[Massplanners] Legal Advertisements for Planning Board and ZBA Hearings

[Ethan Parsons]

Does anyone know if the printed newspaper of local circulation requirement was included in the Acts of 1954 Zoning Enabling Act or did it first appear in the 1975 Act? Whatever the case, it seems an antiquated requirement in 2022. On a related matter, are all municipal planners consistently mailing copies of the legal notices for special permits to abutting municipalities’ planning boards? What do planners do with the notices from abutting municipalities? Do you share them with your planning boards? Does the planning board in town X really need to be made aware of every special permit application in town Y? This requirement has always puzzled me. In my town planning career I’ve only ever heard one response from an abutting town to a notice of a special permit application in the town I’ve worked for and there was a tremendous amount of confusion about what the other town could do about it (a registered marijuana dispensary). The abutting town didn’t do anything about it.

Thanks,

Ethan


Ethan Parsons, AICP
Director of Planning and Development
Town of Ipswich, MA
978-356-6607 x1
www.Ipswichma.gov<http://www.ipswichma.gov/>
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From: MassPlanners <massplanners-bounces at masscptc.org> On Behalf Of Alison Manugian via MassPlanners
Sent: Thursday, March 24, 2022 8:33 AM
To: 'Harry LaCortiglia' <hlacortiglia at comcast.net>; 'massplanners at masscptc.org' <massplanners at masscptc.org>
Subject: Re: [Massplanners] Legal Advertisements for Planning Board and ZBA Hearings

Unfortunately the MGL states for all that the notices must be in a printed newspaper of local circulation.

Thank you,
Alison

Alison Manugian
Community Development Director
amanugian at dracutma.gov<mailto:amanugian at dracutma.gov>
978-453-4557

From: MassPlanners <massplanners-bounces at masscptc.org<mailto:massplanners-bounces at masscptc.org>> On Behalf Of Harry LaCortiglia via MassPlanners
Sent: Thursday, March 24, 2022 8:06 AM
To: massplanners at masscptc.org<mailto:massplanners at masscptc.org>
Subject: Re: [Massplanners] Legal Advertisements for Planning Board and ZBA Hearings


[EXTERNAL] This message originated from outside the Town of Dracut. Use caution when opening attachments, clicking links or responding to requests for information.

Hi Everyone,

This is becoming a topic of concern for my community as well. Public Hearing Notice costs are rising with the near monopoly of the remaining newspapers that still serve the area.

Would it be adverse to law to advertise Notices only in a 100% on-line publication?

Not only would that save money, but it most likely would have the effect of increasing the distribution of the information. Subscriptions for paper versions of newspapers are falling every day, while more and more folks are reading their news on-line.

It almost leads one to question if the paper versions are truly any longer, "of general circulation".

Looking forward to the views of the Planning community!
H. LaCortiglia
Georgetown P.B. & CPC


On 3/23/2022 10:43 AM, Kristina Johnson via MassPlanners wrote:
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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