Five years after Massachusetts told 177 transit-served cities and towns to zone for multifamily housing, the results just west of Boston are all over the map. Lexington has about 1,600 homes approved or proposed under its new zoning. Waltham has none. That's the picture from a joint look at five communities by the Route 2 Nonprofit News Consortium (via Waltham Times).
The law, signed by Gov. Charlie Baker in 2021, requires each MBTA community to have at least one district where multifamily housing is allowed by right, at a minimum gross density of 15 units per acre and, where it applies, within half a mile of a transit station, according to the state's guidance. Towns that don't comply lose access to grant programs like MassWorks, and the attorney general has said skipping the money doesn't get a town off the hook.
Lexington went first and went big. It originally planned to rezone 227 acres, far more than the 50 the state required, before Town Meeting scaled that back to about 90 acres and dropped the historic center. The consortium counts 17 projects approved or proposed, with roughly 1,600 new homes, 236 of them affordable. The Lex Residences on Bedford Street was the first.
Cambridge was already mostly there. Its 2025 multifamily ordinance allows four stories by right across most of the city, and six with affordable units, and two city councilors said their support for that ordinance was unrelated to the state law. Boston Indicators counted 29 compliant projects in Cambridge as of January.
Arlington is the case small builders should look at closely. The town has 57 units in the pipeline, and its first project under the new zoning was a two-family on Belknap Street converted to four units. But at 259 Broadway, a project permitted for 14 apartments came back asking for just five after construction bids came in high. Arlington's last hearing on Massachusetts Avenue zoning near Park Avenue, which would allow up to five stories, is set for Nov. 5.
Belmont, which had to zone for 1,632 units, had one approved project as of mid-August, with talks under way on Moraine Street and Church Street parcels.
Waltham has zero units under its MBTA zoning, according to Boston Indicators. Both of its overlay districts, one near Brandeis and one along Waverley Oaks Road, are already built up, and both allow only four-unit buildings, which housing advocate Tom Benavides called economically unviable. One project showed interest and then withdrew. Meanwhile, the city has approved 16 accessory dwelling units since the state allowed them by right. City Councilor Paul Katz called the law "one-size-fits-all" and said the zoning created "capacity and opportunity," not units.
Statewide, the numbers are modest so far. In January, WBUR reported that a Boston Indicators study found 6,898 units across 102 developments in 34 compliant communities, most still in permitting. More than half of those projects had fewer than 30 units, though 19 big ones accounted for more than three-quarters of the homes.
Why it matters for Contractors
By-right zoning takes away a lot of the permitting risk, and that's a big deal for a small builder who can't afford a year of hearings. But zoning doesn't pencil a job. Arlington's 259 Broadway shows that when bids run high, projects shrink, and Waltham's four-unit cap shows a district can exist on paper and still not get built.
If you're a small residential builder or remodeler around Route 2, the opportunity is mostly in the small stuff: two-to-four-unit conversions like the Belknap Street job, and by-right ADUs, which Waltham alone has approved 16 of. Know your town's district map, run your numbers before you chase a site, and if you work in Arlington, the Nov. 5 Mass Ave hearing is worth following.