Tewksbury Select Board To Discuss New Transit Housing Law Tuesday

TEWKSBURY, MA — Tewksbury officials will begin discussion at the Select Board meeting Tuesday of a new state law mandating multifamily zoning in all "MBTA communities," which includes Tewksbury.

Tewksbury does not have an MBTA stop, but it borders four communities that do, making it an "adjacent community" for the purposes of the new zoning law.

Under the law, signed in Jan. 2021, affected communities will be required to have at least one zoning district or overlay district that allows a density of 15 units per acre by right, more than double the seven units per acre allowed in Tewksbury's current Multiple Family zoning districts.

The law does not mandate communities build the housing, but they must allow it.

"Adjacent communities," like Tewksbury, have until the end of 2024 to change the zoning code to comply, or they will lose out on certain state funds.

The code also requires that the new zoning districts permit multi-family units in number equal to 10 percent of the town's 2020 unit capacity, or 750. In Tewksbury, that means the zoning must have a capacity of 1,214 multi-family housing units.

For more information on the new law, visit mass.gov/mbtacommunities.

The Select Board meets at 7 p.m. Tuesday and will discuss the new requirement under the "new business" section of the agenda. The board meets at Town Hall, 1009 Main Street, and meetings are broadcast on TewksburyTV.

Christopher Huffaker can be reached at 412-265-8353 or chris.huffaker@patch.com.