Dive Brief:
- Wellesley, Massachusetts, is suing the state over plans to build 180 housing units in a community college parking lot owned by the state.
- The complaint argues that the state cannot legally apply a required “surplus real property” designation to build housing on the 5-acre parking lot because the college is still actively using it. It also objects to the proposed housing density.
- Massachusetts passed the Affordable Homes Act, which includes an initiative to use state-owned land for housing, in 2024. “While the Commonwealth’s commitment to bolstering housing supply and affordability is commendable, and shared by the Plaintiffs, the ends do not justify the means,” Wellesley’s complaint states.
Dive Insight:
As more states push to grow housing supply, more clashes with local governments over home rule are breaking out.
Several Colorado communities are in a standoff with the state over housing-related mandates, and more than two dozen New Jersey municipalities have vowed to continue fighting state housing density rules even after a federal court ruled against them.
More recently, the Illinois Municipal League helped stall sweeping state housing legislation proposals that cities argued would have superseded local authority…