Massachusetts’ starter homes ballot measure and the single-stair code win

The NYT editorial board endorsed the Massachusetts “Legalize Starter Homes” ballot measure, which would require localities to allow homes on small lots in areas served by public water and sewer. The endorsement lands alongside a volunteer-driven signature push to secure the November ballot slot. That combination bodes well for MA YIMBYs: contested ballot measures are expensive, since building name and message recognition with paid media costs real money. Ballot measures can also be risky in that a win can convince a legislature that they’ve mentally overindexed on NIMBYs in the electorate, while a loss could make reform radioactive. Fortunately, no organized opposition has yet appeared, and organic volunteer energy and platinum earned media like a Times endorsement are both free in dollars…and probably signal strong underlying voter support.

Stephen Smith just landed a stunning, albeit incremental, single-stair win: his proposal to raise America’s “International” Building Code single-stair apartment height limit from three stories to four passed its final membership vote and will officially make the 2027 IBC. The political dynamics here are understudied: this is "private politics," the work of lobbying and advocating inside the International Code Council, a private, nongovernmental body that drafts the model building codes later adopted into state and local law. The simplest early lesson might be the old Gretzky adage about missing 100% of the shots you don't take: YIMBYs walked into the room at ICC for the first time ever, and good things happened. (The burst of state and local-level single stair code wins across the US and Canada since 2021 were key points of leverage as well).