Attorney General Andrea Campbell filed a lawsuit against nine Massachusetts communities, including Halifax and East Bridgewater, for failing to comply with state housing law requiring multi-family zoning near public transit. The legal action comes five years after the MBTA Communities Law was enacted and follows failed attempts to achieve compliance through warnings and financial penalties.
The lawsuit targets communities that failed to meet a July 14, 2025, deadline to submit compliant zoning districts to the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities. Halifax and East Bridgewater join Dracut, Holden, Marblehead, Middleton, Tewksbury, Wilmington, and Winthrop as the only nine communities out of 177 MBTA service area municipalities still in violation of the law.
The MBTA Communities Law, enacted in January 2021 under Governor Charlie Baker, requires municipalities served by the MBTA to adopt at least one zoning district where multi-family housing is permitted “as of right”—meaning no special permits or discretionary approvals are required. The districts must allow a minimum density of 15 units per acre and be located within half a mile of transit stations where applicable.
“Massachusetts has a housing crisis,” Campbell stated in announcing the lawsuit. “When local communities refuse to allow new housing, housing prices everywhere across the Commonwealth increase. They thwart a family’s ability to access all the benefits that stable housing provides.”
In a Boston Globe opinion piece published last Thursday, Campbell revealed the personal dimension driving her enforcement efforts. She grew up in public housing and faced potential eviction as a Princeton University sophomore when her father died unexpectedly. “Stable housing is not a luxury — it’s an essential need,” she wrote. “I understand what having a home means and the stability it creates for families.”
According to the complaint filed in Suffolk Superior Court, Halifax residents voted down Section 3A zoning at a special town meeting on Dec. 16, 2024. As of the lawsuit filing date, the town has not issued a subsequent warrant proposing adoption of compliant zoning amendments, nor has it submitted a district compliance application to state housing officials.
East Bridgewater residents rejected the zoning requirement twice—first at a special town meeting on Oct. 7, 2024, and again at the annual town meeting on May 12, 2025. Like Halifax, the town has not taken subsequent action to propose compliant zoning or submit an application for review.
The legal action comes after extensive efforts to bring communities into compliance through guidance, warnings, and financial penalties. In Jan. 2025, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled in Attorney General v. Town of Milton that compliance with Section 3A is mandatory, not optional. Following that decision, Campbell issued an advisory in July 2025 warning noncompliant communities that enforcement action would follow in Jan. 2026.
State data shows the zoning changes have sparked development projects for nearly 7,000 new homes across 34 communities, according to a Boston Indicators report released recently. However, the analysis revealed significant limitations: only 30 percent of homes in the early permitting pipeline are within walking distance of a transit station, and 80 percent of permitted units are concentrated in just 10 communities.
Luc Schuster, executive director of Boston Indicators, noted in an analysis that the law functions more as a “leveling up exercise” or “fair-share zoning law” than true transit-oriented development. “A law designed to legalize duplexes, triplexes, and small apartment buildings across hundreds of municipalities is fundamentally different from a focused transit-oriented-development law designed to reshape full station areas around frequent transit,” he wrote.
The Attorney General’s complaint seeks declaratory judgment that the defendant towns have failed to comply with Section 3A and its implementing regulations. It requests court orders requiring each town to amend its zoning bylaws to ensure compliance and to secure an official determination of compliance from EOHLC. The lawsuit also asks for injunctive relief “reasonably tailored to achieve each Town’s compliance” with state law.
Such relief could range from appointment of a special receiver to draw up zoning for the town, or implementing a “builder’s remedy” that would allow new construction regardless of current zoning until the town complies. Campbell emphasized her office’s willingness to work collaboratively. “The lawsuit is essentially the hammer, and we don’t start with the hammer,” she said. “We start with conversation and working in collaboration.”
The lawsuit drew immediate pushback from South Shore legislators. State Representatives Kenneth P. Sweezey, a Duxbury Republican, and Alyson M. Sullivan-Almeida, an Abington Republican, issued a joint statement condemning the action.
“It is unacceptable that taxpayer dollars are being used to sue our towns while those same towns are forced to use taxpayer funds to defend themselves,” Sweezey said. “This amounts to punishment, not support.”
“We stand firmly with the residents and local officials in East Bridgewater, Halifax, and every other community impacted by these enforcement actions,” Sullivan-Almeida said. “These communities deserve support and a seat at the table, not legal threats.”
Not all noncompliant towns face immediate legal action. Campbell noted that Freetown has a zoning meeting scheduled and her office wanted to give the town time to achieve compliance. Carver and Rehoboth, which faced an end-of-year deadline, received additional time to create compliant zoning districts.
A Boston Herald editorial published Sunday suggested that resistant communities could technically comply with the law while minimizing actual development impact. The editorial cited a Boston Globe review finding some towns have designed zoning plans that “cleverly circumvent the state mandate” by creating districts in areas where multi-family buildings already exist or writing rules that cap building heights and densities in ways that discourage new development. “It’s the blueprint those sued communities should take, instead of enduring the substantial legal and financial penalties further resistance will exact,” the editorial stated.
Campbell emphasized in her Globe opinion piece that enforcing the MBTA Communities law is part of a broader strategy. “My office is deploying every tool available to protect residents, homeowners, and families — including securing multimillion dollar settlements with landlords and mortgage services that violate our laws, and by creating homeownership opportunities by transforming abandoned, blighted properties into safe homes,” she wrote.
Even the Town of Milton, which challenged the law and lost at the Supreme Judicial Court, is now in compliance, Campbell noted. “After five years, it’s past time for all communities served by public transit to follow the law,” she wrote.