AS THE CROW FLIES, the multi-family development called The Nines at the intersection of Route 9 and I-95 in Wellesley is a half mile from the Waban MBTA Green Line station in Newton.

But the massive apartment complex was built for humans, not crows.

If you’re a human living at The Nines, you’d have to swim across the Charles River and then trudge up the hills of Waban to reach the T station in a more-or-less straight line.

Or you could take a less pleasant stroll along a traffic-clogged Route 9 and busy Chestnut Street to get there. Google Maps says it’s a 1.2 mile walk that way and will take about a half hour. No swim suit required.

Still, state guidelines appear to say it’s permissible for Wellesley to include the former Williams Street office park as a “transit-oriented district” when formulating its MBTA Communities Act compliance plan, because — as the crow flies anyway — The Nines is partly within the required 0.5-mile radius of a transit station.

And — Charles River inconveniently in the way, or not — that’s precisely what Wellesley wants to do.

The town has included The Nine’s 850 apartments as part of the 1,392 possible units it needs to identify to achieve MBTA Communities compliance. That’s more than 60 percent of the total units Wellesley needs.

That’s just one of two reasons I’m disappointed by the plan.

The other is that The Nines is already permitted. It’s nearly half built. And it’s about 90 percent leased.

Yes, Wellesley is using a not transit-friendly development that’s a done deal (which was also used to meet the town’s 40B affordable housing threshold) to meet a goal that’s designed to encourage the creation of new transit-oriented homes.

That may be kosher under the guidelines. But it’s not in the spirt of the 2021 law which sought to get 177 cities and towns in eastern Massachusetts to collectively contribute to addressing our soul-and-economy-crushing housing shortage.

Using an already permitted, half built, largely leased, project doesn’t help address our region’s housing crisis. It’s something Amy Dain at Boston Indicators calls paper compliance rather than meaningful compliance. It doesn’t add any new homes for young adults or new families, or add diversity. It doesn’t create new opportunities for downsizing seniors. It doesn’t add the homes our local employers need to attract and retain workers.  But it passes the compliance test.

The remainder of Wellesley’s plan plays it safe too. It avoids up-zoning single-family residential areas near its three commuter rail stations, relying instead on existing, mostly commercial parcels that already allow, or have, multi-family units now. Nor does it increase allowed building heights, one of the tools that can help new projects pencil out.

Anyone who cares about meeting Massachusetts’ housing needs should be worried that — not just Wellesley — but dozens of other MBTA Communities municipalities are likely looking for their own path to paper compliance, resulting in very few new homes ever being built.

On the other hand, can you blame the municipal elected and appointed leaders in those communities?

They all watched what happened in Newton last November when three incumbent city councilors, and one candidate for an open seat, were defeated while supporting an MBTA Communities plan which was more expansive than the state required.

And they saw what happened last week in Milton where voters thumbed their nose at state law and state grants and rejected its MBTA Communities process.

Wellesley has a strong anti-growth residential contingent that’s organized of late to oppose other multi-family developments. There’s a municipal election there on March 5 that has growth-friendly candidates nervously looking over their shoulders.  

Meanwhile, town leaders profess a commitment to diversifying Wellesley’s housing stock and just issued an RFP to help develop a town-wide housing plan.  

But crafting a housing plan, getting community buy-in, followed by Town Meeting approval, could take years, maybe decades. MBTA Communities is designed to get communities to unlock zoning now for housing we need now.

I’m guessing the crows are just fine with the whole thing. I worry Wellesley Town Meeting this coming May will be okay including The Nines in the town’s compliance plan too.

But we should all worry that other municipalities across Eastern Massachusetts are in the process of drafting their own paper plans using similar workarounds.

Greg Reibman is president and CEO of the Charles River Regional Chamber, serving Newton, Needham, Watertown, and Wellesley.