Arlington Population: 53,524
Massachusetts enacts Comprehensive Permit Law, commonly known as 40B, to help address the shortage of affordable housing statewide by reducing unnecessary barriers created by local approval processes, local zoning, and other restrictions.
Federal Fair Housing Act (FHA) is passed, prohibiting discrimination concerning the sale, rental and financing of housing based on race, religion, national origin or sex. Prior to this it was assumed to be legal for homeowners to refuse to sell homes to Black families or for banks to deny loans to Black potential home buyers or for brokers to steer Black families away from some neighbors and towns. However, the FHA had a basic enforcement problem, since it required the victims of discrimination to file a formal complaint with HUD or sue in federal court.
Save Arlington Association founded, whose principal mission was to oppose spot re-zoning requests that would allow the construction of multi-family housing in single or two-family zoning areas. These re-zoning requests were not for town-wide rezoning, but generally parcel-specific. These multi-family projects were mostly the brick “pillbox” style project we see dotting Massachusetts Avenue and Broadway. They are now some of the most affordable apartments in Arlington. Opponents of these developments cited such potential ills as traffic jams, school overpopulation, loss of open space, and rising property taxes.
Arlington Population: 49,953
Arlington Population: 44,353
Supreme Court case Shelley v. Kraemer found that racially restrictive covenants could not be legally enforced because they violated the Fourteenth Amendment. Despite this, the FHA continued to insure developments with racially explicit covenants for years afterward. Also, the Shelley ruling applied to government enforcement, it did not actually ban racially restrictive covenants, just the government’s participation in enforcing them.
The Housing Act of 1934 creates Home Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC) and the thirty-year mortgage. The HOLC created the infamous “redlining” maps, with a stated interest in helping lenders avoid borrowers and neighborhoods with a higher risk of default.
Supreme Court case Euclid v. Ambler ruled that zoning is constitutional, finding that use districts are within a state’s power to protect the public welfare. The case also upheld a municipality’s ability to regulate the location multi-family construction, saying “very often the apartment house is a mere parasite, constructed in order to take advantage of open spaces and attractive surroundings created by the residential character of the district” and that said apartment houses “come very near to being nuisances” when they are in single-family districts.
Arlington adopts its first zoning bylaw and a zoning map that includes a “Single Residence District.”