Bill will maintain exemption for landlocked tidelands and create public benefit review
Boston – Representative Barbara L’Italien (D-Andover) today announced that the House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed legislation to ensure a new, public-driven review process for large-scale projects being built on the Commonwealth’s many tidelands.
The bill resolves a ruling by the state Supreme Judicial Court that found the Department of Environmental Protection had improperly exempted landlocked tidelands from waterfront licensing. The legislation is the result of a conference committee report developed over a series of months by members of the House of Representatives and the Senate.
The case began when a neighborhood group brought suit against developers of the North Point project in East Cambridge. The SJC issued a stay to give the Legislature the opportunity to resolve the issue. The conference committee resolved their remaining differences last week, prompting the action in the House and expected vote next week in the Senate.
“The public will benefit from provisions of the bill that give them greater input into the development process and gives assurance to homeowners that they will not be subjected to rigorous licensing procedures,” said Representative L’Italien.
“I am very pleased that we have been able to reach a successful resolution between the House and Senate. This bill offers greater protection to the public with regard to public benefits that a developer must give to the community in exchange for building on tidelands. It also offers greater protection to real estate developers and investors who have relied on this exemption for the past seventeen years,” said Representative Frank Smizik (D-Brookline), who served as the House Chair of the conference committee. “This bill protects the public trust interests associated with tidelands without requiring Chapter 91 licensing.”
The legislation validates the regulatory exemption created by the Department of Environmental Protection in 1990. It grandfathers all projects built since that time and ensures that future projects on landlocked tidelands will also have the exemption.
Instead of licensing, tidelands projects must now go through an enhanced review under the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act (MEPA) and a public benefit review by the Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs. The bill further amends the MEPA act to include groundwater among the environmental issues that the Secretary must consider before passing on a project.
