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The state has found Marblehead in compliance with the MBTA Communities Act, accepting a zoning district built mostly on a private golf course that critics called a "paper district."
In a letter dated Monday to Town Administrator Thatcher Kezer, Housing and Livable Communities Secretary Juana B. Matias wrote that the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities had determined the town's 3A Multi-family Overlay District complies with Section 3A of the state Zoning Act and its regulations. Section 3A requires communities served by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority to allow multifamily housing by right in at least one district.
The ruling comes 10 days after Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell's office approved the zoning bylaw, Article 4, while leaving the question of compliance to the housing agency.
The agency accepted every figure the town submitted. As a town designated an "adjacent community" with 8,965 housing units, Marblehead needed a district of at least 27 acres with capacity for 897 units and a gross density of at least 15 units per acre. The agency found the district covers 40.8 acres, can hold an estimated 900 units and has a gross density of 22.1 units per acre. At least 50 percent of it is one contiguous area.
The town's model assigns 780 of those units to the Tedesco Country Club subdistrict and 120 to the Broughton Road subdistrict, according to slides from a March 3 information session. That left a margin of three units above the minimum. The agency's letter does not mention the golf course by name or reduce the unit count.
The determination qualifies Marblehead for the MBTA Communities Catalyst Fund, a state grant program offered through the Community One Stop for Growth application portal.
Select Board Chair Dan Fox welcomed the ruling.
"This issue has been a source of significant debate and division within our community, and I am hopeful we can now put much of that behind us and move forward together," Fox said in a text message Monday. "Now that we are eligible for critical grant funding, we can focus our energy on the many other important priorities facing Marblehead."
Agency flags design standards
The letter raised one concern. The district's design standards in Section G, along with the "Smart Growth Overlay District Design Standards" section of the town bylaw that developments must also follow, "lean towards discretionary criteria," Matias wrote. Such criteria could affect by-right approvals.
The agency cautioned the town against applying those standards in a discretionary way that conflicts with state zoning law. If permitting reduces the district's estimated capacity, the agency may reevaluate the town's compliance and require zoning changes.
Compliance comes with ongoing conditions. The town must notify the agency in writing of any proposed zoning amendment or other local action that limits multifamily housing in the district, before any Planning Board public hearing on it. The agency may monitor the district over time and may rescind its determination if it learns of information that would make the district noncompliant.
The letter notes that the law does not require housing to be built.
Golf course challenge
The Tedesco plan drew a challenge in May, when resident Nick Ward urged the attorney general's office to reject Article 4. He argued that the golf course is recreational land likely to stay undeveloped, a category state regulations exclude from compliance calculations. Town Counsel Adam J. Costa responded that the course is privately owned, not permanently protected and could be sold or converted by its owner.
In its Oct. 16 decision, Campbell's office found no basis to disapprove the bylaw but warned that a district where no housing could realistically be built could invite lawsuits under state and federal fair-housing laws. It made no finding that the town had violated either.
Planning Board member Marc J. Liebman, who led the effort, acknowledged the strategy at the Annual Town Meeting on May 4.
"All we're doing is creating a zone where you are allowed to build by right," he said. "If the golf course decides that they never want to sell it, then nothing will ever change."
Fox had made a similar case last fall. "The likelihood of it getting developed is very low," he said. "However, if it did get developed, it would be in an area that would reduce traffic and would be more in character with that part of town."
Third try
The approval ends a three-year effort. Town Meeting rejected an earlier overlay 410-377 in May 2024, then approved a plan covering Tioga Way, Pleasant Street and Broughton Road 951-759 in May 2025. Voters repealed that plan 3,642-3,297 in a July 8, 2025, referendum. The Tedesco plan passed Town Meeting 881-82 in May.
"It has been a long and challenging road," Liebman said in a text message Monday. "This was a very lengthy and complex process that would not have been possible without the help and support of my colleagues on the planning board and Dan Fox."
He added, "I am also happy to have had the opportunity to speak with so many passionate 'Headers on both sides of the issue."
A town worksheet dated Nov. 20, 2025, listed $3.77 million in grants lost during the period of noncompliance and an $11.25 million federal shipyard grant at risk. Presenters at Town Meeting said closed grant cycles cannot be recouped but that compliance would make the town eligible for future rounds.
Before Town Meeting, presenters warned that rejecting the plan would revive Campbell's January lawsuit against Marblehead and eight other communities, which was on hold. Monday's letter does not address the lawsuit.
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