| The House overwhelmingly approved legislation Wednesday that would allow property owners to form districts and levy assessments to pay for improvements within them.
Lawmakers have previously attempted to give property owners the option of establishing community benefit districts, and included a provision authorizing them in the fiscal 2018 budget bill. That section was vetoed by Gov. Charlie Baker who said the assessments are “the functional equivalent of new property taxes.”
House Ways and Means Chairman Jeffrey Sanchez said there is broad agreement on the legislation (H 4546) that passed the House on a 149-2 vote on Wednesday, which he described as a “compromise.”
“This local-option bill is going to allow property owners in a community to pool their resources together to improve community through this benefits district proposal,” Sanchez said on the floor Wednesday.
With the approval of the local government, property owners within the municipality could band together and form a district if they own a majority of the assessed value within it.
“Large property owners already have outsized political power,” said Rep. Denise Provost, a Somerville Democrat. “This bill gives them quasi-governmental powers.”
Provost and Brockton Democrat Rep. Michelle DuBois cast the lone votes against the bill in the House. Provost said property owners can’t opt out of the districts, the bill doesn’t require notification to tenants in a proposed district, and she doubts municipal governments have “the sophistication to evaluate complex proposals like this” under the timeframe included in the bill.
The bill would require a hearing on community benefit district proposals, and it would require a decision within 180 days of filing a petition.
The Massachusetts Smart Growth Alliance cheered the Senate’s inclusion of community benefit districts in its budget bill a year ago.
The districts “provide services that are not supported by the municipality, which may include items like sidewalk cleaning, cultural programming, public art, branding and marketing, street furniture, landscaping and more,” and they are managed by a nonprofit financed by property owners, donations and program revenues, the alliance said about last year’s proposal.
