In a recent case, the Appeals Court of Massachusetts decided the issue of whether a plaintiff could raze an existing detached garage on his property and construct a dwelling in its place in accordance with local zoning by-laws. In Cain v. Bd. of Appeals of Wilmington (Mass. App. Ct. Mar.…
In Skawski v. Greenfield Inv’rs Prop. Dev. LLC, 45 N.E.3d 561, 562 (Mass. 2016), the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts decided the issue of whether a law granted exclusive subject matter jurisdiction to the permit session of the Land Court and to the Superior Court to hear certain major development…
In a recent case, the Massachusetts Land Court considered a challenge brought by several plaintiffs with respect to planned redevelopment on the property of the defendants, a county fairgrounds organization. In Tymoczko v. Three Cty. Fairgrounds Redevelopment Corp. (Mass. Land Ct. Mar. 9, 2016), the plaintiffs sought a determination that…
The Massachusetts Land Court recently issued a ruling in a real estate dispute involving zoning relief pursuant to G.L. c. 40A, § 6. In Bjorklund v. Trezise (Mass. Land Ct. Feb. 3, 2016), the plaintiff filed a complaint appealing the decision of the Zoning Board of Appeals, which had denied…
The Appeals Court of Massachusetts recently reviewed a real estate dispute involving a business storage permit issued by the zoning board of appeals. In Fordham v. Butera (Mass. App. Ct. Jan. 27, 2016), the plaintiff sought to set aside business storage permits that allowed the defendants to store a limited…
The Massachusetts Land Court decided a real estate dispute regarding the property merger of lots for building purposes in Kneer v. Luciano (Mass. Land Ct. Aug. 21, 2015). In Kneer, the plaintiff owned two lots of vacant land, which together failed to satisfy the current zoning requirement for the minimum…
The Massachusetts Court of Appeals recently decided a zoning issue involving the development of a commercial horse farm on property previously designated as single-family use. In Lingerman v. 6 Mill Road, LLC (Ct. App. Mass 2015), the plaintiffs appealed a judgment from the Massachusetts Land Court upholding the decision of a…
In a recently published opinion, the Massachusetts Court of Appeals reversed a decision by a local zoning board that waived the requirements of a zoning bylaw regarding sewage limitations for a proposed housing project in Stow. In Reynolds v. Zoning Board of Appeals of Stow, a neighboring property owner of…
In a recently issued opinion, the Massachusetts Land Court examined the meaning of “public way” as used in a provision of the Town of Tisbury’s Zoning By-laws. The court’s use of the definition stated in Fenn v. Town of Middleborough (7 Mass. App. Ct. 80 (1979)) may provide context for…
In Touher v. Town of Essex, the Massachusetts Court of Appeals was presented with a somewhat unusual situation involving long-term land leases between the town of Essex and residents who built homes on the leased property. Four sets of plaintiffs filed a complaint with the lower court, seeking a declaration…