Please VOTE YES on QUESTION 2 and repeal the state law known as 40B, which allows comprehensive permits for low/moderate-income units. 40B allows developers to override local zoning bylaws and wetlands regulations if they set aside 20 – 25% of the houses as “affordable”. This takes development control away from towns and gives it to developers and the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD), the state agency that oversees 40B projects.
Loopholes and lack of oversight have allowed developers to abuse the law for financial benefit at the expense of host towns. Inspector General (IG) Gregory Sullivan (head of the state agency to prevent and detect fraud, waste, and abuse in government) has issued over 25 letters and reports on the problems and abuses of 40B. He calls 40B “the worst financial scandal in the last 20 years”, a “pig fest”, “developer welfare”, “a major, expensive example of mismanagement in government,” and “one of the biggest abuses in state history”.
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