Towns throughout the state are wringing their hands over Chapter 40B developments being forced upon them. Change the law, they cry, it’s unfair.

Perhaps the law does need modification. But let’s face it: It’s been the law for many, many years. Few towns have proactively sought to comply with the requirement that 10 percent of a municipality’s housing stock meet the state’s definition of “affordable” (and we are not talking low-income housing here). Many towns have simply played the waiting game, hoping that the law would go away or be changed. All knew that at some point, when the economics made sense, developers would come into towns that did not meet 40B’s requirements and build developments that bypassed local zoning bylaws, so long as 25 percent of the units were sold as affordable. Little towns have become the sites of densely packed townhouses and condos. Even many of the so-called “friendly” 40Bs­—or Local Initiative Projects—developed with a town’s blessing have offered little more benefits to the town than an “unfriendly” 40B would.

It need not have happened this way, had towns cultivated affordable developments from the start. An example is in nearby Bolton: Bolton Woods Way, a cul-de-sac off Route 117, was created under the auspices of the Bolton Housing Partnership at the beginning of the 1990s to help the town work toward the requirements of 40B. The two dozen or so modest single-family homes on relatively small lots evolved into what arguably could be called one of the most vital, “neighborly” neighborhoods in the town. In addition, the town’s involvement in creating it also created enough “good will” in the state’s eyes—good will that Bolton was working toward its 10 percent mandate—that it in effect blocked any chance of an “unfriendly” 40B development in town for many years. It was a good example of what towns can and should do to provide housing opportunities for residents of all ages and income levels.

Any wringing of hands would be better done over how to foster the construction of homes affordable to those of average means, which was the law’s intent in the first place.