New Environmental Justice Regulations and Guidance

Dear Friends,

First, allow us to extend our very best wishes for a healthy, safe and prosperous New Year. These have been challenging years, to say the least. We have all adapted as best we could and we will continue to do so to meet your present and future needs as they develop.

At our office, we have not missed a beat. When necessary, we have worked from home using the best available technologies and we have worked safely at work, again using best practices and safety devices such as the latest in room air purifiers. Early on, we developed a way of executing estate planning and real estate documents remotely which was later adopted by the state, with minor modifications.

To keep you current on important legal developments, we are forwarding to you a newsletter and client advisory prepared by our long time environmental law collaborators at Mackie Shea Durning, P.C. on the new area of environmental law dealing with “environmental justice requirements” and the Climate Roadmap Act (click here to the newsletter).

This new area of law will impact real estate developments for years to come. It will likely increase the number of Environmental Impact Reports and permitting expense for those seeking to do projects in areas close to (1-5 miles) "environmentally" burdened geographical zones.

Since several of these zones are located in our service area in Bristol County (interactive map by MA EEA), we strongly urge a working familiarity of this significant change to all those interested in developing and protecting their areas.

We have been working with John Shea and his team even before we did the legal work leading to the construction of the Compass Bank Headquarters (now the DeMello International Center). We have worked on dozens of projects together. He is widely considered one of, if not the best, environmental lawyers in Massachusetts. And his partner, Peter Durning, is at least as knowledgeable, efficient and intelligent.

If you have any questions as to how these new laws and regulations may affect you, please call Bob so that he can help assess your situation, and if need be introduce you to John and Peter.

As always, please let us know how we can assist you!