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NAIOP’s 2025 Advocacy Alerts are generously supported by Issues Management Group and Pierce Atwood, LLP.

Yesterday, September 9, NAIOP CEO Tamara Small joined Governor Maura Healey, Lt. Governor Kim Driscoll and members of the Governor’s Cabinet as the Administration announced critical reforms to the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act (MEPA) review process, impacting housing projects across the Commonwealth.

Over the course of more than a year, NAIOP CEO Tamara Small served on the Governor’s Unlocking Housing Production Commission, which brought together experts on housing to identify opportunities and remove barriers to building more housing in Massachusetts. Over the course of their work, the Commission met with community leaders, regulators, elected officials, advocates, and developers to understand the barriers to housing production.

As a result of this analysis, the Commission’s final report, Building for Tomorrow, highlighted specific strategies – big and small – for unlocking housing production. One of the many recommendations was to identify opportunities to expedite housing projects under MEPA – while ensuring environmental protection and robust community engagement. These draft regulations are a direct result of the Commission’s report and NAIOP’s broader advocacy on MEPA-related topics for the past 5+ years.

The draft regulations are designed to drastically reduce the MEPA review timeline for housing projects. For housing projects that meet certain criteria, the governor is proposing that the state no longer require a detailed Environmental Impact Report and instead allow developers to complete MEPA review with only the Environmental Notification Form. The proposal would eliminate the automatic trigger of MEPA review for single-family homes in the event of an appeal of a local wetlands order, and would also reduce to a 30-day ENF filing the review of urban renewal plans that do not propose individual projects.

All NAIOP members are strongly encouraged to review the draft regulations and provide feedback to NAIOP’s Vice President of Policy and Public Affairs, Anastasia Daou no later than Friday, October 3. NAIOP will be testifying at the public hearing in October and will be providing written comments to the Healey-Driscoll Administration to ensure that a final regulatory package advances our housing production goals.

The NAIOP Advocacy Team is working on numerous initiatives at the state and local level. If you have questions regarding the Commission’s recommendations, or other topics, please feel free to reach out to NAIOP’s CEO Tamara Small or NAIOP’s Vice President of Policy and Public Affairs, Anastasia Daou.

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