Over the last 18 months, MBG Principal Peter L. Freeman has represented developers throughout Massachusetts on Chapter 40B affordable housing projects, resulting in the approval of over 1,100 housing units. These include rental and homeownership projects in East Bridgewater (80 homeownership units and 140 rental units), in Falmouth (300 rental units and 12 homeownership units), in Franklin (252 rental units), in Harwich (242 rental units), in Norwell (8 rental units), in Brookline (103 rental units), and in Oak Bluffs (100 homeownership units).

The firm continues to be at the leading edge of affordable housing development in Massachusetts.

Significant Chapter 40B achievements during this period include successful appeals to the Massachusetts Housing Appeals Committee overturning the claims of safe harbor under Chapter 40B by the towns of Oak Bluffs and Falmouth, which would have allowed the respective zoning boards of appeals to deny or condition the projects with no recourse to the developers, and obtaining court orders requiring plaintiffs to post bonds in two cases in which abutters appealed the issuance of comprehensive permits under Chapter 40B. One bond was in the amount of $175,000 under the newly amended legislation governing appeals of zoning board of appeals decisions, which modified the standards for issuing bonds on zoning appeals in a manner more favorable to developers. In both cases, the orders to post bond led to settlements with the plaintiffs.

The firm continues to be at the leading edge of affordable housing development in Massachusetts through its successful litigation on behalf of developers, working with the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Housing Affordability Unit and assisting housing non-profit organizations with innovative projects utilizing the state’s new initiatives to create more affordable housing more quickly and feasibly.