A message from our Chairman:Greetings, I, and members from the 316 cities & towns who comprise the Coalition to Repeal 40B have long questioned how obscure state agencies are using the 40B law to create one of the largest transfers of wealth in the history of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Despite the stated position of state bureacrats and development industry lobbyists that local involvement in the production of affordable housing is undesireable and unwarranted, it raises the question as to whose interests are being protected when those with the most to gain are strongly opposed to local participation in the production of affordable housing. After years of documented abuses, by developers and state agencies, new investigations by the Office of the Inspector General have finally shed light onto the dark corners of the 40B world. In 2007 testimony at the State House, the Massachusetts Inspector General gave a scathing indictment of 40B, going so far as to call it "one of the worst abuses in state history." So the questions we should be asking ourselves are: who is behind the abuse and what can we do about it? For years, the focus has been on whether these state agencies could provide the necessary oversight to keep predatory developers from exploiting communities. It has become obvious after decades of 40B failings and investigations of fraud that these agencies aren't just failing to stop the abuse, in many ways they are encouraging it. As a growing chorus of legislators, communities and taxpayers have excercised their right to call for 40B reform, the agency tasked with managing 40B (The Department of Housing & Community Development) has taken its unrelenting efforts to undermine local authority to a new and likely unlawful level. This past year, their own former chief legal counsel said that DHCD efforts to change 40B regulations are "not proper," "not legally sustainable," and that their transparent power grab "exceeds their regulatory authority." Couple this with the fact that a prominent 40B consultant admitted during an interview with an industry magazine that he had been working behind the scenes with lobbyists and state agencies to work on 40B with the expressed purpose of "keeping it off the floor of the house [Commonwealth House of Representatives]," we have documented a pattern of abuse that makes reforming Chapter 40B akin to rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic... just not worth it. Massachusetts is the only state in the nation to use 40B and after forty years of it, we are ranked 49th in the nation in housing affordability. Repealing 40B will give us the opportunity to return funding to revitalization and redevelopment projects that meet the needs of residents and the state economy without the negative impacts of forced, unplanned and unsustainable development. These alternatives already exist and provide distinct financial benefits to cities and towns and would better meet the needs of working families. Please take advantage of this website to learn more and join us in moving Massachusetts forward. Regards, John Belskis
A Summary of Why We Need To Repeal Sections 20-23 of 40B: 40B's Problems:
Our Solution:
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