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SJC hears challenge over town's right of first refusal under chapter 61A in Watermark land sale
Summary
At oral argument, attorneys for Watermark LLC said a notice under Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 61A, §14 failed to state a change in use and thus did not trigger Duxbury's right of first refusal; town counsel argued the notice's reference to subdividing two 40,000-square-foot lots sufficed to show proposed residential use. The court questioned whether intent must be decided by a factfinder.
Jason Rollins, attorney for Watermark LLC, argued before the Supreme Judicial Court that a notice of intent filed under Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 61A, §14 did not satisfy the statute because it did not state that the land would be converted to residential, industrial, or commercial use. "Nowhere in that notice," Rollins told the court, "does it say that the property is going to be converted to residential, industrial, or commercial use." He urged the court to reverse the Superior Court's summary-judgment ruling and send the question of intent to trial as a factual issue.
Rollins said the contemporaneous notice described "seek to subdivide two 40,000-square-foot lots, plus or minus, and maintain the rest as agricultural," and that description did not on its face identify a conversion to nonagricultural use for the portions remaining in agriculture. He argued the town's…
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