MARSHFIELD – Officials said the town remains committed to its legal fight against the MBTA Communities law, even as the state has already withheld grants and signaled the possibility of further penalties.
Select Board members and Town Counsel Bob Galvin discussed the case during their Sept. 8 meeting, citing the recent ruling by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) that upheld the constitutionality of the law.
“We filed our appeal and perfected that in August,” Galvin said. “We have also just as recently as last week, made an application for direct appellate review at the Supreme Judicial Court.”
Galvin said Marshfield has already lost three grants and warned that the state has broad authority to block funding. “It’s not just 17 programs. I think we’ve lost three grants, two that we were certain to get, one that we had applied for and it’s just never been acted on.”
The town is pursuing three main arguments: that the law improperly disenfranchises Town Meeting voters, that it imposes an unfunded mandate, and that a superior court judge wrongly dismissed Marshfield’s original complaint. “If we have to zone and have this by right, we will fail the financial consequences of that and without state funding, that’s a problem for us,” Galvin said.
Board members noted that compliance would require the town to allow for as many as 1,276 additional multifamily housing units. Vice Chair Stephen Darcy added that the legislature is even weighing whether to withhold Chapter 90 road funding from noncompliant towns.
Other communities are also appealing, including the towns of Middleton and Weston.
Chair Eric Kelley expressed frustration after the Attorney General’s office canceled a planned meeting. “They did not want to meet with the select board in public. So they backed out of it. They kind of wanted to keep it a closed door session. I was opposed to that.”
Despite the setbacks, board members said they will continue pressing their case before the state’s highest court.