Developer Still Using State's 'Anti-Snob Law' to Ruin Environment in Grafton

By Ed Oliver
July 2001

Although the EPA continues to say that urban sprawl is the greatest environmental threat to Massachusetts, our article about the woes of Grafton in our February issue has not affected the law yet.

After our story appeared, the Boston Globe took notice and immediately reported many stories about how wonderful the "affordable housing" law is. It didn't report that the law allows developers to increase sprawl all over Massachusetts.

The developer in Grafton wanted to put in 50 homes on a pristine parcel of land. When the town raised issues about the project, the developer threatened to build a mammoth 456-unit  "affordable housing" condo development on the land. Since then he has twice reduced the size of his threatened development, first to 264 townhouses and then to 76 homes. But the town still has problems with the impact of the entire project.

Experts say that this is usually how it works in these situations. The townspeople in Grafton are almost resigned to the fact he will get his way and be able to build something on the land because he is using a Massachusetts law called "40B" that allows developers to cut through local ordinances and get a special permit if they pledge to set aside at least 25% of their housing units as "affordable."

"They always get their way if they just mention "40B," is the way one person put it.

So Grafton is faced with developer Pribhu Hingorani's original 50-home subdivision which the town does not want because of infrastructure problems, or a 76-house development with 25% of them set aside for low income people - with the power of the state behind the proposal. The developer has a good chance to get his way.

Liberals passed the so-called "anti-snob law" in 1969 to increase the supply of low-to moderate-income housing. The state wants every city and town to have at least 10% of its housing "affordable," or else the town is vulnerable to the law. Developers who meet local resistance to their building plans have resorted to using the state law to sledgehammer towns into allowing them to build. A special state agency becomes a "referee" in such situations and in most cases, the developer gets to build.

Critics of the law point out that while the state government supposedly is concerned about preserving the environment and stopping sprawl, the 40B law allows developers a loophole to snatch up the remaining open spaces.