BREAKING NEWS: MASSACHUSETTS SUPREME JUDICIAL COURT RULES THAT SO-CALLED ‘MBTA COMMUNITIES MULTI-FAMILY HOUSING DISTRICTS’ MUST BE LOCATED WITHIN 0.5 MILES OF A TRANSIT STATION OR TERMINAL OF THE TYPE REFERRED TO IN MASS. GEN.LAWS CH. 40A, SEC. 3A. THEREFORE, STERLING IS EXEMPT FROM THAT STATUTE, HAVING NO LAND WITHIN MILES OF ANY SUCH STATION OR TERMINAL

The Massachusetts SJC justices, being political hacks appointed by various governors to whose campaigns they contribute, and whose salaries and benefits are subject to the legislature’s appropriations, were, of course, intellectually dishonest in ruling that Mass.Gen.Laws Ch. 40A, Sec. 3A was ‘mandatory’ for cities and towns covered by its language even though the statute expressly provides that the only penalty for such cities and towns refusing to implement that statute is the cut-off of a few state funding categories. So on that count the bent justices can go screw themselves.

BUT, those hack justices did get a couple things right. They ruled that under that statute so-called ‘MBTA Communities Multi-Family Housing Districts’ MUST be located within 0.5 miles of a transit station or terminal of the type referred to in that statute. “The act further defines ‘a district of reasonable size’ and specifies that any such district must be situated within one-half mile of an MTBA (sic) facility” (emphasis added). They also ruled, correctly, that the Mass. Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities’ so-called ‘Compliance Guidelines’ are bogus and unenforceable because they were issued in violation of the Massachusetts Administrative Procedure Act.

SEE  https://www.mass.gov/files/documents/2025/01/08/h13580.pdf

SEE  https://www.mass.gov/info-details/mass-general-laws-c40a-ss-3a

The Town of Sterling has no land within miles of the nearest MBTA transit station or terminal. So Sterling is EXEMPT from that statute’s provisions.

SO, your not-so-humble correspondent has been vindicated. The gutless, groveling Sterling Select Board, Town Administrator, Planning Board chaired by self-dealing little weasel developer Carl Corrinne, and the make-work Town Planner payroll patriot drone, have all been kissing the A$$ES$ of Gov. Maura ‘Hold It’ Healey, of AG Andrea ‘Kamala Smarts’ Campbell, and of the clowns constituting Mass.EOHLC, unnecessarily, for several years, while the Town of Holden Select Board and Town Manager displayed resolve and intelligence and got it right by telling AG Campbell to go shove Ch. 40A, Sec. 3A and the ‘Compliance Guidelines’ sideways.

So for the gutless, groveling Sterling Select Board, Town Administrator, Planning Board chaired by self-dealing little weasel developer Carl Corrinne, and the make-work Town Planner payroll patriot drone, I have one simple question: how does all that state-level A$$ taste???

Stay tuned.

J.G.