Zoning Report: Massachusetts

<div> Massachusetts is facing a housing affordability crisis. Rising home prices and rents from Cape Cod to the Berkshires are pushing long-time residents out of their communities and harming local economies. While many factors inflate housing costs, locally adopted zoning rules regulating land uses, lots, and structures are one major contributor that is entirely within our control to change. Zoning codes are enforced in nearly every community across Massachusetts. And when they are used to ban apartments and small lot developments, they hike up costs by leaving residents with few options other than the most expensive type of housing: large-lot single-family homes.&nbsp; </div> <div> <br> </div> <div> The Massachusetts state legislature has recognized the power of zoning to shape housing affordability. In 2021, legislators passed a zoning reform measure, the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority (MBTA) Communities Act, which requires 177 jurisdictions in eastern Massachusetts to allow apartments near transit stations. At the time of the bill, they had only a partial picture of what zoning looked like across the state. Now, five years later, a first-of-its-kind dataset built by the National Zoning Atlas (NZA) allows us to take a step back and assess the state’s zoning landscape in full, measure the changes delivered by the MBTA Communities Act so far, and target future reform. </div> <div> <br> </div> <div> This report presents the first comprehensive, statewide analysis of zoning in Massachusetts. Building from our previous regional analysis, Zoning Report: Cape Cod, and drawing from the NZA database’s unprecedented ability to compare zoning codes across places through time, it identifies five key facts about how Massachusetts zones.&nbsp; </div> <div> <br> </div> <div> Part I begins this report by exploring the state’s housing challenges and providing an overview of zoning’s influence on them. </div> <div> <br> </div> <div> Part II describes the NZA’s methodology for analyzing, digitizing, and updating zoning codes, highlighting land use issues unique to Massachusetts. This methodology enables data collection at an unprecedented scale, increasing public understanding of zoning through accessible visualizations and evidence-based analysis. </div> <div> <br> </div> <div> Part III details five key features about zoning conditions across Massachusetts today. It discusses the prevalence of zoning across the state, the strict limitations on where apartments can be built, the large minimum lot size requirements, the restrictions still placed on ADU construction despite the Affordable Homes Act, onerous parking requirements, and unit densities across Massachusetts’s Gateway Cities. Collectively, these rules severely constrain where diverse housing types can go. </div> <div> <br> </div> <div> Part IV turns to our assessment of the MBTA Communities Act. Taking advantage of our unique ability to compare zoning rules through time at scale, it discusses how zoning conditions have changed in the 115 MBTA communities that (a) adopted new zoning rules to come into full compliance with the law by December 2025 and (b) made their updated zoning text and map available to the public by that date. This Part reveals how this law has changed the region’s zoning landscape five years after it was adopted — and where it has fallen short. </div> <div> <br> </div> <div> Part V concludes the report with a set of actionable recommendations to support reforms to Massachusetts’s zoning framework, promote more accessible and affordable housing, and build communities that better reflect the needs and preferences of today’s residents. </div>