Marblehead man's viral moment exposes loophole in MBTA Communities Law: "We're doing a bad thing"
A Marblehead man's 15 minutes of fame is the newest twist in a heated debate over the MBTA Communities Law in Massachusetts.
That law forces cities and towns near T stops to make changes to help build more housing.
In Marblehead, Tedesco Country Club is seen as loophole in the law. The town decided to re-zone the privately owned land for multi-unit housing. They're using a recently renovated golf course that's going nowhere to comply with the often debated and sometimes unpopular law.
After the planning board all but admitted at a town meeting on May 4 that there is no plan to actually build new housing on the golf course, resident David Modica teed off.
"We're selfish. We're doing a bad thing. We're not doing any housing," he said in a video of the meeting.
"Is that a question?" Modica was asked by a man off camera.
"Yeah, kinda. Like, are we kinda being pricks?" Modica replied.
When that clip hit social media, Modica went viral.
That was a shock for him. He grew up in Marblehead and feels blessed to live here. He thinks everyone needs to help build more housing.
"If it was just Marblehead, it'd be like ok, whatever you know, a bunch of jerks on the ocean," Modica told WBZ-TV Monday.
"But it's happening all over the country. I think if you look at any kind of vote, everyone says, "We think there should be more housing.' Then they say, 'Should it be in your neighborhood?' and they said, 'Absolutely not. It should be somewhere else.'"
Marblehead is just one of 177 communities in Massachusetts forced by the 2021 MBTA Communities Law to change zoning to pave the way for multifamily units.
Marblehead doesn't even have MBTA service, but nearby Salem and Swampscott do. Because Marblehead is an "adjacent" community, it's forced to zone for 897 new units.
The law says it has to have "at least one district of reasonable size in which multifamily housing is permitted as a right."
After three years of failing to come up with a plan that made everyone happy, Marblehead decided to use the golf course as a way to get them out of the rough.
Modica's viral moment made people realize this state law means you have to permit for housing, but you don't actually have to build any.
Housing advocate Jonathan Berk is the one who first shared David Modica's speech on social media.
"David just summed six years of my work in a minute and a half," he told WBZ.
Berk is the founder of re:Main, a group that works with towns to try to accelerate new housing.
He said what Marblehead did is called "paper compliant" but said many communities have done something similar.
"Marblehead approached it like many towns approached it. Their example, which was very egregious, which is we are going to comply on paper with the law and we're hopefully not going to see any housing because we can't sell that to the community anymore," Berk said.
He said states like Texas have loosened zoning laws statewide. He thinks Massachusetts has to do the same.
"If people want Massachusetts to thrive and succeed, we have to build more housing," Berk said.
As for David Modica and his question to the town - "Are we kinda being pricks?" - has he found his answer?
"I think we were, but I don't think that means we have to continue to be," he told WBZ. "I think it's good that I had a little moment. I saw people on the internet who said, 'Oh, I wish this guy would come to our town hall. It's like, well, you need to go to your town hall. You need to be the next person."
Marblehead's plan needs to be approved by the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities (HLC). The agency said that review has not started yet.
A spokesperson said they're going to continue to work with communities to make sure their zoning meets the law and supports the goal to make more housing. Right now, nine communities out of 177 are still not compliant.
