[Massplanners] holder of right of way or easement a "party of interest" for Hearing notification

[B]

 BIll

Great point. Suprisingly, I haven't encountered the lack of notice to
private easement holders being an issue, but many may not realize their
rights are impinged until they go to do something in the future.

And, sometimes public easement holders may not have realized a project
could have an impact on, say, their utility installations. And let's not
forget prescriptive easements for, say water and sewer utilities.

So you are absolutely right, notice should should happen. And it should
also include other parties effectively of interest who might not show up in
the Assessor's records, and maybe not even on deeds. Seems a simple
fix--any engineer or surveyor not showing these encumbances on the plans
should be sanctioned, soŕry. (Best effort at least.) Then they can be added
to the notice list. The law should be changed, but many would argue the
notice provisions you mention are a minimum, so you can add to your local
regs.

It's also another good case for signs on the properties notifying people of
proposed develpment actions, as required in other jurisdictions and
discussed in this listserv not too long ago.


Bill Fitzgerald

Taunton Planning Board member


On Thu, Jul 18, 2024, 11:48 AM William Cole via MassPlanners <
massplanners at masscptc.org> wrote:

> I've looked at APA-MA guidebook (great resource, thanks) and cannot find
> an answer to this question:
>
> When SPGA posts a Hearing for a Special Permit and notifies all "parties
> of interest" must the holder of a right of way or easement over the parcel
> be notified as well?  Seems not, if this is comprehensive:
>
> 4.1 – PARTIES IN INTEREST – “Parties in Interest” shall mean all of the
> following:
> • the petitioner;
> • abutters;
> • owners of land directly opposite on any public or private way;
> • abutters to the abutters within 300 feet of the property line of the
> petitioner as they appear
> on the most recent tax list and including land of such property owners
> within an adjacent city
> or town;
> • the planning board of the city or town where the property is located; and
> • the planning board of every abutting city and town
>
> In a case at hand, a SP was granted following a hearing for which notice
> was not sent to a holder of "several rights of way" over the parcel where
> the use was permitted.
>
> thanks in advance,
>
> Bill Cole
> Hardwick MA PB
>
>
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> MassPlanners at masscptc.org
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>
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