MA Court Holds Protest Petition Failed to Comply with Statutory Signature Requirement

This post was authored by Amy Lavine, Esq.

The statute at issue required signatures from the owners of 20% of more of the land within 300 feet of the property to be rezoned, but the plaintiffs contended that the relevant land area should exclude property owned by the developer and the area of land taken up by the streets. The court found no legal basis for excluding these properties, however, as the statute contained no exceptions for land devoted to particular uses or owned by particular parties. The protest petitioners and the developers also offered different configurations of the exact 300 foot radius to be drawn around the property up for rezoning, but it was unnecessary for the court determine which plan was correct because under either version, the plaintiffs were unable to reach the 20% signature requirement.

Harrington v. Newton City Council, 26 LCR 1 (1/5/18)