Seasonal Communities Backgrounder

Prepared by Mark Mills, member Stockbridge Affordable Housing Trust

Key Points - Seasonal Communities allows Stockbridge to:

  • Increase Area Median Income limits so that more middle-class families might benefit from downpayment assistance.

  • Preference municipal employees and artists for housing opportunities.

  • Enable smaller lot sizes to foster more full-time residential homes

  • Build housing stock for folks who live and work here.

_______________________________________

From Mass. Gov website:

The Seasonal Communities designation is designed to recognize Massachusetts communities that experience substantial variation in seasonal employment and to create distinctive tools to address their unique housing needs.  The tools are aimed at expanding year-round housing in communities facing intense second-home and short-term rental pressures. 

Seasonal Communities designation includes:

  • All municipalities in the counties of Dukes and Nantucket;

  • All municipalities with over 35% seasonal housing units in Barnstable county; and

  • All municipalities with more than 40% seasonal housing units in Berkshire county. 

Based on the Affordable Homes Act, some of the tools made available to seasonal communities include:

  • Acquire year-round housing occupancy restrictions

  • Develop housing with a preference for municipal workers, so that our public safety personnel, teachers and DPW and town hall workers have a place to live

  • Establish a Year-Round Housing Trust Fund to create and preserve affordable and attainable housing for year-round residents 

  • Create year-round housing for artists

  • Allow seasonal communities to develop a comprehensive housing needs assessment

  • Permit tiny homes to be built and used as year-round housing

  • Permit year-round, attainable residential development on undersized lots

  • Increase the property tax exemption for homes that are the owners’ primary residence

___________________________________________

From letter to the editor by Patrick White, Chair of the Stockbridge Affordable Housing Trust - Feb. 25, 2026

To the editor: Seasonal communities is a designation created by 2024 state legislation that I believe applies to many Berkshire County towns.

It must be accepted at each town’s annual town meeting. It defines attainable year-round housing, meaning housing for people who live here year-round. Attaining a seasonal communities designation allows us to deed-restrict housing for purchase or rental to year-round residents only. It creates a secondary real estate market, likely subsidized with and linked to down payment assistance, for locals only.

Seasonal communities can be a counterweight to the exact problem of home affordability the unfettered market has created around here. By this mechanism of deed-restricting a portion of our housing stock to locals, this policy lowers each unit’s resale value permanently. A secondary real estate market in which only locals can participate would by definition lower the prices of these housing units. You won’t be able to flip them to second-home owners or use them for short-term rentals. By having only locals as the potential buyers, the market will price these units lower than the wider and unregulated real estate market. This is economics in its simplest form: supply and demand.

The seasonal communities designation does require zoning reform, but changes only apply to new housing construction for year-round local housing. The lower lot size and reductions in frontage and setbacks would only apply to new homes built largely for local, first-time homebuyers. Once again, it wouldn’t impact your local zoning for market housing at all.

________________________________

New state rules aim to help seasonal towns house teachers and municipal workers (article excerpts)

By Nate Harrington, The Berkshire Eagle Feb 5, 2026

PITTSFIELD — In towns with high rates of second-home owners, it's hard for teachers, police officers and municipal workers to find and afford housing, but newly released seasonal community regulations aim to combat that.The state's seasonal community designation was established to help areas with high rates of seasonal vacancy sustain full-time residents. 

Although the designation was intended for Cape Cod and the islands, 18 Berkshire County towns were deemed eligible because of high rates of seasonal vacancy and short-term rentals.

In order to become a seasonal community, towns need to vote to accept the designation as their respective special town meetings. No Berkshire County towns have accepted the designation yet, as many have been waiting for what exactly it entails. 

The new regulations, released on Feb. 4 by Gov. Maura Healey's office, will give seasonal communities tools to sustain and attract year-round residents, including the ability to set housing preferences for teachers, municipal workers and artists. Officials say the measures are designed to help towns retain essential workers and sustain local economies. 

"These communities are essential to Massachusetts’ economy, and the people who keep them running deserve access to year-round housing," Healey said in a press release.

In the new regulations, towns are now able to establish year-round housing trusts. These trusts are meant to create and provide attainable housing for full-time residents using tools like requiring units to be occupied year-round and having preferences for certain occupations to fill units. 

These trusts can also be regional, allowing multiple municipalities to band together and form a cohesive response to seasonal vacancies. "Housing is a regional issue," said Peter Most, chair of Great Barrington's Zoning Board of Appeals. "When the towns band together to attack an issue, they're much more successful working together.”

Under these regulations, seasonal communities would be able to restrict units for year-round use. These units would need to be occupied 10 months out of the year, but there is a carveout for reasonable absences. Municipalities must set the length of time that these restrictions are in place, with the default length being 30 years.

Communities that establish attainable units can also increase the maximum allowable income to 250 percent of the area median income. Previously, the highest bracket of income limited housing topped off at 120 percent. "The town will be able to assist those folks that earn too much to currently [qualify for affordable] housing here, but don't earn enough to be able to afford market-rate housing," Most said.

Towns can also set occupational preferences on units. This is designed to give essential workers the chance to live in the community they work in. To set up the preference for a specific job, the town must show that the job is essential to the towns health and safety and how the tenant selection process will work. 

Seasonal communities will be required to update their zoning bylaws to be in compliance with the laws outlined in the regulations. Towns have 60 days to comply after accepting their designation.

Tiny homes must be allowed by right in the regulations. The regulations define tiny homes as a detached unit no more than 400 square feet in floor area. These homes will also be automatically designated as year-round housing.

___________________________

Zoning 

From final regulations for Seasonal Communities filed with the Secretary of State's office on February 4, 2026.

Seasonal Community shall amend its Zoning to allow Attainable Housing Units on Undersized Lots As of Right in Single-family Residential Zoning Districts, provided that such As of Right Zoning for Attainable Housing Units on Undersized Lots shall require the following: 

  1. As of Right Zoning for Attainable Housing Units on Undersized Lots established pursuant to this section shall, at a minimum, allow Attainable Housing Units As of Right if the Undersized Lot is at least 10,000 square feet or 25 percent (25%) of the minimum lot size for the Single-family Residential Zoning District where the Undersized Lot is located, whichever is greater; provided, however, that nothing in 760 CMR 76.04 prohibits a Seasonal Community from establishing more permissive Lot size requirements for the As of Right development of Attainable Housing Units on Undersized Lots. 

  2. As of Right Zoning for Attainable Housing Units on Undersized Lots established pursuant to this section shall not require more than one (1) foot of Setback for every 1,000 square feet of Lot size; provided however, that in no event shall a Setback requirement exceed 15 feet and in no event shall a Frontage requirement exceed 20 feet; and provided further, that nothing in 760 CMR 76.04 prohibits a Seasonal Community from establishing more permissive Setback requirements for the As of Right development of Attainable Housing Units on Undersized Lots.

_______________________________

Seasonal Communities Change in 

Residential Exemption

A Massachusetts residential exemption reduces property taxes for owner-occupied primary residences by deducting a portion of the assessed value from the taxable total. Adopted locally, it shifts additional tax burden to non-residents/commercial properties.

From State Regs

76.10: Residential Exemption 14 (1) Pursuant to M.G.L. c. 23B, § 32(f), a Seasonal Community that has adopted the Residential Property Tax Exemption, may, at the option of the board of selectmen or mayor, with the approval of the city council, as the case may be, increase such exemption from 35 per cent to not more than 50 per cent of the average assessed value of all class one, residential, parcels within such city or town.