A Massachusetts Superior Court judge has denied a town-backed bid by a group of private activists to immediately halt the enforcement of the state’s 3A housing law against Winthrop, saying the group has no legal standing to bring the case.

The judge, Mark Gildea, ruled less than three weeks after the Winthrop Town Council, in a hard-fought vote, agreed to back the case brought by a small number of Winthrop citizens who oppose the 2021 law requiring most eastern Massachusetts communities to add zones in their town that allow multifamily housing.

The judge ruled for now against the request for a stay – which would have meant immediately blocking enforcement of the 3A law in Winthrop. But the judge also suggested that the case, beyond the question of the legal standing of the plaintiffs, would fail on its merits.

“The plaintiffs would appear not to have standing to maintain this action,” Judge Gildea said in a brief written ruling Monday. “Even if they do, they have not made a showing warranting an order staying enforcement” of the 3A law, it said.

Intervention terms

The question of standing may, however, be complicated by the fact that the Town Council’s resolution of April 14 asked for town officials “to intervene in and support the plaintiffs” in the private lawsuit. And Winthrop’s town counsel, James Cipoletta, in his filing of April 29, asked the court for permission to intervene “as a plaintiff” in the case. Mr Cipoletta said that rules allowing such interventions offered the town no alternative to becoming a plaintiff, rather than participating in some other way.

The state Superior Court is expected to rule on June 9 on the question of Winthrop’s bid to intervene in the case. The court may also decide that day whether to dismiss the privately-brought legal case altogether, Mr Cipoletta said.

The ruling is the latest phase of months of battling over the 3A law in Winthrop. The law affected nearly all cities and towns in eastern Massachusetts, and Winthrop is among fewer than a dozen still fighting the law – even though courts have upheld the right of the state government to determine zoning rules, and Winthrop leaders have acknowledged the town could comply without adding housing by rezoning parts of the town that already have multifamily housing units.

The list of non-compliant towns narrowed further this week when residents of Marblehead – which still uses a Town Meeting form of government – voted on Monday through that annual town-wide mode of decision-making to comply with the 3A law by placing new multifamily districts in two locations: One zone is the private Tedesco Country Club, which has said it has no plans to build multifamily housing, and the second is a smaller location along on Broughton Road, where work on a housing complex as large as 120 units is already underway.

Other options

Some 3A critics in Winthrop have suggested pursuing similar options in their town, on locations that include a part of Logan airport that is technically part of Winthrop, and on land that is part of the Winthrop Golf Club. Both face complications including the fact that they currently are public land, which is not an allowable location under the 3A law.

The existing plan for Winthrop to comply with the 3A law – drafted by the town’s Planning Board – also would not involve new housing, given that multifamily units already exist in the three locations it has designated. But the Town Council has refused to approve that plan, citing among other factors the concern – repeatedly rejected by state officials – that 3A compliance might somehow override tenant rules at one of the chosen locations, the Seal Harbor condominium complex.

The Winthrop Town Council elections last November were won overwhelmingly by candidates in favor of opposing the 3A law. But since then, the nine-member council has cleaved on the topic, with five members backing the idea of joining the private lawsuit against the state. A smaller four-member faction is led by the council’s president, Jim Letterie, who has expressed his resignation to the idea that state courts likely will never support Winthrop’s position. He has instead argued that the town should consider the possibility of federal intervention.

That dispute flared on April 7, when Mr Letterie blocked discussion of the idea of the town joining the private lawsuit against the state over the 3A law. The council eventually held its vote on that question on April 14, agreeing by a 5-3 margin to join the private lawsuit. And at the Town Council meeting this week, members voted almost unanimously – with only Mr Letterie in opposition – to allow any future matter to be placed on the council’s agenda for consideration if at least four council members support taking that step.

Also at the Town Council meeting Tuesday, a council member, Max Tassinari, repeated previous requests for an estimate of the cost to the town of pursuing the legal actions. The town manager, Tony Marino, said the answer would depend on the amount of time that Mr Cipoletta spends on the case, and he said he could not offer an estimate of that.