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Article 27 - Appropriation to Increase the Conservation Land Fund - Con Com fund under 40 8C pdf file

Town Meeting · Town Meeting archive year 2024 · Record 234b5bd599e96d4f66

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General Law - Part I, Title VII, Chapter 40, Section 8C       Page 1 of 5




 Part I             ADMINISTRATION OF THE GOVERNMENT


 Title VII          CITIES, TOWNS AND DISTRICTS


 Chapter 40 POWERS AND DUTIES OF CITIES AND TOWNS

 Section 8C         CONSERVATION COMMISSION; ESTABLISHMENT;
                    POWERS AND DUTIES




 Section 8C. A city or town which accepts this section may
 establish a conservation commission, hereinafter called the
 commission, for the promotion and development of the natural
 resources and for the protection of watershed resources of said
 city or town. Such commission shall conduct researches into its
 local land areas and shall seek to co-ordinate the activities of
 unofficial bodies organized for similar purposes, and may
 advertise, prepare, print and distribute books, maps, charts, plans
 and pamphlets which in its judgment it deems necessary for its
 work. Among such plans may be a conservation and passive
 outdoor recreation plan which shall be, as far as possible,
 consistent with the town master plan and with any regional plans
 relating to the area. The commission may, from time to time,
 amend such plan. Such plan shall show open areas including
 marsh land, swamps and other wetlands, and shall show which


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 areas are subject to restrictions or wetland zoning provisions and
 any other matters which may be shown on a plat index under
 section thirty-three of chapter one hundred and eighty-four.
 Acquisitions of interests in land under this section and other
 municipal open lands shall be shown thereon as well as lands
 owned by other entities kept open through any legal requirement.
 Such plan shall show other areas which public necessity requires
 to be retained for conservation and passive recreation use. It shall
 keep accurate records of its meetings and actions and shall file an
 annual report which shall be printed in the case of towns in the
 annual town report. The commission may appoint a director,
 clerks, consultants and other employees, and may contract for
 materials and services within available funds insofar as the same
 are not supplied by other departments. The commission shall
 consist of not less than three nor more than seven members. In
 cities the members shall be appointed by the mayor, subject to the
 provisions of the city charter, except that in cities having or
 operating under a Plan D or Plan E form of city charter, said
 appointments shall be by the city manager, subject to the
 provisions of the charter; and in towns they shall be appointed by
 the selectmen, excepting towns having a manager form of
 government, in which towns appointments shall be made by the
 town manager, subject to the approval of the selectmen. When a
 commission is first established, the terms of the members shall be
 for one, two or three years, and so arranged that the terms of
 approximately one third of the members will expire each year, and



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 their successors shall be appointed for terms of three years each.
 Any member of a commission so appointed may, after a public
 hearing, if requested, be removed for cause by the appointing
 authority. A vacancy occurring otherwise than by expiration of a
 term shall in a city or town be filled for the unexpired term in the
 same manner as an original appointment. Said commission may
 receive gifts, bequests or devises of personal property or interests
 in real property of the kinds mentioned below in the name of the
 city or town, subject to the approval of the city council in a city or
 of the selectmen in a town. It may purchase interests in such land
 with sums available to it. If insufficient funds are available or
 other reasons so require, a city council or a town meeting may
 raise or transfer funds so that the commission may acquire in the
 name of the city or town by option, purchase, lease or otherwise
 the fee in such land or water rights, conservation restrictions,
 easements or other contractual rights including conveyances on
 conditions or with limitations or reversions, as may be necessary
 to acquire, maintain, improve, protect, limit the future use of or
 otherwise conserve and properly utilize open spaces in land and
 water areas within its city or town, and it shall manage and control
 the same. For the purposes of this section a city or town may,
 upon the written request of the commission, take by eminent
 domain under chapter seventy-nine, the fee or any lesser interest
 in any land or waters located in such city or town, provided such
 taking has first been approved by a two-thirds vote of the city
 council or a two-thirds vote of an annual or special town meeting,



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 which land and waters shall thereupon be under the jurisdiction
 and control of the commission. Upon a like vote, a city or town
 may expend monies in the fund, if any, established under the
 provisions of this section for the purpose of paying, in whole or in
 part, any damages for which such city or town may be liable by
 reason of any such taking. The commission may adopt rules and
 regulations governing the use of land and waters under its control,
 and prescribe penalties, not exceeding a fine of one hundred
 dollars, for any violation thereof. No action taken under this
 section shall affect the powers and duties of the state reclamation
 board or any mosquito control or other project operating under or
 authorized by chapter two hundred and fifty-two, or restrict any
 established public access. Lands used for farming or agriculture,
 as defined in section one A of chapter one hundred and twenty-
 eight, shall not be taken by eminent domain under the authority of
 this section.
 A city or town may appropriate money in any year to a
 conservation fund of which the treasurer shall be the custodian.
 Prior to the adoption of any rule or regulation which seeks to
 further regulate matters established by section forty of chapter one
 hundred and thirty-one or regulations authorized thereunder
 relative to agricultural or aquacultural practice, the commission
 shall, no later than seven days prior to the commission's public
 hearing on the adoption of said rules and regulations, give notice
 of the said proposed rules and regulations to the farmland advisory
 board established pursuant to section forty of chapter one hundred


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 and thirty-one. He may deposit or invest the proceeds of said fund
 in savings banks, trust companies incorporated under the laws of
 the commonwealth, banking companies incorporated under the
 laws of the commonwealth which are members of the Federal
 Deposit Insurance Corporation, or national banks, or invest it in
 paid up shares and accounts of and in co-operative banks or in
 shares of savings and loan associations or in shares of federal
 savings and loan associations doing business in the
 commonwealth, and any income therefrom shall be credited to the
 fund. Money in said fund may be expended by said commission
 for any purpose authorized by this section; provided, however,
 that no expenditure for a taking by eminent domain shall be made
 unless such expenditure has been approved in accordance with this
 section.




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