Massachusetts Voters Reject Ballot Question 7; 50.6% Vote No on Smaller Single-Family Lots
MASSACHUSETTS — The Associated Press confirmed on the afternoon of November 6 that Massachusetts voters narrowly rejected Ballot Question 7, with 50.6% voting no and 49.4% yes, a gap of 32,322 votes out of more than 2.5 million ballots cast. It was the last of the election's nine statewide ballot questions to be settled, with 97% of precincts reporting at the time. Question 7 proposed amending Chapter 40A of the state zoning law to set a statewide minimum lot size of 5,000 square feet for single-family homes — everywhere except Boston — overriding stricter local lot-size rules to make smaller, cheaper houses easier to build. The result ran sharply against pre-election polling: a UMass Amherst/WCVB poll had shown 65% of likely voters in favor and only 21% opposed. In the same election, Question 5 was confirmed defeated on the afternoon of November 5, so Massachusetts will not change how it calculates tax refunds from budget surpluses. Supporters of Question 7 argued looser lot rules would ease the housing shortage; opponents said land use should be decided locally — a tug-of-war reflecting the state's long-running tension between local control and housing supply.
Source: Associated Press
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：波士顿马萨诸塞州议会大厦。Wikimedia Commons，CC BY-SA 4.0。 / Photo: Massachusetts State House, Boston. Via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.
