Send a Letter to Governor Patrick!

The Governor needs to hear your concerns. See instructions below for sending an email with one of our sample letters.

Instructions for Email:

• Copy one of the following letters into your email
• Personalize the letter to explain your concerns and to include your return address
• Hit Send!

Instructions for Mailing a Letter:

• Choose one of the following letters, highlight the text, click "edit" and then click "copy"
• Open Word or the word processing program of your choice
• Personalize the letter to include your contact information and additional, personal concerns
• Use the contact information already provided in our sample to mail your letter

Sample Letter 1

Office of the Governor
Room 360
Massachusetts State House
Boston, MA 02133

Dear Governor Patrick,

I am concerned that legitimate attempts to reform or repeal MGL Ch. 40B are being suppressed and that regulatory modifications are being implemented by the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) to keep residents and municipalities from having the legal standing to challenge inappropriate and ill-conceived proposals under the statute. Of particular concern is the DHCD's move to eliminate local review of project pro-formas while holding towns accountable if they make uneconomic requests to change development plans.

Development has direct and indirect financial impact on communities and municipal leaders must have the discretion to consider these impacts when making decisions on behalf of local residents. The vibrant home rule charter of Massachusetts is being irrevocably damaged by these state regulations. Furthermore, these moves are prima facie evidence that the agency has absolutely no concern with excess profiteering at the expense of the quality of life for residents of the Commonwealth.

The Investigator General's office has produced sufficient evidence to suggest widespread 40B abuse. As the Globe reported:
"A pattern is emerging: Developers use a variety of tactics to conceal their profits, including exaggerating land costs and hiring companies in which they have a financial interest as subcontractors, then paying the subcontractors excessive amounts to inflate the project's expenses. In addition, he said, some developers are "permit brokering -- buying land and securing the coveted 40B permit from the community, then selling the suddenly more valuable land and the permit to another developer at a significant profit, without reporting those profits to the state."

If the ability to challenge or questions these tactics is "taken off the table," the state is decapitating the rights of citizens and municipalities. This must not be allowed! 40B developers that "bid-up" the price of land are making all housing more expensive and must be held accountable. With state regulations that allow for opaque financial reporting, developers are also able to continue to add price premiums to market-rate homes in 40B developments that further add to the cost of housing. Their tactics are keeping cities and towns from providing the regional and town-appropriate affordable housing we desperately need for working families. Affordability is growing worse in Massachusetts and reforms must be implemented swiftly to mitigate the damage that has been done by M.G.L. Chapter 40B.

As one leading expert on 40B recently wrote: "The statute is punitive, it obliterates all local land use, fiscal and planning control … and it imposes a one size fits all policy that insults the distinctions between Cape Cod and Cape Ann, the Berkshires and the Blackstone Valley." I urge you to take action to stop the DHCD from eliminating local control and to listen to legitimate resident and municipal concerns that advocate for the repeal or reform of M.G.L. Chapter 40B.
Sincerely,

Sample Letter 2

Office of the Governor
Room 360
Massachusetts State House
Boston, MA 02133

Dear Governor Patrick,

Our state ranks 49th out of 50 in national housing affordability after 38 years of M.G.L. CH. 40B. For this reason alone, the state must emphasize more cost-effective funding of affordable housing such as redevelopment, regional and local housing management and inclusionary zoning. The ongoing failures and abuses of CH. 40B are not the result of a few bad apples. The fact is that the oversight state agencies claim to have fails consistently and completely in stopping ongoing 40B tribulations. In an era of budget deficits on service cuts, we cannot afford to continue to let 40B be used as a tool by developers to extract huge profits at the expense of our communities and neighborhoods.

The idea that 40B is the only effective way to create real affordable housing for the residents of Massachusetts is WRONG. All of the state's official data suggests that such a claim is wrong, yet your state and quasi-state agencies (DHCD, MassHousing, CHAPA) continue to sell this misinformation to the public. Affordability has plummeted since 2000, during the same time that 40B projects were developed at historically high rates. Did you know that in the 2007 Greater Boston Housing Report Card, the facts conclude that alternative affordable housing plans produced 10,799 compared to 40B's 4,517? Yet, your agencies tout 40B as "our best method of producing affordable housing." The fact is that this program is preferred because it helps developers. Our state is struggling. Please stop prioritizing developer profits before people.

The percentage of affordable units in 40B projects continues to decrease every year, yet developers continue to bully communities into building higher densities, developing a glut of unaffordable, upper-middle class housing, driving up the price of land and other housing and wreaking havoc on our environment.

You have many difficult decisions to make, especially in light of projected deficits. Please understand that 40B costs hundreds of millions of dollars annually and has done nothing to help Massachusetts recover from worsening affordability. We're 49th out of 50. Now is the time to begin promoting more cost-effective and environmentally friendly programs such as housing redevelopment, inclusionary zoning and regionalized control of affordable housing to invest in our struggling cities. These alternatives are significantly cheaper and provide real affordable housing, which will save the state millions of dollars and help countless families.

I request you take action immediately to stop the failing 40B statute and replace it with meaningful and successful alternatives to producing the affordable housing that we need.

Thank you,

Sample Letter 3

Office of the Governor
Room 360
Massachusetts State House
Boston, MA 02133

Dear Governor Patrick,

After 38 years of CH. 40B, I am ashamed that Massachusetts ranks 49th in the nation for housing affordability. Ignoring the well-documented and ongoing financial abuses of 40B, the fact that it has completely failed to produce real affordable housing for our teachers, firefighters, police and young families is reason enough to abandon this law. I urge you to emphasize funding of local and regional affordable housing management, promoting inclusionary zoning (considered the perennial leader in affordable housing production) and robustly supporting creative redevelopment programs that provides affordable housing without new development and which give new life to old or abandoned buildings and struggling cities.

Your own state agencies (DHCD, MassHousing et al) tout 40B as the greatest provider of affordable housing but they are constantly proven wrong by every housing report that is published each year. All of the data suggests that 40B is good at one thing and one thing only, forcing the construction of unaffordable, market-rate homes where they would never be allowed and where they are not needed. Affordability in Massachusetts has been worsening for years, but has plummeted since 2000 - - the same time that 40B projects were developed at increasing rates. Making matters worse, because 40B utilizes the weakest possible deed restrictions on the housing units it builds, by 2010 more than half (53%) of our existing affordable units will disappear and become regular market-rate homes.

We now have an over-supply of single family homes on the market thanks to 40B, land prices are astronomically high (because 40B developers bid-up the price of land so often) and 40B projects produce fewer percentages of affordable units every year. This situation is an embarrassment to Massachusetts since we were once considered a leader in this area. Did you know that municipalities outpace 40B in the production of affordable units each year? Did you know that since 2001, two-thirds of the additions to the state's affordable housing stock were provided not by 40B but by repair programs, homes for the Departments of Mental Health and Department of Mental Retardation and, of course, market-rate units that "count" towards 40B's total produced units but which aren't affordable! This system doesn't work!

I supported you because you represented fresh ideas. If 40B costs hundreds of millions of tax dollars annually and has done virtually nothing to improve housing affordability, I look to you Mr. Governor to implement fresh policies. Redevelopment, inclusionary zoning and regional and local control of affordable housing are significantly cheaper, provide real affordable housing and would save the state millions of dollars. Please support these endeavors and abandon 40B for all of our sake.

Sincerely,