Massachusetts Statutes

Section 2A. No state agency shall place a city or town individually or severally, within a regional or district grouping without the consent of the governing body of such city or town. The governing body in a town shall be the town meeting and in a city, the city council.

Section 3. Any group of cities, towns, or cities and towns may, by vote of their respective city councils or town meetings, vote to become members of and thus establish a planning district, which shall constitute a public body corporate. After a planning district has been thus es…

Section 30. (a) There shall be within each regional planning district created under this chapter or by special act, a technical assistance center for the delivery of coordinated, comprehensive, and continuing technical services to and among local governments for the purpose of ex…

Section 4. In each planning district so established there shall be a district planning commission consisting of one member of the planning board of each city and town voting to join such district, elected annually by said planning board and certified in writing to the district pl…

Section 4A. Upon a two-thirds vote of all of the members of the district planning commission there may be established an executive committee, elected annually from the membership of the commission, and consisting of the chairman, vice chairman, if one is elected annually by the c…

Section 4B. Each planning district may have a seal consisting of a circular die bearing the words, ''Commonwealth of Massachusetts, . . . . . . . . . . Regional Planning District, (insert year)'', which seal may be used whenever deemed advisable by the district planning commissio…

Section 4C. Whenever there is located, wholly or partially, within a planning district established hereunder, a federal military installation having a resident population of at least five hundred persons according to the most recent available federal decennial census, the distric…

Section 5. A planning commission established hereunder shall make careful studies of the resources, problems, possibilities and needs of its district and, on the basis of such studies, shall prepare a comprehensive plan of development or a schematic study plan of such district or…

Section 5A. Such commission may enter into an agreement with the water resources commission for the purpose of conducting water favorability studies under the direction of the water resources commission, as authorized by section nine of chapter twenty-one. The district's share of…

Section 5B. A district planning commission may, by an affirmative vote of two thirds of the representatives of the cities and towns comprising the district, agree to act as, and to assume the duties, obligations, and responsibilities of, an economic development regional commissio…

Section 6. The several officers, boards, commissions, departments and divisions of the commonwealth and city and town officials may consult with any such district planning commission and shall furnish or make available to it on request all data and information within their knowle…

Section 7. Said commission shall, annually in the month of February, estimate the amount of money required to pay the costs and expenses of the district for the following fiscal year, shall fix and determine the proportion of such costs and expenses to be paid by the constituent …

Section 8. The district may authorize debt by a majority vote of the commission in anticipation of revenue to an amount not in excess of that to be received during the current fiscal year from member cities and towns. Notes issued under authority of this section shall be in the n…

Section 9. The secretary of economic development may establish a regional planning and economic development district consisting of all the cities and towns in the Southeastern Massachusetts Regional Planning District established under this chapter, and the towns of Plymouth, Plym…

Section 1. This chapter shall be known and may be cited as the Historic Districts Act.

Section 10. The commission shall have the following additional powers, functions and duties:—(a) If the commission determines that the construction or alteration for which an application for a certificate of appropriateness has been filed will be appropriate for or compatible wit…

Section 11. Meetings of a commission shall be held at the call of the chairman and shall be called at the request of two members of the commission and in such other manner as the commission shall determine in its rules. A majority of the members of a commission shall constitute a…

Section 12. A city or town may provide in its ordinance or by-law or in any amendment thereof, for a review procedure whereby any person aggrieved by a determination of the commission may, within twenty days after the filing of the notice of such determination with the city or to…

Section 12A. Any person aggrieved by a determination of the commission, or by the finding of a person or persons making a review, if the provisions of section twelve are included in a local ordinance or by-law, may, within twenty days after the filing of the notice of such determ…

Section 13. The superior court sitting in equity for the county in which the city or town is situated shall have jurisdiction to enforce the provisions of this chapter and any ordinance or by-law enacted hereunder and the determinations, rulings and regulations issued pursuant th…

Section 14. If the city council or town meeting so votes a commission established hereunder shall have the powers and duties of an historical commission as provided in section eight D of chapter forty and, in this event, a commission may be entitled an historical commission.

Section 15. All ordinance or by-laws creating an historic district adopted by a city or town under authority of this chapter and under authority of any special law, unless the special law shall otherwise provide, amendments thereto, maps of historic districts created thereunder, …

Section 16. A city or town in which there is located an historic district established under a special law may, upon recommendation of the historic district commission having jurisdiction over such district, accept the provisions of this chapter with respect to such district by a …

Section 17. The provisions of this chapter shall be deemed to be severable. If any of its provisions shall be held to be invalid or unconstitutional by any court of competent jurisdiction the remaining provisions shall continue in full force and effect.

Section 2. The purpose of this chapter is to promote the educational, cultural, economic and general welfare of the public through the preservation and protection of the distinctive characteristics of buildings and places significant in the history of the commonwealth and its cit…

Section 3. A city or town may, by ordinance or by-law adopted by two-thirds vote of the city council in a city or by a two-thirds vote of a town meeting in a town, establish historic districts subject to the following provisions:— Prior to the establishment of any historic distri…

Section 4. An historic district study committee may be established in any city or town by vote of the city council or board of selectmen for the purpose of making an investigation of the desirability of establishing an historic district or districts therein. The study committee s…

Section 5. As used in this chapter the word ''altered'' includes the words ''rebuilt'', ''reconstructed'', ''restored'', ''removed'' and ''demolished'' and the phrase ''changed in exterior color''; the word ''building'' means a combination of materials forming a shelter for perso…

Section 6. Except as the ordinance or by-law may otherwise provide in accordance with section eight or said section eight or nine, no building or structure within an historic district shall be constructed or altered in any way that affects exterior architectural features unless t…

Section 7. In passing upon matters before it the commission shall consider, among other things, the historic and architectural value and significance of the site, building or structure, the general design, arrangement, texture, material and color of the features involved, and the…

Section 8. (a) Any city or town may provide in the ordinance or by-law establishing a district or in any amendment thereof that the authority of the commission shall not extend to the review of one or more of the following categories of buildings or structures or exterior archite…

Section 9. Nothing in this chapter shall be construed to prevent the ordinary maintenance, repair or replacement of any exterior architectural feature within an historic district which does not involve a change in design, material, color or the outward appearance thereof, nor to …

Section 1. The following words as used in this chapter shall, unless the context requires otherwise, have the following meanings:— (a) ''Authority'', an industrial development financing board established by section two. (b) ''Board'', the board of directors of an authority. (c) '…

Section 10. All bonds shall be authorized by resolution of the board of the issuing authority. The principal amount of each issue of bonds shall be sufficient after due allowance for bond discount and expense to pay the estimated cost of the project or projects on account of whic…

Section 11. If the proceeds of the bonds initially issued, by reason of increased construction costs or error in estimates or otherwise, shall be less than the amount required for the purpose for which such bonds are authorized, additional bonds may in like manner, and without an…

Section 12. No bonds of any series shall be issued by a municipality under this chapter except bonds issued under section eleven unless the following conditions have been complied with: (1) The governing body of the municipality or in case of a consolidated authority the governin…

Section 13. The proceeds from the sale of any bonds shall be deposited with the trustee under the trust agreement to the credit of a special fund or funds to be used solely for the payment of the cost of the project and shall be disbursed in such manner and under such restriction…

Section 14. All rentals or other monies payable under a financing document shall be paid to the trustee under the trust agreement securing the bonds. The issuing municipality acting by and through an authority is further authorized to pledge such rentals and other revenues to the…

Section 15. All monies received by an issuing municipality acting by and through an authority pursuant to the provisions of this chapter, whether as proceeds from the sale of revenue bonds or as revenues, shall be deemed to be trust funds, to be held and applied solely as provide…

Section 16. Any holder of bonds issued under the provisions of this chapter or of any of the coupons appertaining thereto, and the trustee, except to the extent the rights herein given may be restricted by the trust agreement securing the same, may, either at law or in equity, by…

Section 17. A municipality acting by and through an authority is hereby authorized to provide by resolution for the issuance of its revenue refunding bonds for the purpose of refunding any bonds then outstanding which shall have been issued under the provisions of this chapter, i…

Section 18. All monies of any authority from whatever source derived shall be paid to the treasurer of the authority, except the proceeds of bonds and rentals or other revenues from a project or under a financing document which secures bonds, which shall be paid as provided in th…

Section 19. Any municipality may appropriate money for the benefit of an authority for organizational expenses, and for operating expenses and to transfer for use by any such authority, with or without consideration, any interest in real or personal property or interest therein f…

Section 2. There is hereby created in each municipality a board to be known as the Industrial Development Financing Authority, hereinafter referred to as the authority; provided, that no such authority shall organize or be organized, transact any business, employ any personnel or…

Section 20. The operation and maintenance of the projects by a municipality acting by and through an authority will constitute the performance of essential governmental functions, and an authority or municipality shall not be required to pay any taxes or assessments upon any proj…

Section 21. (a) A municipality acting by and through an authority may finance solid waste disposal facilities in the same manner provided by this chapter for industrial development facilities, except as otherwise hereinafter provided. (b) A city or town, acting in the manner spec…