Exploring How Municipal Boards Can Settle Appeals of Their Land Use Decisions within the Framework of the Massachusetts Open Meeting Law (original) (raw)

One of the enduring issues in zoning law is how to resolve appeals involving the grant of zoning special permits or other discretionary decisions made by the municipal boards that have jurisdiction over some aspect of the private use of land. While their decisions are made in public, and the appeals of these decisions are also decided by a public process, such as a court or an administrative agency, the resolution of these appeals without litigation or administrative appeal poses challenges because resolution without adjudication traditionally requires some confidentiality in order to encourage frank conversation about how a settlement might be achieved.While private lawsuits are settled all the time outside of public view, such settlement poses special problems for municipal boards and commissions making land use decisions because as public bodies, under the provisions of the Massachusetts “sunshine law” requiring open meetings, they are expected to make their decisions in public f...