MARSHFIELD - A Plymouth County Superior Court judge has ruled against Marshfield and several other towns that challenged the state’s MBTA Communities Act, affirming that the law is constitutional and does not violate local control.
The June 6 ruling by Justice Mark C. Gildea dismissed the plaintiffs’ request for a preliminary injunction and upheld the state’s ability to condition certain grant funding on municipal zoning compliance.
Gildea asserted that the plaintiffs are not being required to do anything and they are free to leave their zoning as is, but the consequence of that is that they may be ineligible for certain state funding opportunities.
Marshfield was one of eight towns—alongside Duxbury, Hanson, Holden, Middleton, Wenham, Weston, and Wrentham—that brought the lawsuit. Ten Hamilton residents also joined the case. The plaintiffs argued the law constituted an unfunded mandate, infringed on home rule, and unlawfully delegated legislative power to the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities (EOHLC).
But the judge disagreed. On the claim that the law imposes a financial burden, the court found that “plaintiffs have not submitted any actual evidence of costs” and instead relied on “generalized comments” that fell short of proving a violation under the state’s unfunded mandate law.
Justice Gildea noted that municipalities are not being required to spend money or take any action and that the law simply sets conditions for eligibility for discretionary grant programs. He wrote that such programs are voluntary.
On the issue of home rule, the court emphasized that nothing in Section 3A requires a municipality to adopt any particular zoning amendment. Rather, compliance is tied to access to programs such as the Housing Choice Initiative and the MassWorks Infrastructure Program.
Massachusetts’ Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell, whose office defended the law, issued a statement after the ruling: “The Superior Court confirmed what has long been clear: a state law requiring multi-family housing districts in communities served by public transportation, but leaving the details and location of those districts to the municipalities themselves, permissibly addresses our housing shortage while still preserving substantial local discretion.”
For Marshfield, the decision means the town remains subject to the state’s requirement to zone for multi-family housing, or else risk exclusion from state funding opportunities that support housing, transportation, and infrastructure.
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