A group of residents is suing the town of Rockport over its zoning proposal to follow the controversial MBTA Communities Act and allow the construction of more multifamily housing. The group of 11 residents claim in the federal lawsuit, filed in the District Court of Massachusetts, that the 2021 law — which requires communities served by the MBTA to have at least one zoning area where multifamily housing is allowed by right — is unconstitutional. They also claim that the town’s proposal to follow the law illegally treats certain residents differently. “The (proposal) creates an overlay on an unfortunate section of town now chosen to host of-right multi-family high density housing,” they wrote in the complaint. “This creates market rate, normally expensive, housing. It does not allow for the government to promote or cater to the vulnerable populations who need additional housing opportunities like veterans, the disabled, the elderly or the poor. This is simply a developers’ buffet supported by no compelling or permissible government objective.”
No housing is guaranteed to be built under the law, and developments are still subject to the local planning process. Rockport, which has a commuter rail station on the Rockport Line, is classified as a commuter rail community under the law and therefore is required to enact compliant zoning by the end of the year. The town initially proposed and approved a zoning overlay district surrounding this commuter rail station at a May 2022 special town meeting. The proposal passed by a narrow margin of 89-83.However, the town later learned that the proposal was not enough to satisfy the state’s requirements, so town officials have proposed two additional overlay districts running parallel to Route 127. This proposal, which has not yet been approved, is the subject of the lawsuit. In the complaint, the residents claim the district was drawn arbitrarily with town officials adding land until they met the state’s requirements, and that the district could “just as easily be drawn on the other side of Granite Street or Route 127.”“The town is taking the role of a lazy draftsmen who simple draws and island (sic) and declares superseding rule application instead of properly enmeshing the district in the town’s comprehensive zoning code,” they wrote. “The proposed bylaw embeds conflicts about land use into law, openly allowing MCMOD requirements which on their face conflict with the underlying zoning, leaving property owners to speculate at their peril about allowed uses.”
Other arguments in the complaint include that the plan will not create more affordable housing, the original proposal should satisfy the state’s requirements and the new proposal should require a two-thirds majority of votes to pass, not the simple majority mandated by the MBTA Communities Act.Another group of residents, including four of the plaintiffs, previously sued the town and the state in 2022 over the law. While that lawsuit is still playing out in Essex County Superior Court, the claims against the town of Rockport were dismissed last year after the town argued that it was not involved in the creation of the MBTA Communities Act and was only following the law’s requirements. “Plaintiffs are indignant that despite the objections raised by them at the Planning Board hearings held on the zoning proposals ... that enough of their fellow Rockport residents did not agree with their objections, and instead voted to pass the bylaws they sought to challenge,” attorneys for the town wrote in their motion to dismiss the suit.The town has not yet filed a response to the new federal complaint. Town Administrator Mitchell Vieira declined to comment Tuesday morning, saying the town had not yet been served. The town of Milton is also currently involved in litigation over the MBTA Communities law. Attorney General Andrea Campbell sued the town in February after voters rejected its zoning proposal. Milton, which is classified as a rapid transit community, was required to implement its zoning plan by Dec. 31, 2023, making it the only community fully out of compliance with the law.