Affordable Housing Land Use Variances Zoning
August 14, 2024 / August 14, 2024 by Donald R. Pinto, Jr. | Leave a Comment
In its $5.2 billion Affordable Homes Act (AHA) signed by Gov. Maura Healey last week, the Massachusetts Legislature came down the chimney with some presents that have been on developers’ wish lists for decades. In addition to making accessory dwelling units (ADUs) up to 900 square feet a by-right use in residential zoning districts (see […]
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Land Use Zoning
June 27, 2024 by Gareth Orsmond | Leave a Comment
The Massachusetts Appeals Court recently addressed diminution of property value as a basis for standing to file a zoning appeal. In Pobeda RT II, LLC v. Zoning Bd. of Appeals of Watertown, the court affirmed that individual property value, by itself, isn’t a protected interest that can serve as a basis for standing to appeal […]
Land Use Regulatory Takings Subdivision Zoning
June 3, 2024 / June 5, 2024 by Donald R. Pinto, Jr. | Leave a Comment
The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in Sheetz v. County of El Dorado may have a profound impact on inclusionary zoning ordinances and bylaws in Massachusetts. I suspect few of those regulations – if challenged – will pass constitutional muster under what’s now a quartet of crucial, related Supreme Court (SCOTUS) decisions: Nollan v. California […]
Land Use Real Estate Renewable Energy Zoning
April 20, 2023 by Paula Devereaux | Leave a Comment
We bring to your attention this post by our colleague Randy Rich of Pierce Atwood’s Energy Infrastructure Group on the 9th Circuit’s decision earlier this week in California Restaurant Association v. City of Berkeley, No. 21-16278. The court decided that the federal Energy Policy and Conservation Act, 42 U.S.C. § 6297(c), preempts the City of Berkeley’s […]
Easements Land Use Restrictions
January 19, 2023 by Michelle O'Brien | Leave a Comment
A Kingston couple was dealt a significant blow days before Christmas when the Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) set aside a jury verdict awarding them $3.5 million in damages for errant golf balls hitting their property. In Tenczar v. Indian Pond Country Club, Inc. (pdf), the SJC ruled that the trial judge erred in his jury […]
Environmental Justice Land Use
January 10, 2023 by Tess Edwards | Leave a Comment
In GreenRoots, Inc. v. Energy Facilities Siting Board, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC), for only the second time, had an opportunity to interpret the Environmental Justice Policy (EJ Policy) promulgated by the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EOEEA). The first time, in the 2014 case City of Brockton v. Energy Facilities Siting […]
Affordable Housing Land Use Zoning
December 20, 2022 / December 21, 2022 by Donald R. Pinto, Jr. | Leave a Comment
The Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) last week gave real estate litigators an early holiday gift: an important, clarifying opinion on a recent amendment to Section 17 of M.G.L. c. 40A (the Zoning Act), which governs appeals to court from decisions of local zoning boards. The case is Marengi v. 6 Forest Road, LLC (pdf). In […]
Environmental Land Use Wetlands
September 21, 2021 by Michelle O'Brien | Leave a Comment
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) recently handed a victory to a conservation commission seeking to impose an enforcement order on a property owner who bought land containing unauthorized fill placed there by a prior owner 35 years before. The SJC ruled that the “statute of repose” in the state Wetlands Protection Act, which protects […]
Land Use Real Estate Zoning
August 19, 2020 / August 21, 2020 by Rick Novak | Leave a Comment
In perhaps a sign of the linguistic times, Appeals Court Justice James R. Milkey’s opinion in the case of Comstock v. Zoning Board of Appeals of Gloucester received more media coverage for certain racial history commentary in a footnote than for the central zoning principles at stake. Yet, for zoning lawyers, there is far more […]
Land Use Subdivision
November 8, 2019 by Joel Quick | Leave a Comment
The quality of a property’s frontage on a street or way can define its development potential and therefore its value. The gold standard, which will allow a comfortable check in the ‘frontage’ box in most Massachusetts municipalities, is having the amount of frontage required by the local zoning regulation on a public way. Not every […]
