Driscoll Responds to New MBTA Communities Act Guidelines

JANUARY 14, 2025

Please see Senator Driscoll's statement in response to the Administration's newly released MBTA Communities Act guidelines:

“I understood the SJC's 1/8 decision to mean that new guidelines should be promulgated by HLC via the same public process that all regulations go through, namely the Administrative Procedures Act. The previous MBTA Communities Act guidelines did not, and were therefore deemed unenforceable.

Today's emergency regs have been issued one week after that ruling and have not gone through any public process. After nearly a year of legal action, and over four years since the MBTA Communities Act was passed, the public process has again been abridged. The previous guidelines were a set of moving goal posts and included provisions and penalties not authorized by the statute. Today's emergency regs are more of the same.

I hope the ensuing, months long, public process to promulgate permanent guidelines results in a more appropriate approach and fairness for all communities.”

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