Bill > S1075

This bill, titled "Promoting healthy communities," significantly reforms land use and zoning laws by replacing Chapter 40A of the General Laws with a new version that emphasizes comprehensive land use planning and regional partnerships. Key provisions include reaffirming and clarifying the home rule authority of cities and towns in zoning matters, while also establishing certain state interests and uniform procedures for approvals. The bill expands the purposes of zoning ordinances and by-laws to explicitly include promoting healthy communities by considering physical activity, economic vitality, and environmental health, and introduces new definitions for terms like "affordable housing," "by-right," "cluster development," and "complete streets." It also introduces "Health Impact Assessments" and "Multi-Modal Transportation Impact Analyses" as tools for evaluating development proposals. The bill strengthens the requirement for zoning ordinances to be consistent with a municipality's master plan, and introduces a new "Land Use Partnership Act" (Chapter 40V) that encourages communities to develop "partnership plans" aligned with state land use objectives, offering incentives like priority for infrastructure funding and streamlined permitting for those that qualify as "partnership communities." Furthermore, it modifies subdivision control laws to streamline processes for "minor subdivisions" and clarifies the relationship between subdivision plans and master plans, while also allowing for development agreements and development impact fees to fund off-site public capital facilities. The bill also includes provisions for dispute avoidance and resolution in land use matters and updates enforcement and judicial review procedures.