State Zoning Act Variance Changes (2026)
At a glance
Based on auto-generated captions of a staff briefing; the bill number and details may be misheard.
- What: a change to the state zoning act (Mass. Gen. Laws Chapter 40A) that staff said was adopted in the state budget in early July 2026 (captioned "House Bill 5555") and took effect back to July 1. It changes how the Zoning Board of Appeals decides variances.
- Where it stands: in use from the 2026-07-20 meeting, when the board applied it for the first time.
- Next: staff and the city solicitor's office are still working out the details; the board planned to discuss the changes at length after the meeting.
What changed (as described by staff)
- The test for a variance drops from a series of hardships to "practical difficulty."
- The new text lists seven criteria for the board to weigh:
- how strict enforcement would cause a practical difficulty;
- how relief benefits the petitioner and the public interest, including housing production;
- that relief is not a detriment to public health, safety and welfare;
- how the difficulty relates to soil, shape or topography;
- financial hardship from strict enforcement;
- whether the benefit can be achieved another way;
- whether the difficulty was self-created.
- The replacement law deleted the language that let the board attach conditions to a variance. A variance now either meets the threshold or it does not; conditions can still be attached to special permits.
- Staff asked every variance applicant to supply updated findings of fact for each criterion. These arrived the day of the hearing and were put in the packet; the board asked applicants to read them into the record unless members had already read them.
How the board used it on 2026-07-20
- Applicants for 0 Grafton Street (ZB-2026-035), 256 Sunderland Road (ZB-2026-022) and 1 Jackson Street (ZB-2026-031) read their answers in; the board waived a reading for 23-37 Boylston Street (ZB-2026-062) and 27-35 Chandler Street and 47-53 Irving Street (ZB-2026-070) because members had read them.
- Chair Jordan Berg Powers and members repeatedly said that, because conditions cannot be placed on variances, they weighed housing need heavily and voted the variance up or down.
- Staff noted that other zoning requirements (for example, a 24-foot drive aisle) still apply independently of a variance.
Discussion time
About 3 minutes across 1 meeting (from transcript timestamps; approximate).
| Meeting | Minutes |
|---|---|
| 2026-07-20 - Zoning Board of Appeals | 3 |
Log
- 2026-07-20 - Zoning Board of Appeals - A city staff member (name not clear in the captions) briefed the board before the first hearing; all variance cases that night (Grafton, Sunderland, Jackson, 3 Mann, Boylston, Chandler) were decided under the new criteria and approved unanimously.