On August 18, HBRAMA filed its formal position with the six legislators who will decide the final shape of the Commonwealth’s economic development package. Here is what we told them, and why it matters to your business.
The House and Senate have each passed their own version of An Act Relative to Economic Development in the Commonwealth — H. 5576 and S. 3228. The two bills are not the same, and the differences between them are now in the hands of a six-member conference committee. Whatever that committee agrees to is what becomes law.
That is the moment where advocacy either happens or it doesn’t. Executive Director David O’Sullivan submitted the association’s letter on behalf of our more than 1,100 member companies to the chairs and ranking members of Ways and Means and the Joint Committee on Economic Development and Emerging Technologies, with copies to the House and Senate chairs of the Joint Committee on Housing.
What we’re supporting.
The letter takes a position on eleven housing-related reforms in the two bills, and against one. In short:
Training for local boards.
We strongly support Section 8 of H. 5576, which requires the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities to establish a statewide training program for planning boards, zoning boards of appeal, and special permit granting authorities. We asked the committee to go further and include conservation commissions and boards of health — because their rules and decisions can affect the cost and feasibility of a project as much as zoning does. We submitted draft language to do it.
Permit Extension Act.
We strongly support Sections 141A and 141B of H. 5576, extending the tolling period through January 1, 2027 and lengthening the automatic tolling period for covered zoning permits, subdivision approvals, and wetlands permits from two years to four.
Housing Appeals Committee. We strongly support Section 17 of S. 3228, expanding the HAC from three members to five so it can work through its backlog of appeals from local ZBA decisions and move future ones faster.
Energy code variances.
We support Section 130 of H. 5576 and Section 241 of S. 3228, confirming that the Board of Building Regulations and Standards may grant variances from the specialized stretch energy code. Under current law a builder, architect, engineer, or homeowner has no way to appeal a local building inspector’s reading of the energy code.
Site plan review.
We support codifying site plan review in the Zoning Act, with two cautions: performance standards must be held to a reasonableness standard so they can’t be used to block production, and we flagged the “design guidelines” authority in Section 72 of S. 3228 as vague and subjective — the kind of provision that turns into months of negotiation and added cost.
Chapter 40R and 40Y payments.
We support Section 84 of S. 3228, raising the zoning incentive and density bonus payments to communities that adopt Smart Growth or Starter Home districts. Those amounts were set in 2004 and are no longer enough to move a town.
Adaptive reuse and commercial conversion.
We support the provisions in both bills enabling communities to allow conversion of commercial land and structures to multifamily and mixed-use, along with tax increment exemptions for those projects.
Accessory dwelling units. We support Section 65 of S. 3228, removing the limitation that ADU zoning protections apply only in single-family districts.
Yes In God’s Back Yard.
We support Section 42 of H. 5576, barring zoning that prohibits or unreasonably restricts multifamily development on land owned by a religious organization.
Duplex by right.
We support Sections 65 and 66 of S. 3228, so a single duplex is allowed on a lot zoned for residential use where a single-family home is permitted — without a special permit.
Historic rehabilitation tax credits. We support raising the annual statewide cap from $30 million to $40 million, with preference for adaptive reuse and commercial conversion.
What we’re opposing.
The association is strongly opposing the tenant opportunity to purchase provisions — Section 133A of H. 5576, which would let any city or town adopt a tenant right to purchase by ordinance or by-law, and Section 335 of S. 3228, which would create a five-community pilot program for collective tenant purchase.
We are not alone on this one. HBRAMA is opposing alongside the Greater Boston Real Estate Board, the Massachusetts Association of Realtors, the Massachusetts Bankers Association, the Massachusetts Mortgage Bankers Association, and the Real Estate Bar Association.
Why this is the work that matters.
It is easy to see a letter like this as procedural. It isn’t. Look closely at the list above and you’ll notice how much of it started here.
The association has sponsored legislation to require pre-service training for volunteer land-use board members for many years. We have sponsored the 40R and 40Y payment increase for several years. We have long sponsored legislation, with the Massachusetts Chapter of the Commercial Real Estate Association, to codify site plan review. None of those are new ideas that appeared in an economic development bill by accident. They are association priorities that took years of filing, testifying, educating members and staff, and waiting for the right vehicle — and this bill is that vehicle.
That is what trade association advocacy actually looks like. It is not one dramatic hearing. It is showing up in the same rooms, year after year, with the same well-documented positions, until a good idea finally has somewhere to land.
The second half of the job is defensive, and members rarely see it because it succeeds quietly. Provisions that would raise your costs or your risk — a design guidelines authority with no standards, a tenant purchase right with no clear process — do not get fixed after they become law. They get fixed at the drafting table, or they don’t get fixed. Someone has to read all several hundred sections of two competing bills and know which ones will land on a residential builder in Plymouth or a remodeler in Pittsfield.
And it matters that the voice is ours. There are capable organizations advocating for commercial real estate, for brokers, for lenders, for affordable housing developers. HBRAMA is the one whose members are the people who actually permit the land and build the homes. When we join a coalition, as we did on tenant opportunity to purchase, we bring 1,100 member companies with us. When we ask for something narrower and more technical — adding conservation commissions and boards of health to a training mandate — we are the ones who know why it belongs there, because our members are the ones sitting through those meetings.
The context our members are working in.
None of this is happening in a strong market. Massachusetts permitted the fewest new homes last year since 2012, and construction labor costs continue to climb as residential builders compete for crews against data center and infrastructure work. When there are fewer projects to bid and each one costs more to staff, the regulatory and permitting side of the cost stack is where relief is still achievable — and it is achievable only through the legislative process.
Permit extensions keep approvals alive through a slow stretch instead of sending you back to square one. A faster Housing Appeals Committee shortens the most expensive kind of delay there is. An energy code appeal path means one inspector’s interpretation isn’t final. Trained boards make fewer procedural mistakes that cost you months. These are not abstractions; they are line items.
What you can do.
Advocacy is more effective when legislators hear the same message from their own constituents that they hear from the association.
Contact your legislators about the conference committee bill, especially if one of your representatives or senators sits on Ways and Means or the Joint Committee on Economic Development and Emerging Technologies.
Tell us your story.
A specific example — a permit that expired during a downturn, a project stalled in front of a conservation commission, a design guidelines negotiation that added six months — is worth more in a hearing room than any general argument. Send them to us.
Stay engaged with your local association. Much of what determines your costs is decided at town meeting and in local board rooms, not on Beacon Hill.
If you have questions about the association’s positions or want to be involved in our legislative work, contact us at admin@hbrama.com
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