[Massplanners] Legal Advertisements for Planning Board and ZBA Hearings

[Lynne D. Sweet]

This is such a timely and important discussion which is why I love this group….and I am going to take it one more direction.

The current guidelines for housing lotteries not only require print advertising, but local print advertising. And as noted, community newspapers is pulling out in many locations.

It is a large cost burden for small developments to pay for print advertising when most potential rents/owners learn of the opportunity through social media.

I hope some of the state agencies are watching this thread and some flexibility can be built into these guidelines.

Lynne

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Lynne D. Sweet
Principal
LDS Consulting Group, LLC
170 Worcester Street, Suite 206, Wellesley, MA  02481
781-943-3963
Specialized Solutions for Housing®
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From: MassPlanners <massplanners-bounces at masscptc.org> On Behalf Of Valerie Massard via MassPlanners
Sent: Wednesday, March 23, 2022 12:30 PM
To: 'Rick Collins' <rickcollins77 at gmail.com>; John Charbonneau <jcharbonneau at stoughton-ma.gov>
Cc: Massachusetts Planners <massplanners at masscptc.org>
Subject: Re: [Massplanners] Legal Advertisements for Planning Board and ZBA Hearings

Great point - This was just announced in our area too – no more print for most of the local newspapers, at all – they are going digital and merging about a dozen or more papers that were once local for the south shore region.  Almost no local reporting is happening at this time, regrettably – only certain topics of interest.


Sincerely,

Valerie Massard, AICP, CFM
Town Planner, Kingston, MA
Town Offices|26 Evergreen St.|Kingston, MA 02364
office 781-585-0549
cell 781-588-7590
vmassard at kingstonma.gov<mailto:vmassard at kingstonma.gov>
https://www.kingstonma.gov/184/Planning

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From: MassPlanners <massplanners-bounces at masscptc.org<mailto:massplanners-bounces at masscptc.org>> On Behalf Of Rick Collins via MassPlanners
Sent: Wednesday, March 23, 2022 11:26 AM
To: John Charbonneau <jcharbonneau at stoughton-ma.gov<mailto:jcharbonneau at stoughton-ma.gov>>
Cc: Massachusetts Planners <massplanners at masscptc.org<mailto:massplanners at masscptc.org>>
Subject: Re: [Massplanners] Legal Advertisements for Planning Board and ZBA Hearings

Is the requirement still print newspaper only?

There is a growing number of digital only outlets, such as the Bedford Citizen. Are they able to take legal ads?





On Wed, Mar 23, 2022, 11:14 AM John Charbonneau via MassPlanners <massplanners at masscptc.org<mailto:massplanners at masscptc.org>> wrote:
It is ridiculous to ask an applicant to pay upwards of $200-300 simply for a legal ad that runs twice!  Luckily the Patriot-Ledger agreed to allow Stoughton to continue to pay the previous rate for a period of 1 year, but it will come to an end soon enough.

John M. Charbonneau
Town Planner
10 Pearl Street
Stoughton, MA 02072
(781) 341-1300 x9201


On Wed, Mar 23, 2022 at 11:06 AM Matthew Benoit via MassPlanners <massplanners at masscptc.org<mailto:massplanners at masscptc.org>> wrote:
One major issue we all have for the Worcester T&G; even though billing for us has been OK, people can’t even view the legal ad online without paying for a membership.

Matthew C. Benoit, Notary Public
Director of Community Development
Town of Douglas
29 Depot Street
Douglas, MA 01516
508-476-4000  x206
www.douglas-ma.gov<http://www.douglas-ma.gov>

From: MassPlanners <massplanners-bounces at masscptc.org<mailto:massplanners-bounces at masscptc.org>> On Behalf Of Joseph Laydon via MassPlanners
Sent: Wednesday, March 23, 2022 10:56 AM
To: Kristina Johnson <kjohnson at townofhudson.org<mailto:kjohnson at townofhudson.org>>; massplanners at masscptc.org<mailto:massplanners at masscptc.org>
Subject: Re: [Massplanners] Legal Advertisements for Planning Board and ZBA Hearings

Kristina,

You forgot one important point; these consolidated media entities can’t figure out billing.  So not only are the costs high, but we are constantly calling to straighten out billing issues.

We may be at a tipping point where planners and towns start asking our legislatures to remove the newspaper requirements and to rely on posting on town websites.  Even moving from planning to administration, I continue to be frustrated by the changing costs and billing errors.

Joe

_________________________________
Joseph Laydon
Town of Littleton
Assistant Town Administrator
37 Shattuck Street
Littleton, MA 01460
jlaydon at littletonma.org<mailto:jlaydon at littletonma.org>
978-540-2460



From: MassPlanners <massplanners-bounces at masscptc.org<mailto:massplanners-bounces at masscptc.org>> On Behalf Of Kristina Johnson via MassPlanners
Sent: Wednesday, March 23, 2022 10:44 AM
To: massplanners at masscptc.org<mailto:massplanners at masscptc.org>
Subject: [Massplanners] Legal Advertisements for Planning Board and ZBA Hearings



**THIS EMAIL WAS SENT BY AN EXTERNAL SENDER**
Hello Friends and Colleagues,

I am curious to know if any of you are having an issue with legal advertisements, as many local and regional newspapers either being consolidated by large corporate media entities,  have a completely online presence, or have changed their billing policies. Both in Hudson and in Framingham (where I serve on the PB), the regional newspaper, the MetroWest Daily News is requiring “pre-payment” for all legal advertisements instead of the traditional third-party billing method.  Thankfully in Hudson we have another newspaper that publishes locally, although their deadlines completely changed our submission deadlines for PB ZBA, as they only publish once a week.  In Framingham, the only other local newspaper is 100% online,  so Framingham will most likely have to raise fees for application filings to cover the pre-payment in order to ensure the provisions of 40A Section 11 are met. I should note that legal advertisements are not cheap!

What a headache!  Anyone else facing this issue?

Best,
Kristina






Kristina Johnson, AICP
Director of Planning & Community Development
Town of Hudson,  MA
President, Mass. Association of Planning Directors
Tel: 978-562-2989
Cell:  857-939-3427
Email: kjohnson at townofhudson.org<mailto:kjohnson at townofhudson.org>
Acta non verba

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