MARBLEHEAD — After Town Meeting members voted in May to reject the plan that would have put them in compliance with a state-mandated multi-family housing zoning law, the town is still out of compliance.
Noncompliance from Marblehead and other communities prompted comment from Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell.
“Compliance with the law is mandatory, and this law is an essential tool to address our housing crisis…,” Campbell said in a statement to The Item.
Campbell said that adherence to the law’s implementation provides communities with “considerable discretion” with regard to developing the most “ effective zoning for their community,” which includes its location and sizing.
Select Board Chair Erin Noonan said in an email that the office of Lieutenant Governor Kim Driscoll’s office informed her and Select Board member Dan Fox that “Marblehead will risk all discretionary state grant funding when it becomes noncompliant on Dec. 31.”
Noonan additionally said that both she and Fox had been informed that should the Commonwealth win its case against Milton in the Supreme Judicial Court for noncompliance, Campbell will proceed with litigation against other communities who are also not in compliance.
