Needham residents are set to vote Tuesday on whether to zone for new multifamily housing, just days after Massachusetts’ highest court ruled that the state is within its rights to force towns to do so.
While the town approved new zoning to follow the 2021 MBTA Communities Act in October, opponents gathered enough petition signatures to force Tuesday’s town-wide referendum. Depending on the outcome of the vote, Needham could be set to follow in the steps of Milton, which shot down compliant zoning in its own referendum last year, and invite negative consequences that the state has been newly empowered to enforce.
