Marblehead overturns multifamily housing vote

Marblehead voters overturned a zoning bylaw that would have added multifamily overlay districts to the town, bringing the town into noncompliance with the state’s MBTA Communities Act.

Article 23, which initially passed at Town Meeting on May 6 by a 951-759 vote, was repealed during a special election Tuesday. As a result, Marblehead is non-compliant with the MBTA Communities Act, according to a Wednesday compliance status sheet compiled by the state.

Article 23 was overturned 3,542 to 3,297, according to unofficial election results. Twenty percent of the town’s registered voters (3,347 votes) were needed to repeal the measure. Of the 16,732 registered voters in the town, 6,842 turned out to vote. 

“The voters have spoken and as a Select Board we will have to figure out how to move forward under the state’s constraints of being non-compliant with 3A,” Select Board Chair Dan Fox told the Marblehead Current.

Marblehead is considered an “adjacent community” under the law, meaning it is next to municipalities with transit. Article 23 would have created overlay districts across three sub-regions in Marblehead, permitting up to 897 units of multifamily housing (360 units already exist within the districts).

Marblehead is currently among four towns considered noncompliant with the law: Halifax, Marshfield, and Middleton.

The MBTA Communities Act, signed in 2021, requires 177 cities and towns across the state that are served by or near MBTA transit to rezone for multifamily housing as of right.

Annie Jonas is a Community writer at Boston.com. She was previously a local editor at Patch and a freelancer at the Financial Times.