THE IMPACT AND EVOLUTION OF THE MASSACHUSETTS COMPREHENSIVE PERMIT AND ZONING APPEALS ACT: THIRTY YEARS OF EXPERIENCE WITH A STATE LEGISLATIVE EFFORT TO OVERCOME EXCLUSIONARY ZONING

Abstract

regulations constitute formidable barriers to affordable housing."8Indeed, the Massachusetts statute was based on a remarkably early recognition by its proponents that exclusionary zoning practices, such as large minimum lot size requirements and bans on multi family housing, play a significant role in driving up housing costs and causing the dominant spatial pattern of economic and racial segregation found in most metropolitan areas of the United States.9 Chapter 40B was initiated and passed in Massachusetts without any significant court rulings dealing with exclusionary zoning, or any judicial instigation, unlike New Jersey's Fair Housing Act.IO The absence of judicial pressure and the presence of sizeable subur ban representation in the legislature made it all the more remarka ble that the Massachusetts legislature, in 1969, reasserted the state's authority to act for the general welfare in the area of land use con trol-an area that is "[o]f all the powers held by the local sovereign ... deemed most sacred by its citizens."llMoreover, in New En gland there is an especially long-standing, strong tradition of local ism.12 In fact, the passage of the Comprehensive Permit and Zoning Appeals Act in Massachusetts contradicts a conclusion drawn in several analyses of the history of the New Jersey Fair Housing Act, to wit, that state legislatures will only tackle the prob lem of exclusionary zoning and address the need to get affordable 8. ADVISORY COMM'N ON REGULATORY BARRIERS TO AFFORDABLE Hous., "NOT IN My BACK YARD": REMOVING BARRIERS TO AFFORDABLE HOUSING (1991).These findings were noted in the report's cover letter by HUD Secretary Jack Kemp dated July 8, 1991.Id.However, influential government reports documenting urban problems, growing segregation in metropolitan areas, and the critical lack of affordable housing had been published before chapter 40B was enacted.See NAT'L COMM'N ON

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