The new 40B: a law with a heart.

• Position: Massachusetts - Brief Article

CLF senior attorney Bennet Heart was recently appointed by Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney to serve on a 24-member task force to improve the state's affordable housing law--Chapter 40B. Much of the debate about the law has centered on whether developers should be allowed to trump local zoning regulations and build affordable housing in towns that have less than 10% of it. Heart has a different view of the law. "[Chapter] 40B is a very powerful tool," he says, "but it allows developers to build housing pretty much anywhere that state law doesn't make it illegal, [and] the health and safety of local residents are not jeopardized. We'd like to see the force of this powerful statute directed to foster smart growth, a change that would be good for both the environment and residents of affordable housing, and that would satisfy some of the concerns...