For more than three years, Tewksbury went back and forth over the state's MBTA Communities law. On Oct. 6, Town Meeting finally settled it.
Voters at the fall special Town Meeting adopted two warrant articles creating multifamily zoning districts on two parcels: one on Clark Road and one at Ames Pond off Radcliff Road. Article 19 passed 133-33 and Article 20 passed 155-5, according to the Tewksbury Town Crier, which reported the votes bring the town into compliance with the law.
How it got here
The MBTA Communities Act was signed by then-Gov. Charlie Baker in January 2021 to address the state's housing shortage. It requires communities served by the MBTA to have at least one reasonably sized zoning district where multifamily housing is allowed without special permits.
Tewksbury put a compliant district before voters at annual Town Meeting in 2024, after months of public forums, but it was defeated. In April 2025, the Planning Board voted against sending a compliant zone back to Town Meeting, the Town Crier reported.
Then the state stepped in. On Jan. 29, Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell sued nine towns for not complying with the law: Dracut, East Bridgewater, Halifax, Holden, Marblehead, Middleton, Tewksbury, Wilmington and Winthrop. Each was required to have a compliant zoning district by July 14, 2025, according to the attorney general's office. The lawsuit followed the Supreme Judicial Court's decision in Attorney General v. Milton, which upheld the law and made clear compliance is mandatory.
In the complaint, Campbell asked the court to order each town to create a compliant zoning district and submit a compliance application to the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities. Her office had warned noncompliant communities in July 2025 that it was prepared to bring enforcement action in January 2026, five years after the law was signed.
At the time, the attorney general's office said 165 of the 177 MBTA Communities had come into compliance, and that the law had already sparked projects to create nearly 7,000 more homes across 34 communities.
The cost of saying no
Tewksbury felt it in the budget. The town had already lost more than $1.7 million in grants because it wasn't in compliance, according to the Town Crier. The school department was hit especially hard. Failing to qualify for pre-planning grants kept the district from pursuing money in future years for programs such as social-emotional wellness, early college preparation and restorative behavioral practices. Counting multi-year grants and partnerships, the district estimated more than $2 million could be lost. Other discretionary grants for infrastructure and housing support were also at risk.
In March, the planning and select boards formed a joint working group to come up with a strategy. Planning Board Chair Steve Johnson said the town's position was very different from 2024, when officials thought lawsuits, legislative changes or grant protections might change the state's requirements. None of that happened.
Johnson warned that if the town didn't act, the state could impose a zoning district anyway, possibly where residents would least want it, through a special master process with no local input.
After that, the working group went looking for sites. With technical help from the Northern Middlesex Council of Governments, the working group picked the Clark Road and Ames Pond parcels.
Next door, Wilmington, another town named in the lawsuit, is taking the question to voters a fourth time at a special Town Meeting scheduled for Nov. 21, according to the Wilmington Town Crier.
Why it matters for Contractors
Zoning isn't a building permit, but it's where housing starts. With multifamily housing now allowed by right on the Clark Road and Ames Pond parcels, developers can bring projects forward without the special permit fight that has stalled so many jobs in Massachusetts towns. No projects or developers have been announced for either site yet, so there's no work to bid today. But contractors who work in the Merrimack Valley should keep an eye on the Tewksbury Planning Board for site plan filings on those parcels. Across the state, the attorney general's office says the law has already sparked projects for nearly 7,000 homes, and Tewksbury is now part of that pipeline. Wilmington's Nov. 21 vote is the next one to watch.