Controversy builds around Chapter 40B zoning law

BOSTON. A state affordable housing law intended to improve living conditions for thousands of Massachusetts residents is riddled with fraud and abuse, according to a Senate oversight committee report released yesterday.

Chapter 40B — a law which allows developers to override local zoning to build extra units, set aside some at an affordable rate and return excess earnings to the city or town — has seen “considerable gaps in program oversight,” the report said.

“For too long there has been a lack of accountability in this program,” said Sen Marc R. Pacheco, chair of the Senate Post Audit and Oversight Committee. “Everyone was willing to ignore problems because of a desire to get affordable housing built.”

In a review of several 40B projects around the state, there were numerous cases in which “developer profits were routinely and substantially understated.” Additionally, towns and cities that normally regulate such development have lost control over local zoning, the report said.

Among the recommendations made by the committee is to create and maintain a 40B database to track such projects, and to enact stricter 40B legislation.