How are other towns responding to the MBTA Communities Mandate?

Lexington

There is no way to control development if land is rezoned.

Consider what just occurred in Lexington. Lexington rezoned for more than ten times the necessary number of housing units. The response was extraordinarily swift, with over 1100 housing units in progress by the end of the year. On March 17, Lexington Town Meeting decisively voted to limit its ambitious MBTA Communities plan and reduce its multi-family housing districts. You can read more here: Letter to the editor: Vote YES on Article 2  - The Lexington Observer

Carlisle risks heading down this regrettable path if more land is rezoned.

Bedford

The Loomis Street development received Planning Board approval in December 2024 in spite of concerns of Bedford residents, some of whom have sold their homes. Existing homes have been demolished, and building is now underway as seen in these photos:

You can read about the concerns that Bedford residents voiced prior to the Planning Board approval here: Neighbors Object to Multi-Unit Housing Zone on Loomis Street - The Bedford Citizen

Wrentham

In February 2024, the Select Board of Wrentham wrote to Governor Maura Healey citing their concerns regarding the MBTA Housing Bill requirements. Zoning Act is an unfunded mandate. Last fall, they asked the Office of the State Auditor, Diana DiZoglio, through the Division of Local Mandates (DLM), to determine if the MBTA Zoning mandate is an unfunded mandate. They received a response in February 2025 that the MBTA Zoning mandate is an unfunded mandate. You can read more about this response here.

Needham

In January 2025, Needham residents voted NO on their town's MBTA zoning proposal. You can read more here.

Comparable Towns Analysis – MBTA Communities Zoning

The purpose of this analysis is to compare Carlisle to its peer towns with respect to MBTA Communities rezoning. No town has considered or is adopting a plan remotely like Carlisle’s proposed Multi Family Conservation Cluster plan. Carlisle is unique among MBTA Communities towns, and there is no town comparable to Carlisle in all pertinent respects.

Carlisle lacks municipal infrastructure and relies on private wells and septic systems. While 8 to 10 other towns also have private wells and septic, most of them are outside Route 495 and are not affluent bedroom communities to Boston. Conversely, Carlisle’s closest neighbors, who share our attributes of a high performing school system and commuting proximity to economic centers, generally have at least partial public water supply and/or municipal sewer.

Carlisle’s Neighboring Towns

Several nearby towns are also peer comparisons for Carlisle. These are Concord, Lincoln, Wayland, Weston, Acton and Sudbury.

In 2024, Concord adopted MBTA Communities zoning covering 31 parcels in 5 subdistricts. Two districts are near the T station in West Concord and 3 are near Concord center. Concord chose to zone over existing multi-family properties as well as commercial properties.

Among others, Concord zoned over the apartment building between Main Street and Keyes Road in Concord center; over the Mobil gas station and Starbucks at the intersection of Thoreau Street and Sudbury Road; and over the Millbrook Tarry shopping plaza.

According to the May 17, 2024 edition of Upzone Update (an online publication), “[m]any of the parcels were selected for having existing multi-family housing or new buildings that are unlikely to be redeveloped soon.”

Other towns mentioned in this Upzone newsletter as rezoning areas unlikely to be redeveloped include Burlington and North Andover. According to the newsletter, Burlington town leaders “worked to find 6 parcels that are already zoned for multi-family housing . . . which could easily be overlaid . . . without much, or any, change to the housing already on the site.”

The Eagle Tribune reported that in North Andover, the Planning Board chair explained “we believe these sites are unlikely to be built in the near future.” Wayland appears to have complied by adopting a minimum-sized district that largely added MBTA Communities zoning on top of existing multi-family housing.

Sudbury approved their zoning in May 2024. According to Patch, “Sudbury’s approval, however, likely won’t mean an increase in multi-family housing. The town created zoning overlay districts to comply with the law that cover . . . existing dense housing developments along the Boston Post Road and Route 117.”

Acton also has compliant zoning. They created one district within a half mile of the South Acton Commuter Rail Station with density of 10 units per acre. They also rezoned a large parcel along Powder Mill Road at a density of 25 units per acre.

In late 2024, Weston’s Town Meeting voted down their proposed MBTA Communities zoning by a vote of 544 to 195. Along with other towns, Weston got an extension until mid 2025. In February 2025 they submitted an action plan which stated they are conducting public outreach and holding planning board meetings.

Towns That Fostered Development with their Plans

Lexington and Bedford demonstrate possible outcomes if areas that can easily be developed are included in a town’s MBTA Communities district.

Lexington was one of the first towns to adopt compliant MBTA Communities zoning, in mid-2023. Lexington’s quota was approximately 1200 housing units. In March 2023, Lexington’s Planning Board projected that development would occur gradually over time, predicting that only between 400 and 800 housing units would be built in 5 to 10 years. In mid-2023, Lexington approved their first MBTA Communities plan, which rezoned much more land than required, enough to yield over 12,000 housing units, or ten times more than required. Contrary to the Planning Board’s prediction that build-out would be incremental, uptake was very fast, with 1100 housing units in the pipeline by year-end 2024.

In March 2025, a special Town Meeting voted overwhelmingly (over 90% approval) to significantly scale back the MBTA Communities districts. The revised districts would allow for between 2300 and 2500 housing units, including the 1100 described above as already in the pipeline. Note that due to a concept called “zoning freezes,” additional units could be built on properties that were removed from the MBTA overlay but which preserved their ability to take advantage of that zoning through the concept of “zoning freeze.”

Bedford’s MBTA Communities zoning was approved in mid-July 2024. Unlike Lexington, Bedford does not appear to have rezoned drastically more land than required. However, their strategy – in part to create an overlay over single-family homes – is relevant to Carlisle’s situation and demonstrates how rapidly development may occur.

Within only 3 months of their zoning going live, two projects had been approved in Bedford. By year-end, there were approximately 68 housing units in the pipeline. With respect to the initial projects, on Weber Avenue and Loomis Street, existing homes were torn down and are in the process of being replaced with multi-family housing.

On Loomis Street, two homes, each on a half- acre, will be replaced with a one-acre project of 14 condos, each with approximately 3,000 square feet and each with five bedrooms.

These new condos are selling for $1.4 million each. In February 2025, an abutter to the MBTA Communities district filed a citizens’ petition to add their property (another single-family home) to the overlay district, demonstrating how it may be difficult to prevent the MBTA zones from expanding.

Towns that Explicitly Adopted or Endorsed “yes means no” approaches

According to an op-ed written by Wakefield Town Councilor Ed Dombroski in the Boston Globe on January 14, 2025, “[A]fter three failed attempts at spring Town Meeting, a revised plan was begrudgingly adopted with a small majority at fall Town Meeting. This plan, while technically complying with the requirements of the law, was deliberately drawn in a way to minimize opportunity for future development.”

According to a Banker and Tradesman article dated March 8, 2024 and entitled Making As Many Barriers As Possible to MBTA Zoning, the Chelmsford Planning Board adopted a strategy specifically to minimize additional housing development. The Board placed the MBTA district along a section of Route 110 already built with condominium complexes under individual ownership.