Top Dem: Senate ready to make run at "bold" housing policies
Top Dem: Senate ready to make run at "bold" housing policies
Jan. 28, 2026…..Senators are mulling over potential zoning and permitting reforms to incorporate into housing legislation this session, while balancing some of the lingering angst prompted by the MBTA Communities Act, a top Democrat indicated Tuesday.
"The Senate definitely wants to be bold, to do big things and continue to move the needle forward," Sen. Will Brownsberger said at a Charles River Regional Chamber forum. "We recognize that what has been done so far is not enough to achieve the goals that we've articulated for ourselves. And I do believe those are good goals, the couple hundred thousand units in the next 10 years."
Massachusetts voters this November may have the chance to make major housing policy decisions and vote on ballot questions to legalize starter homes and rent control. Gov. Maura Healey has registered her opposition to the rent control measure, and a banking executive warned Tuesday about rent control's impacts on investors.
"Passing a law on rent control is not going to work," Needham Bank CEO Joe Campanelli said. "We've already talked to hundreds of investors that look at Massachusetts now saying, 'We'll just invest our dollars down South — we'll move our dollars somewhere else.' So we really need to find ways to increase supply across the board."
Senate members of the Housing Committee in December favorably reported out the so-called "Yes in My Back Yard (YIMBY)" bill (S 2836) that would eliminate minimum lot sizes and boost the construction of starter homes, allow for larger lots to be split into smaller lots for residential use as of right, and reform parking minimum requirements, said Jesse Kanson-Benanav, executive director of Abundant Housing Massachusetts.
Now before the Senate Ways and Means Committee, the redrafted bill also contains provisions from the "Yes in God's Back Yard (YIGBY)" proposal (S 1430) to enable multi-family zoning for properties owned by faith-based communities, said Rachel Heller, CEO of the Citizens' Housing and Planning Association. The redraft also removes barriers for cities and towns to pass inclusionary zoning ordinances by allowing for a simple-majority vote rather than the current two-thirds majority, according to Abundant Housing Massachusetts.
Housing advocates say the YIMBY and YIGBY bills would boost housing production as policymakers try to dent longstanding shortages in housing inventories.
"We've got 100,000 new homes already going, and more are on the way," the governor said during an address last week. "We've got to be quick with this, all of us. People are counting on it; our economy is counting on it."
Kanson-Benanav highlighted another bill (S 2647) in Senate Ways and Means that would create a commission to examine legalizing six-story residential buildings with a single staircase, scrapping the requirement that residential buildings above three stories must have two staircases. The Housing Committee advanced that bill Nov. 24.
"The major legislation, the permitting legislation, the YIMBY legislation, all those pieces are things we moved out of the Housing Committee because we want to be as bold as possible," said Brownsberger, who's on the committee.
The Belmont Democrat said other "modest reforms," plus possible changes to site plan reviews and the appeals process for local land-use decisions, are on "on the table right now."
"I do feel that we have put communities through a lot over the past few years with the MBTA zoning," Brownsberger said. "And so I think it would be, I think it would land with a thud if we then basically, completely sort of vitiated that by passing a much more aggressive statewide zoning plan. I think that may be a bridge too far."
The 2021 MBTA Communities looked to spur multi-family housing near transportation hubs. Certain municipalities, particularly Milton, have sought to defy the law, prompting headline-grabbing legal battles and threats of withheld state funds. As of Jan. 20, the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities said that 165 communities have submitted "and/or" adopted zoning that comply with the law.
Ahead of Brownsberger joining the forum, Andrew Mikula of the Pioneer Institute said he was concerned there "might be some zoning fatigue on Beacon Hill headed into 2026."
"I think we're still in a situation where we've used a lot of state and local resources to implement a law that has, in some quarters at least, significantly drawn down the political bank account for housing reform," said Mikula, who's leading the starter home ballot question.
Mikula stressed the importance of "process-based reforms" to accelerate housing production, such as easing super-majority vote requirements on local planning boards.
"While we may have zoning fatigue…zoning determines what gets built, what doesn't get built," Heller of CHAPA said. "And that translates into who can live there and who can't live there. And we need to keep working on that because you can't build what's not allowed."
Kanson-Benanav said the state building code requirement that stipulates two staircases, or two ways to exit, residential buildings with more than three stories is based on antiquated fire safety precautions.
A 2024 Boston Indicators report found allowing for a single staircase in buildings up to six stories could unlock 130,000 homes "on lots that currently are difficult, if not impossible, to build on because of the requirement for two staircases that pushes this larger, double-loaded corridor-style building that doesn't fit in a lot of our non-conforming lots throughout the region," Kanson-Benanav said.
"So huge potential impact there," he said.
Boston Indicators is releasing a report Wednesday examining the impact of the MBTA Communities Act, including which housing is likely to come to fruition and be near transit centers. Healey is also due to release her fiscal 2027 budget Wednesday that will send fresh signals about future housing funding and policies.
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