{"id":63,"date":"2026-05-21T13:05:58","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T13:05:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worcestermovingreport.com\/?p=63"},"modified":"2026-05-21T13:05:58","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T13:05:58","slug":"local-complexity-stymies-adu-push","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worcestermovingreport.com\/?p=63","title":{"rendered":"Local complexity stymies ADU push"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

WHEN GOV. MAURA<\/mark><\/strong> Healey rolled out her housing bond bill in 2024, she and housing advocates touted one policy change as low-hanging fruit: <\/strong>legalizing accessory dwelling units \u2013 sometimes known as in-law units or \u201cgranny flats.\u201d The governor said the move could spur 8,000 to 10,000 new units across the state in five years. <\/p>\n

Read more Port cities try to weather shifting winds<\/a><\/p>\n

One year after the final law passed, permitting is falling short. Massachusetts municipalities received more than 1,600 applications for accessory dwelling unit permits and issued more than 1,200 in the past year. That is a sizable increase from the few hundred ADUs constructed over the past decades through local policies, but falls short of what advocates say is needed, and short of the Healey administration\u2019s own target of 1,600 to 2,000 units built per year. <\/p>\n

The barrier to a Massachusetts ADU boom is a combination of complex permitting processes, local wetlands and sewer regulations, and some municipal sour grapes, according to a new report from Boston Indicators and the advocacy group Abundant Housing Massachusetts. <\/p>\n

\u201cLegalization works, but don\u2019t get too excited,\u201d said housing researcher Amy Dain, the report\u2019s author, at a virtual event on Wednesday. \u201cI know I\u2019m very enthusiastic about zoning reform, but this legalization was only a first step.\u201d The leap in permits is encouraging, she said, but \u201cthere\u2019s more work to be done.\u201d <\/p>\n

The report argues the permitting gap doesn\u2019t reflect a lack of homeowner interest, but rather a regulatory system that was never designed to handle an influx of development of the small housing units across 351 cities and towns with their own set of permitting rules. <\/p>\n

The lesson, the report says, is that the state should consolidate even more control \u2014 over zoning, building codes, fire codes, septic rules, wetlands standards, and stormwater requirements. <\/p>\n

\u201cJust passing strong state zoning reform to allow ADUs by right is not enough,\u201d said Jesse Kanson-Benanav, executive director of Abundant Housing Massachusetts, which advocates for changes to make it easier to build more housing. \u201cEven if, on paper, our law is stronger than some other states, the unique aspects of local control and fragmented permitting and regulatory oversight of new housing development in Massachusetts remains a barrier to achieving the full impact of the state ADU law that many of us in the housing advocacy community seek.\u201d <\/p>\n

Unlike the firestorm-inducing MBTA Communities housing law, which requires cities and towns near public transit to zone a multifamily housing district, the new ADU rules took effect statewide with passage of the law. <\/p>\n

There was some grumbling about a one-size-fits-all approach, but about a third of municipalities amended their local zoning within the year to either go beyond the text of the new law or to make sure that the local law accurately reflected the new statewide policy. <\/p>\n

The upside, according to researchers, is a clear effort to make the ADU process easier to navigate for homeowners. The downside, based on a review from the attorney general\u2019s office, is a lot of inconsistency between municipal ADU ordinances. The attorney general\u2019s office had to strike language in bylaws that tried to impose conflicting parking requirements or dimension standards, require special permits, or limit ADUs to lots containing single-family homes \u2014 they are legal in any district that allows single-family homes. <\/p>\n

\u201cI felt like that just further emphasized how confusing the whole system of local regulation is,\u201d Dain said. <\/p>\n

Boston, which is carved out of both the MBTA Communities law and the ADU law, has permitted more small units in the past year \u2013 44 \u2013 than any other single municipality through its own limited ADU program. But as a proportion of existing homes, the report finds, \u201cBoston looks less successful permitting ADUs than many other communities.\u201d <\/p>\n

The new law legalizes ADUs \u2013 small residential units with no more than 900 square feet of floor area, or half the floor area of the principal dwelling, whichever is smaller \u2013 on lots in \u201csingle-family residential districts.\u201d <\/p>\n

Under the statewide law, municipalities can still impose dimensional requirements on ADUs, including setbacks, the amount of area on a lot that a building can cover, requirements for leaving open space on a lot, building bulk and height, and number of stories. <\/p>\n

As a baseline, municipalities are able to require that ADUs be built with the same distance from the property line as other accessory structures like garages. But if those standards make it impossible to build ADUs, Dain noted, the setback rule can be waived as \u201cunreasonable.\u201d <\/p>\n

This creates a befuddling patchwork. The setback standards exist in local regulations but they are not written with the smaller detached residential structures in mind. <\/p>\n

\u201cTo the property owner, that is a pathway to get a permit for a project, but it\u2019s an uncertain pathway, and risk is not the friend of development,\u201d Dain said. \u201cIt would be far better for the state to define dimensional standards for ADUs everywhere, standardize this for ADUs, and standardize setback requirements.\u201d <\/p>\n

Read more Barney Frank, 86, left mark as trailblazer in politics<\/a><\/p>\n

The same philosophy should apply to septic systems and fire codes, speakers at the event said. Well over 100 cities and towns have specific local septic system regulations that can differ from state regulations on things like depth to groundwater, the required design flow for septic systems, how to count bedrooms for calculating flow-per-bedroom rules, and more. <\/p>\n

Protecting wetlands is essential, Dain said, but she said another barrier to ADU development is the fact at least 130 municipalities across the state have local wetlands rules that exceed the protections of the state Wetlands Protection Act. <\/p>\n

\u201cMassachusetts has layered countless rules around zoning, wetlands, stormwater, fire safety, energy codes, and local approvals into a system that is extraordinarily difficult for even experienced developers to navigate, let alone ordinary homeowners,\u201d said Luc Schuster, executive director of Boston Indicators. \u201cIf we\u2019re serious about building new housing, we need to simplify this regulatory maze at both the state and local level.\u201d <\/p>\n

The high cost of construction is largely out of the hands of state lawmakers, Dain said, but code regulation isn\u2019t. The researchers want to see consistent and improved regulatory standards, regionalized enforcement of codes, and increased cross-departmental coordination on the local and state scale. <\/p>\n

Some webinar attendees expressed concern about the idea of changing statewide standards in a timely fashion and in a way that would provide adequate wetlands protection. <\/p>\n

State wetlands regulations \u201care decades out of date in terms of the calculations used for designing stormwater systems,\u201d said Heidi Ricci, director of policy and advocacy at Mass Audubon. Consistent state standards requiring significant technical analysis \u201csound good,\u201d she said, \u201cbut is it feasible?\u201d <\/p>\n

A released by the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday on boosting housing supply identifies ADUs as a potential opportunity being explored in Massachusetts and other states. <\/p>\n

Neighboring New Hampshire, it notes, passed a policy in 2016 allowing homeowners to build one ADU by right or with a \u201cminor permit.\u201d New York City, as part of a broader housing reform package adopted in late 2024, created \u201ca pathway to legalize previously unauthorized basement, garage and other ADU rental units.\u201d California\u2019s changes, the report states, \u201climits local governments\u2019 power to impose standards on ADU construction.\u201d <\/p>\n

According to the Boston Indicators report, California went from roughly 1,300 ADU permits in 2015 to more than 30,000 in 2024, after waves of successive state reforms rather than a single legislative act. <\/p>\n

Massachusetts has more than 3 million dwelling units, Dain said, so even 1,200 ADUs in a year is only \u201chundredths of a single percent of that, she said. \u201cWith further reform, we could gain tens of thousands of ADUs in a decade. That starts to make a big difference in meeting our statewide need for hundreds of thousands of homes.\u201d <\/p>\n

Healey has set a goal of 222,000 new housing units needed by 2035 to meet demand. <\/p>\n

The report found 217 municipalities issued at least one ADU permit in 2025, but the majority are in the eastern part of the state. Parts of Western Massachusetts are an ADU dead zone, with many communities reporting no permitted ADUs, or not reporting back at all. <\/p>\n

Chris Lee, CEO of Backyard ADUs, a company that specializes in modular construction, described the regulatory system from a builder\u2019s perspective as deeply \u201cfragmented.\u201d He said it\u2019s in large part because of the New England \u201chome rule\u201d tradition that means an array of different permitting processes across municipalities. <\/p>\n

Unexpected septic system or wetlands rules, for instance, can introduce significant project costs, he said. Building an ADU one town over can suddenly mean a $100,000 higher price tag. <\/p>\n

ADU builders in California, Seattle, and Texas \u201cget to deal with a single group, with a single permitting and inspection culture for millions of people,\u201d Lee said. In Massachusetts, \u201cwhat it means for us on the ground is we\u2019ve had to fight tooth and nail to build a design-build company that can service the entire state. And it just barely works, to be clear.\u201d <\/p>\n

Read more Enbridge proposes new gas pipeline expansion in New England, placing Mass. in the crosshairs<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The report argues the permitting gap doesn\u2019t reflect a lack of homeowner interest, but rather a regulatory system that was never designed to handle an influx of development of the small housing units across 351 cities and towns with their own set of permitting rules.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":62,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-housing"],"yoast_head":"\nLocal complexity stymies ADU push - Worcester Moving Report<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/worcestermovingreport.com\/?p=63\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Local complexity stymies ADU push - 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