Milton vote next month will be a crucial test for state’s ambitious new housing law

Source: bostonglobe.com

From the moment almost three years ago when Massachusetts passed a landmark housing law requiring many communities to allow more multifamily housing, it was clear a political war was brewing.

And over the last month, a front line has emerged in Milton, where a contingent of residents is resisting a new land-use plan adopted by Town Meeting in December that they say will have catastrophic consequences for their upper-middle-class suburb on Boston’s southern border. Opponents have succeeded in forcing a townwide vote on the proposal in February, which will determine whether Milton will be the last of the 12 close-in communities that have the earliest deadline to comply with the new housing law — or the only one that hasn’t.

It will be the greatest test yet for what’s known as the MBTA Communities Act, which compels cities and towns served by the transit agency to zone for multifamily housing and is widely considered...

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