Advocates warn Chapter 40B housing can mask hazardous siting; ask state to prevent new EJ neighborhoods

During the Environmental Justice Council’s public comment period, Mireya Bajani, co‑executive director of the advocacy group Slingshot, praised state agencies’ attention to environmental justice but warned of a pattern in which developers use Chapter 40B affordable‑housing incentives to push projects into unsuitable sites.

‘‘These developers are taking advantage of the streamlined permitting process that chapter 40 b allows and the incentive communities have to meet state affordable housing requirements,’’ Bajani said. She described two recent cases: a Lancaster project that combined a large warehouse with a small set of affordable units on the same lot, and a Marshfield proposal for septic‑served affordable units on a capped landfill with limited road access. Bajani said those projects risk ‘‘creating new environmental justice neighborhoods’’ by placing low‑income residents in hazardous or unhealthy settings.

Bajani told the council she was not opposed to affordable housing but urged regulators and the state to consider impacts on future residents when evaluating projects and permits. ‘‘We should be making sure that we are building safe, healthy communities for them to live in,’’ she said.

DEP Commissioner Bonnie Heiple later acknowledged the ‘‘intersection between environmental protection, environmental justice, and affordable housing’’ and said the agency is mindful of that balance when evaluating permit applications. The public comment was taken for follow‑up; DEP staff said they would take questions back to the agency and reach out to the commenters after the meeting.

The comment highlights a recurring concern among EJ advocates: that housing objectives and siting or permitting procedures can collide, producing outcomes that compound rather than reduce environmental burdens on vulnerable populations. Bajani urged the council and state agencies to examine how existing housing incentives and permitting rules might be adjusted to avoid those outcomes.

The council and DEP did not adopt policy at the meeting in response to the comment; DEP said it would follow up individually with the commenter and consider the point in ongoing stakeholder engagement and program review.