To the editor:
I am concerned about government overreach, and that is why I support the new MBTA Zoning law.
For decades, governments across Massachusetts have enacted regulations to restrict what private property owners can do with their land. Supported by both the NIMBYs (Not In My Backyard) and their cousins the BANANAs (Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anyone), these regulations have slowly strangled virtually all development.
To illustrate, imagine that you wanted to buy an aging building on Pleasant Street, fix it up, and put in retail on the first floor and a couple of apartments on the second floor. The list of approvals you might need is staggering: the building inspector of course, but also the Design Review Board, the Zoning Board of Appeals, the Conservation Commission (if the project was near any type of water), the Old and Historic Districts Commission (if the project was in old town), and the Municipal Light Commission and Water and Sewer Commission (if the project needed new utility connections). If you needed to cut down a tree, you’d probably need approval from the tree warden.
Of course, this is not just happening in Marblehead. Every town in the state has a similar thicket of regulations and bureaucracy. The result has been entirely predictable: a dramatic reduction in new housing supply and skyrocketing housing costs. If you were fortunate enough to buy a house decades ago, your home values have gone up (did you see the assessments last year?), but if you are a first-time
homebuyer, you are out of luck. You will need to look much further away from Boston and endure hours in the car commuting each day.
This state of affairs is why, in 2021, with broad bipartisan majorities, our elected representatives passed the MBTA Communities Act. It requires every local government in the MBTA area to cut a little red tape, giving power back to private-property owners, and giving the free market a chance to meet local housing needs.
Will it solve all of our housing problems? Of course not. Note that of all the commissions in our example, this law affects only one. For some projects it might cut a month or two off the years currently required for permitting. Will it be the end of Marblehead as we know it? Of course not. Marblehead is lucky in that it is already densely built. Look at the proposed redevelopment of Broughton Road, one of the three districts in Marblehead’s MBTA zoning plan. After five years of planning, permitting, demolition, and new construction, the proposal calls for an increase from 62 to 97 homes.
So no, MBTA zoning is neither panacea nor Armageddon, but I support it anyway, and I hope other Marbleheaders will too. It’s one small step towards restoring the rights of private-property owners — and restoring a bit of balance to our housing market.
Rick Smyers
Phillips Street
