The Download: Flood disclosures poised to step into legislative limelight next year

 

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New from CommonWealth Beacon NEW CODCAST: Jennifer Smith and Chris Lisinski break down all the latest legislative and ballot measure news on the latest Codcast episode that’s out now. Get the rundown on a potentially record-breaking number of initiatives that could make next year’s ballot and why Massachusetts lawmakers went into Thanksgiving with little more than a whimper.  GRADUATION: Gov. Maura Healey cheered new high school graduation requirements recommended by a state council, potentially setting up a showdown with a major teachers union that is arguing the new framework “defies the will of the voters.” Sam Drysdale at State House News Service has more.

‘People have a right to know’: Flood disclosures poised to step into legislative limelight next year    December 2, 2025 By JORDAN WOLMAN

Denise Kress has been living for 35 years with the Belle Isle Marsh as her backyard.

But as more severe storms hit over the past decade, her life has been consumed by the marsh in ways other than its natural beauty: thinking about water, preparing for its encroachment, laying down bags of sand, living through flooding, and recovering from its wreckage. It’s meant two totaled cars and five repaired or replaced electrical and heating systems, and weeks spent in a hotel in the winter of 2018 after flood waters breached her basement twice in two months and then froze so that you’d need a “pick axe” to navigate it.

Through all this, she’s stayed.

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But Kress occasionally ponders what it will look like, when the day comes, to sell her house just over the Boston border in Winthrop, given all the flooding the property has endured.

“I can’t worry about it because there’s little that I can do about it,” Kress said when asked if she’s concerned that disclosing her home’s flooding history could impact its value. “But I would want the next owner to know. People have a right to know.”

She’s quick to add, though, that even if she had known all the flood damages and insurance price hikes that would come in her 35 years in Winthrop, she may not have changed a thing anyway: “If I had to do it all over again, I probably would,” said Kress, who finds comfort in the vast marsh that drew her to the property originally.

Such are the complications facing Massachusetts, a high-cost coastal state seeing some of the fastest-warming ocean temperatures in the world and increasing rates of precipitation that are exposing its aging stormwater drainage systems, dams, and culverts.

Gov. Maura Healey aims to direct a new influx of cash to address those very issues through her nearly $3 billion environmental bond bill, which includes $308 million to upgrade high-risk dams and flood control systems and nearly $100 million for coastal initiatives like seawalls, jetties, and beach nourishments. But as flooding touches more Massachusetts households, she’s also proposing a new requirement to steer people out of harm’s way in the first place: mandating flood risk disclosure when property owners sell.

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More Context ‘Water doesn’t know property lines’: Where Massachusetts’s climate and housing crises meet (April 2025) Coastal flood maps leave homeowners in the lurch (May 2023)

More from CommonWealth Beacon BALLOT BATTLES: With the first major signature deadline behind them and another looming, proponents and opponents of a possible record dozen ballot initiatives brace for the next series of hurdles. Jennifer Smith looks ahead at possible legal fights and legislative maneuvering as courts, lawmakers, and the public prepare to sort through a California-level number of ballot referendums.    COURT IN SESSION: An alliance of unions, school districts, and now a major disability rights advocacy group is suing to block President Trump’s efforts to dismantle the US Department of Education. The group expanded its lawsuit last week to include objections to recent interagency agreements to shift the department’s responsibilities to other Cabinet-level agencies. Shauneen Miranda of the Rhode Island Current has more.   OPINION: The way Cambridge elects its leaders paved the way for zoning changes that often stall in other communities, write housing policy analysts Andrew Justus and Alex Armlovich. They dive into how the coalition-based structure of the city council under its proportional representation voting system made the city’s recent ambitious zoning reforms possible.

What We're Reading BLUEPRINT: President Trump’s efforts to take over a small college in Florida offer a roadmap to his push for higher education institutions in Massachusetts and elsewhere to conform to conservative values. (MassLive)  ICE: US Rep. Seth Moulton said that “inhumane” conditions still persist at a Massachusetts ICE facility. (WBUR)  SCHOOLS: Three new superintendents have taken the helm at three different school districts on Cape Cod, thrusting them into new communities, funding shortfalls, and even a little controversy. (Cape Cod Times – paywall)  WU: Boston Mayor Michelle Wu has appointed an interim chief of streets to replace her bike lane-friendly predecessor. (Boston Herald – paywall)  SALARY: Taunton’s auditor is set to get a $50,000 pay increase starting this December. (Taunton Daily Gazette – paywall)

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