Photo: Jim Mackay/WBZ NewsRadio
MILTON, Mass. (WBZ NewsRadio) — The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has once again dismissed efforts to block the MBTA Communities Act in the town of Milton.
The state’s highest court on Thursday dismissed a lawsuit brought forth by 16 Milton residents, seeking an injunction to pause enforcement of the law.
The MBTA Communities Act requires towns and cities served by the MBTA or adjacent to MBTA service to rezone for multi-family housing.
The lawsuit was introduced in May, and Milton Town Meeting members voted last week to adopt multi-family zoning in compliance with the law before the state-imposed deadline of July 14.
Justice Mark Gildea noted this in his dismissal of the lawsuit, writing “the passage of such Article calls into question the complaint of the Sixteen Taxpayers that the Town ‘is not going to create such a district by the new July 14, 2025 deadline.’”
The state has said that communities that do not comply with the law will lose out on state funding. The residents argued the withholding of state funds would cause “irreparable harm” to the town and that the law is an unfunded mandate.
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The town of Milton long refused to comply with the law until now. Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell sued the town in February 2024 to force them to comply with the law, and the SJC ruled in favor of Campbell in January, upholding that the law is constitutional.
Ed Augustus, secretary of the state’s Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities, said nearly 80% of MBTA communities have already complied with the law.
"For a second time this month, the courts affirmed the intent of the MBTA Communities Law, which is to increase housing production to address one of the greatest challenges facing the people of Massachusetts – high costs,” Augustus said.
The SJC also dismissed a set of lawsuits from nine towns challenging the law earlier this month. The lawsuits were filed by Duxbury, Hamilton, Hanson, Holden, Marshfield, Middleton, Wenham, Weston and Wrentham.