Andover is in “good shape” in complying with the MBTA Communities law, which was recently upheld as Constitutional by the state’s highest court, Town Counsel Doug Heim told the select board Tuesday.
“We should all start with the understanding that this [decision] is really unlikely to dramatically impact Andover,” Heim said. “I think this decision played out more or less as we expected to play out.”
The law requires communities to change zoning laws to encourage new housing construction, with at least half within a half mile of public transportation stations, or risk losing Department of Housing and Community Development funding. Last year, Andover Town Meeting approved zoning rule changes allowing for the construction of up to 2,301 housing units.
In addition to ruling the law was constitutional, the state Supreme Judicial Court ruled the Attorney General’s office can pursue injunctive relief for municipalities that do not comply with the law. The court did, however, rule guidelines for the law will need to be reworked because they were not subjected to a public comment period.
“What is clear is that whatever those regulations look like, we and the majority of the communities in the Commonwealth who are in compliance with this are already in good shape,” Heim said. “It’s very hard for me to imagine that those [updated] regulations will change things in a way that will be detrimental to what we’ve done to comply with the law.”
The rules approved by town meeting expand the potential for new housing Downtown in the area of the town yard development and in the area of River Road. A working group and the planning board avoided putting the new housing near Ballardvale station when crafting the legislation because there are already 500 homes in the area.