Top Priorities – 2025-2026 Legislative Session
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(H.1572 / S.962) – An Act to Promote Yes in My Backyard
Sponsors: Rep. Andres Vargas (D) & Rep. Kevin Honan (D) / Sen. Brendan Crighton (D)
The “YIMBY” bill is a comprehensive zoning reform bill that creates several new tools for unlocking missing middle housing production, including:
- Allowing 5 homes by-right on all lots served by water and sewer and 3 homes by-right on all other lots
- Eliminating minimum parking requirements for new residential developments
- Creating a new process through which a property owner can subdivide their lot into smaller lots, which can only be used for new housing
- Eliminating minimum lot size requirements
- Requiring executive agencies to submit a report identifying greyfield sites suitable for redevelopment
- Prioritizing the disposition of state-owned land for affordable housing
- Restricting the ability of municipalities to adopt overly burdensome septic regulations that limit housing development
- Clarifying that ADUs can be built on the same lot as multi-family housing
- Allowing the legislature to adopt the Housing Production Plan developed by Governor Healey’s Housing Advisory Council
(H.1482 / S.969) – An Act to Establish an Accessory Dwelling Unit Trust Fund
Sponsors: Rep. Manny Cruz (D) & Rep. Orlando Ramos (D) / Sen. Sal DiDomenico (D)
Supports low- and moderate-income homeowners earning up to 110% of the area median income who want to build an ADU by creating a trust fund that will:
- Provide reimbursement or an initial outlay of funds to cover pre-development and non-recurring closing costs; or
- Finance low and no interest loans, grants, subsidies, credit enhancements and other financial assistance for the purpose of supporting the construction and development of ADUs
(H.1542 / S.964) – An Act to Study Single-Stair Residential Buildings
Sponsors: Rep. Meghan Kilcoyne (D) / Sen. John Cronin (D)
Creates a commission to study how we can make mid-sized residential buildings easier and more affordable to build by eliminating the outdated requirement for a second staircase. Specifically it:
- Orders the commission to study and define conditions under which Single-Stair Multi-Family Residential buildings up to six stories shall be legalized in Massachusetts and produce a building code amendment that implements those recommendations
- Establishes that members of the following organizations be represented on the commission: Fire Chiefs Association of Massachusetts, American Institute of Architects, National Fire Protection Association, Board of Building Regulations and Standards, American Planning Association Massachusetts Chapter, Home Builders and Remodelers Association, NAIOP, Center for Building in North America, a building official employed by a municipality with a Class 1 Fire Department, and Abundant Housing MA
- Allocates $250,000 to support the commission’s work
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Additional Legislative Priorities
Abundant Housing MA’s additional policy priorities are divided into three distinct categories: 1) Building More Homes, 2) Supporting Renters, and 3) Investing in Affordable Housing.
These categories are based on Shane Phillips’ framework in The Affordable City of “The Three S’s of Supply, Stability, and Subsidy.” Supply refers to policies aimed at increasing housing production, stability to tenant protections, and subsidy to increasing funding for rental assistance and income restricted housing.
The purpose of his framework and ours is to develop a policy agenda that hopefully advances our mission of tackling the housing shortage and creating housing abundance in Massachusetts, while also meaningfully addressing the needs of the low- and moderate-income renters who are most directly impacted by high housing costs.
