NEEDHAM - Needham residents have voted against the town's plan to comply with the MBTA Communities Law, even as the state filed emergency regulations intended to enforce the rules. According to preliminary special election results,

people voted down the zoning changes, while 4,914 people voted to keep in compliance with the law, according to the town clerk.

Opponents of Needham’s plan to allow more multifamily housing under the MBTA Communities law defeated the measure on Tuesday.

Residents in Needham struck down a zoning plan that would have allowed the town to construct more units of multi-family housing than what’s required to be in compliance with the MBTA Communities Act.

The proposal would have created capacity for roughly 3,300 units near two of the town's commuter rail station stops.

Needham became the latest Massachusetts suburb to shoot down a controversial state-mandated MBTA zoning plan, but its Select Board chairman says the town won’t follow in Milton’s footsteps. Needham residents voted Tuesday to repeal zoning that would have made the Greater Boston town compliant with the MBTA Communities Act – a plan that carried much more weight than what the state law requires.