Island Properties v. Martha's Vineyard Commission: Regional Planning and the ALI Code

Abstract

In Island Properties, trustee, v. Martha's Vineyard Commission, 385 N.E.2d 385 (Mass., 1977), the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts grappled with an innovative piece of legislation patterned after Article 7 of the American Law Institute's A Model Land Development Code. Martha's Vineyard, under a special act of the legislature in 1974, became the only other jurisdiction besides the state of Florida to be granted the power to designate and regulate critical areas (Districts of Critical Planning Concern) and to review Developments of Regional Impact (DRI's). Faced with several critical area designations affecting a major development proposal, the Court had to determine to what extent such critical areas were considered “zoning” regulations, and how the regulation of such areas complemented or conflicted with a provision of the state zoning enabling act.¹ In doing so, the Court may have raised more issues than it settled.