Enabling statute

Massachusetts

The Zoning Act (Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 40A)

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Summary

Massachusetts delegates zoning authority to municipalities (cities and towns), not to counties, which play no zoning role in the Commonwealth. The enabling statute is The Zoning Act, Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 40A; its definition of "zoning" in Section 1A grants cities and towns power to regulate land, buildings, and structures "to the full extent of the independent constitutional powers of cities and towns" — a reference to the Home Rule Amendment (Mass. Const. amend. art. LXXXIX), which is the constitutional source of local police-power authority. Chapter 40A frames, conditions, and limits how that home-rule zoning power is exercised (uniformity within districts, mapping, special permits, voting thresholds, exemptions such as the Dover Amendment in Section 3). The City of Boston is a notable exception: it is excluded from Chapter 40A and zones under its own special enabling act (St. 1956, c. 665), as does Boston via the Boston Zoning Commission.

The delegation

Section 1. This chapter shall be known and may by cited as "The Zoning Act". Section 1A. [Definitions] — "Zoning", ordinances and by-laws, adopted by cities and towns to regulate the use of land, buildings and structures to the full extent of the independent constitutional powers of cities and towns to protect the health, safety and general welfare of their present and future inhabitants. Section 4. Any zoning ordinance or by-law which divides cities and towns into districts shall be uniform within the district for each class or kind of structures or uses permitted. . . . Districts shall be shown on a zoning map in a manner sufficient for identification. The map or maps shall be made a part of the zoning ordinance or by-law.

Verification

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All elements confirmed against the official Massachusetts Legislature site (malegislature.gov) and corroborating sources. (a) Citation is real and current: M.G.L. ch. 40A exists. Section 1 states verbatim: "This chapter shall be known and may be cited as 'The Zoning Act'." Section 1A is "Definitions"; Section 3 covers exemptions (including the Dover Amendment); Section 4 is "Uniform districts." Mass. Const. amend. art. LXXXIX is the Home Rule Amendment (adopted 1966, effective 1967). (b) It is genuinely the state zoning enabling authority. Section 1A defines "Zoning" verbatim as: "ordinances and by-laws, adopted by cities and towns to regulate the use of land, buildings and structures to the full extent of the independent constitutional powers of cities and towns to protect the health, safety and general welfare of their present and future inhabitants." The phrase "to the full extent of the independent constitutional powers of cities and towns" — the link to the Home Rule Amendment — appears exactly as claimed. Not repealed; this is the current operative general zoning act. (c) Authority model is accurate: municipal_delegation (home_rule). Zoning power runs to cities and towns, not counties; MA counties have no zoning role. Boston exception confirmed: Boston is excluded from ch. 40A and zones under its own special enabling act, St. 1956, c. 665 ("An Act authorizing the city of Boston to limit buildings according to their use or construction to specified districts"), administered by the Boston Zoning Commission; courts have held G.L. c. 40A (enacted by St. 1975, c. 808) did not repeal St. 1956, c. 665 by implication. Minor stylistic note (not a substantive error): the summary's closing clause "...under its own special enabling act (St. 1956, c. 665), as does Boston via the Boston Zoning Commission" is awkwardly redundant, but the underlying facts are correct. Sources: malegislature.gov ch. 40A Sections 1, 1A, 3, 4; law.justia.com MA ch. 40A; bostonplans.org Chapter 665 of the Acts of 1956; case law (Emerson College v. Boston; Mass. Appeals Court re Boston Zoning Enabling Act).