Massachusetts Affordable Housing Overlay Enabling (MGL c. 40A §9) (MA)
Tracked preemption from the Massachusetts overlay bundle.
Overview
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Effective
1975-12-22
Sunset
—
Authority
state
Scope
state:MA
Other Massachusetts preemptions
Massachusetts Chapter 40Y — Starter Home Zoning Districts (Opt-In)Massachusetts MBTA Communities Act — Multi-Family Zoning Requirement (MGL c. 40A §3A)Massachusetts Chapter 40S — Smart Growth School Cost ReimbursementMassachusetts Chapter 40R — Smart Growth Zoning Overlay District (Opt-In)Massachusetts Rivers Protection Act — Riverfront Area (MGL c. 131 §40)Boston Planning Department (former BPDA) Article 80 Development ReviewMassachusetts Outstanding Resource Waters & DCR Watershed ProtectionCape Cod Commission Regional Land Use Authority (St. 1989, c. 716)
Trigger predicate
When this evaluates true for a parcel, the law's preempted fields take precedence over base zoning.
never true
Preempted fields
0 fields on the base district schema are rewritten when the trigger fires.
Citation
Authority source
MGL c. 40A §9 (special permits & overlay districts); H.4977 §29 (2024 simple-majority for inclusionary)
§ MGL c. 40A §9; §5 (adoption procedure, simple-majority threshold post-H.4977)
Research notes
MGL c. 40A §9 is the enabling authority for municipal Affordable Housing Overlay (AHO) districts and inclusionary-zoning bylaws. The 2024 Affordable Homes Act (H.4977) reduced the local-vote threshold for inclusionary zoning from 2/3 to simple majority under §5. AHOs are optional local action — Cambridge (2020), Boston (2021), Somerville, Newton, Brookline have adopted variants. Each city's AHO is recorded as a city-scope overlay, not as an applicability of this state record. Listed here so city records know which state statute enables their overlay. Trigger predicate 'never' = catalog entry only.