that Marblehead is one of about seven communities out of 177 that would be on track not to comply with the state mandate by the deadline.
A vote of town meeting is required to approve the zoning change.
“The law gives municipalities considerable discretion in developing the most effective zoning for their community, including discretion over the location and size of the zoning district,” Campbell told Patch.
A presentation at Wednesday’s Select Board meeting indicated that the town could lose access to millions in state grant funding for climate and transportation projects by being out of compliance, with state officials saying that additional litigation could be forthcoming against the town to force compliance even if it agreed to forego the grant funding.
Noonan said “two things that were not ambiguous” were that going forward after non-compliance that it was clear Marblehead would not be eligible for any discretionary grant funding.
“Just to be clear — that’s their intention,” Noonan said. “It was made clear that if the Commonwealth prevails in the decision (in pending litigation against Milton as a non-compliant town) at the (Supreme Judicial Court) the attorney general will swiftly move to file lawsuits against non-compliant towns.”
Select Board member Dan Fox said he spoke with Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll in advance of Wednesday’s meeting about the state of Marblehead’s compliance status.
“We did ask for a reprieve, an extension, because we need to ask it, and the answer was ‘No,'” Fox said. “She was clear that she didn’t want to be punitive but that this was the law and that they were going to follow it through on this … and that any of the grants that we go for next year … that we won’t even get through that first gate (of approval). They won’t allow us through those gates is what we heard.”
(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. X/Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)
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