City Council support of Bill H. 4075 Act to Promote Housing Choices, which would allow municipalities across the Commonwealth to change some zoning rules via a simple majority vote

Calendar Item # 5

Earlier this year, Governor Charles D. Baker proposed Bill H.4075, Act to Promote Housing Choices, which would allow municipalities across the Commonwealth to change some zoning rules via a simple majority vote, rather than by the current two- thirds majority vote that most city and town councils currently require; and

According to a December 3, 2018 article in the Boston Globe, “The goal [of Bill H.4075] is to spur more home construction, especially in places that have built little in recent years, even as the region’s housing shortage hinders the economy…every major real estate and housing group in the state backs the bill…[and] the Massachusetts Municipal Association, which represents all 351 cities and towns, has signed on;” and

Bill H.4075 stalled out and had not been passed at the close of the Legislature’s formal session earlier this year, yet Governor Baker and other advocates are still hoping to pass this bill before year’s end; and

It has come to the attention of the City Council that there may be some members of the Cambridge Delegation to the State Legislature that remain undecided about whether or not to support this bill, in spite of the evidence that passage of this bill could be an important factor in allowing desperately needed new housing to be constructed in Cambridge and our surrounding communities; now therefore be it

RESOLVED:

That the City Council go on record in strong support of Bill H.4075, Act to Promote Housing Choices, and in strongly urging each member of the Cambridge Delegation to vote in favor of its passage; and be it further

RESOLVED: That the City Clerk be and hereby is requested to forward suitably engrossed copies of this resolution to Governor Baker and to the members of the Cambridge Delegation to the State Legislature on behalf of the entire City Council.

CHARTER RIGHT EXERCISED BY COUNCILLOR SIMMONS