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Complete List of Land Use Memoranda, 1994 - 2001
Land Use Memoranda
In 1994 Land Use Attorney Sarah Bell began to furnish BRPC with Land Use Memorandums. These briefing papers are designed to assist community officials by focusing on timely, relevant issues relating to growth management, and include information on topics ranging from important state and federal legal proceedings, new planning tools and techniques, and issue-based monographs. BRPC will continue to make the Land Use Memorandums available to Berkshire communities as they become available. The complete series can be viewed at the offices of BRPC.
Complete List of Land Use Memoranda, 1994 - 2001
| Date Issued | Description |
| January 2000 | If Each Lot on the Plan has Practical and Efficient Access to a Public Way as Required by the Applicable Zoning Bylaw, the Plan is Entitled to Form A Approval |
| February 2000 | Here's a Way to Give New Life to Old Buildings |
| March 2000 | What is the Effective date of a Zoning Amendment? There are Several Answers, Depending Upon the Circumstances |
| April 2000 | A Zoning Board of Appeals Finally Triumphs When Higher and Highest Massachusetts Courts Uphold its Denial of a Variance After a Supreme Court judge Annuls It |
| May 2000 | Does Approval of a Definitive Subdivision Plan Require an Affirmative Vote by a Majority of a Quorum of the Board or by a Majority of the Members of the Board? |
| June 2000 | When is a Fee Not a Fee but an Illegal Tax? |
| July 2000 | Do Neighboring Landowners of a Proposed Sewage Treatment Plant Have Standing to Challenge the Favorable Decision of the Secretary of Environmental Affairs to Approve a Final EIR? |
| August 2000 | Can Your Zoning Bylaw Provide for a "Footprint" Size Limitation for Child Care facilities in Residential Areas? If You Have Such a Bylaw, Can It, In a Given Instance, Be Found to Be "Unreasonably Restrictive?" |
| September 2000 | Can a Board Deny Approval of a Subdivision Plan Where One of the Record Owners Has Failed To Sign the Application? |
| October 2000 | Can a Board Deny Approval of a Form A Plan Where Consents and Signatures of All Owners Do Not Appear and the Owners Fail to Provide Title Information As Required by the Board's Rules and Regulations? |
| November 2000 | A Case with Three Interesting Issues: Is Contract Zoning Okay? Is this Rezoning and Instance of Spot Zoning? What About Defects in the Rezoning Hearing Notice? |
| January 1999 | Standards for Existing Ways; The AG Disapproves Some Bylaws; Giving the Reasons for Decisions; |
| February 1999 | Special Permit Granting Authority and Zoning Board of Appeals Procedural Rules and Regulations |
| March 1999 | Primary Uses and Accessory Uses |
| April 1999 | Siting Telecommunication Facilities: "A Refreshing Experiment in Federalism": An Appeals Court Ruling from Our Own First Circuit |
| May 1999 | "...and if the board finds that the plan does not require such approval, it shall forthwith, without a public hearing, endorse thereon or cause to be endorsed thereon..." |
| June 1999 | An About Face: Supreme Judicial Court Reverses Appeals Court on what "Final Action" Means: The Newton "Stop and Shop" Is Stopped |
| July 1999 | What is a Historic Preservation Restriction and Why You Might be Interested? |
| August 1999 | What to Watch Out For When You Write New Bylaws: Here Are Some That Didn't Make It Past the Attorney General's Desk |
| September 1999 | Patience and Long Range Vision: The Life and Work of Frederick Law Olmsted |
| October 1999 | A Decision Based on Procedural Grounds: Failure to Appeal a Planning Board's Definitive Plan Decision in a Timely Fashion Results in Dismissal |
| November 1999 | When a Landowner Must Combine Adjacent Lots |
| December 1999 | A New Look at a Plan that is a Subdivision Lurking in Form A Clothing |
| January 1998 | Super-Majority Vote for Site Plan Review? |
| February 1998 | Jane Jacobs at 81; Walt Disney's New Town |
| March 1998 | Three More Cellular Tower Decisions |
| April 1998 | More About How to Deal with Cell Towers |
| May 1998 | Ways Outside a New Subdivision |
| June 1998 | Challenging the Decision of Another Board |
| July 1998 | Can't Expand Your Non-Conforming Use By Right: How About an Accessory Use? |
| August 1998 | A High-Level Decision in the Cellular Tower Wars |
| September 1998 | Revisiting Traditional Neighborhood Development or the New Urbanism |
| October 1998 | Common Driveways |
| November 1998 | Planning Board Easements: What Does It Take to Make One Binding? |
| December 1998 | The Child Care Facility Exemption |
| January 1997 | Providing for Regional Services and Intertown Agreements: Do We Need More? |
| February 1997 | Eight Year Zoning Freeze Nullified by Automatic Rescission of Subdivision |
| March 1997 | Must a Lot's Frontage be Continuous? |
| April 1997 | Light Pollution |
| May 1997 | Does the Reason for an Action Matter? Appeal of a Building Inspector's Decision to ZBA; How One Establishes a Public Way by Prescription; |
| June 1997 | When Insular Thinking is Appropriate: Herring Creek/Edgartown |
| July 1997 | Cape Cod Commission Wins: Reversal on Daddario Case (See November, 1996) |
| August 1997 | County Immunity from Local Zoning: The Bristol County Jail |
| September 1997 | More about Immunity of Some Governmental Bodies |
| October 1997 | Two More Tower Cases; Professional Practice in Residence; An ANR Denial |
| November 1997 | Landowner Exemptions from Liability: Mass. Recreational Use Law |
| December 1997 | A Subdivision in Two Adjoining Towns |
| January 1996 | Subdivision Control Law: Regulations, Waivers, Acceptance of Substandard Road, Building Not Related to Way; Membership of Board; Appeals |
| February 1996 | Who Has Standing to Appeal? |
| March 1996 | Adequate Bylaw Standards for Special Permits |
| April 1996 | What is Unfavorable Action? |
| May 1996 | Open Space in a Cluster Development |
| June 1996 | Board of Health Refuses to Allow Guesthouse |
| July 1996 | Abutter Cannot Use Discontinued Way (See July, 1995) |
| August 1996 | What is a Compensable Regulatory Taking? |
| September 1996 | The River Protection Act |
| October 1996 | Cellular Tower in Great Barrington? |
| November 1996 | Regulatory Authority: Cape Cod Commission Loses (But See July, 1997) |
| December 1996 | Access to Commercial District from Residential District |
| January 1995 | Ways Which Qualify for Form A Approval |
| February 1995 | Planning before Downzoning |
| March 1995 | Deed Restrictions |
| April 1995 | Conflict of Interest Law/Planning Boards |
| May 1995 | Changes/Alterations to Non-Conforming Structures |
| June 1995 | What a New Planning Board Member Needs to Know |
| July 1995 | Abutter's Rights to Use Discontinued Way (See July, 1996) |
| August 1995 | The Tort Claims Act/Liability Issues |
| September 1995 | Reasonable Regulation: Educational and Religious Uses |
| October 1995 | Notice Requirements: Fourteen Days Successive Weeks/Parties in Interest (See also December, 1995) |
| November 1995 | Boards of Health and Title V |
| December 1995 | Counting the Days |
| Number 1, 1994 | Making Findings/Decisions |
| Number 2, 1994 | Attorney General's Bylaw Review |
| Number 3, 1994 | Earth Removal/Agricultural Use |