The Massachusetts House of Representatives took a long-overdue action last week when it voted, by an overwhelming 151 to 1 margin, to overhaul the state’s affordable housing law, Chapter 40B. Rather than moving to completely do away with the 35-year-old law, the representatives instead wisely decided to do something that Banker & Tradesman has been suggesting for a long time: to make amendments that will allow 40B to keep its teeth.

In its current form, Chapter 40B – better known as the anti-snob zoning law – requires every city and town in the Bay State to designate at least 10 percent of its housing stock as affordable. Most Massachusetts communities have yet to comply, however, and under the law a builder is allowed to move forward with a project by bypassing local ordinances in any community where the 40B goal hasn’t been met, provided the developer agrees that at least 25 percent of the project will be comprised of affordable units.

Opponents of the affordable housing law long have argued, perhaps rightly, that developers have used Chapter 40B as a way to drive unwanted projects down the throats of some communities. Yet the law has many supporters who have countered, as they did last week on the House floor, that it is responsible for the creation of about 22,000 homes for individuals who are below 80 percent of the state’s median income.

The proposed amendments offer several forms of needed relief to communities struggling toward 40B compliance: one, for instance, would allow cities and towns that increase their affordable housing stock by 2 percent annually to be granted a one-year break from the law, while others would allow the communities to reject certain projects because of size or uses deemed inappropriate for a given location. All in all, the House’s action has our wholehearted support, and we strongly urge the state Senate to give the same backing to the amendments.