At an event in Medford yesterday, Gov. Maura Healey announced a plan to cut environmental regulations in order to expedite housing production in Massachusetts and reduce costs.
Amid a longstanding statewide housing shortage that has driven up home prices and rents, the administration is proposing to cut the environmental review period for qualifying housing projects from 1 year or more to just 30 days.
The recommendations are rooted in a report from the Unlocking Housing Production Commission in February indicating that lengthy environmental reviews for new housing developments can delay projects for months and years and can result in significant, unexpected added costs, which have the potential to render projects financially infeasible…