reglab/housing_qa huggingface dataset:
MA Gen L ch 41 § 69d (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title VII - Cities, Towns and Districts|Chapter 41 - Officers and Employees of Cities, Towns and Districts|Section 69d - Board of Public Works; Membership; Election; Tenure; Powers and Duties

Section 69D. Any town which has accepted the provisions of sections sixty-nine C to sixty-nine F, inclusive, shall elect in the following manner a board of public works, hereinafter called the board, to consist of three members. The initial members thereof shall be elected, one to serve for one year, one for two years, and one for three years, from the date of the annual meeting at which they are elected, and thereafter when the term of any member expires, his successor shall be elected to serve for three years. In all cases the members shall serve until their successors are elected and qualified. The members of the board shall, after each election, elect one of their members to act as chairman for the ensuing year.  Upon the election and qualification of the members of the board, the board shall have all the powers and duties now or from time to time vested by general law or special act in the following boards, departments and offices, or in boards, departments and offices having corresponding powers and duties in said town, to wit:—road commissioners, surveyors of highways, superintendent of streets, water commissioners, sewer commissioners, municipal light board or commissioners, park commissioners, cemetery commissioners, tree warden, moth superintendent and forestry department, and such boards, departments and offices shall thereupon be abolished. No contracts or liabilities then in force shall be affected by such abolition, but the board of public works shall in all respects be the lawful successor of the boards, departments and offices so abolished.  The board shall have such additional powers with respect to the furnishing of engineering services, the collection and disposal of garbage and refuse, the maintenance and repair of town buildings and property, and the performance of such duties of any other boards, departments and offices of the town as may be reasonably related to the duties and responsibilities of a board of public works, as the town may, from time to time, by by-law provide, any other provisions of law to the contrary notwithstanding.
MA Gen L ch 41 § 69e (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title VII - Cities, Towns and Districts|Chapter 41 - Officers and Employees of Cities, Towns and Districts|Section 69e - Superintendent of Public Works; Appointment; Powers and Duties

Section 69E. The board shall appoint and fix the compensation of a superintendent of public works, who shall exercise and perform, under the supervision and direction of the board, such of the powers, rights and duties transferred to it under section twenty-one or section sixty-nine D as it may from time to time designate. He shall be responsible for the efficient exercise and performance of such powers, rights and duties and shall hold office subject to the will of the board. He shall be specially fitted by education, training and experience to perform the duties of said office, and may or may not be a resident of the town. During his tenure he shall hold no elective or other appointive office, nor shall he be engaged in any other business or occupation. He shall give to the town a bond with a surety company authorized to transact business in the commonwealth as surety, for the faithful performance of his duties, in such sum and upon such conditions as the board may require, and shall, subject to the approval of the board, appoint such assistants, agents and employees as the exercise and performance of his powers, rights and duties may require. He shall keep full and complete records of the doings of his office and render to the board as often as it may require a full report of all operations under his control during the period reported upon; and annually, and from time to time as required by the board, he shall make a synopsis of such reports for publication. He shall keep the board fully advised as to the needs of the town within the scope of his duties, and shall furnish to the board each year upon its request a carefully prepared and detailed estimate in writing of the appropriations required during the next succeeding fiscal year for the proper exercise and performance of all said powers, rights and duties.
MA Gen L ch 41 § 69f (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title VII - Cities, Towns and Districts|Chapter 41 - Officers and Employees of Cities, Towns and Districts|Section 69f - Submission to Voters of Revocation of Acceptance; Conditions; Effect

Section 69F. Any town which has accepted the provisions of sections sixty-nine C to sixty-nine F, inclusive, may, after the expiration of three years from the date of such acceptance, upon petition of ten per cent of the qualified voters of the town filed with the selectmen at least sixty days before an annual town meeting, vote at an annual meeting to revoke such acceptance, and the question of such revocation shall be submitted to the voters in the form of the following question:—''Shall the acceptance by the town of sections sixty-nine C to sixty-nine F, inclusive, of chapter forty-one of the General Laws providing for the establishment of a board of public works exercising the powers of certain other departments and town officers be revoked?'' If a majority of the votes cast in answer to said question is in the affirmative, then at the next annual town election held after said vote to revoke, the town shall elect such officers as are necessary to exercise and perform the powers, rights and duties transferred to the board of public works by said sections. Such action shall not affect any contract or liability then created or existing. All general laws respecting town administration and town officers, and any special laws relative to said town, the operation of which has been suspended or superseded by the acceptance of said sections sixty-nine C to sixty-nine F, inclusive, shall then be in full force and effect. Any by-law inconsistent with such special or general laws shall be revoked thereby. Any subsequent vote to revoke the acceptance of said sections shall not be taken more often than once in three years.
MA Gen L ch 41 § 69g (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title VII - Cities, Towns and Districts|Chapter 41 - Officers and Employees of Cities, Towns and Districts|Section 69g - Office of Lands and Natural Resources; Establishment; Powers and Duties; Director and Assistants

Section 69G. Every city or town may establish an office of lands and natural resources. Said office shall have charge of such lands as may be committed to its care and may perform such maintenance and improvement work on other municipal lands as may be permitted by the board, department, commission or committee in charge thereof. Said office shall exercise the duties of tree warden and superintendent of insect pest control, and upon the establishment of said office and offices of tree warden and superintendent of insect pest control shall be abolished. Said office shall be under the control of a director qualified by training and experience in the field of arboriculture and licensed by the pesticide board in the department of environmental protection. The city manager or the town manager in a city or town having such manager, the mayor in any other city and the selectmen in any other town shall appoint said director for a term of three years. The commissioner of environmental management shall be notified in writing forthwith by the city or town clerk of said appointment and the name and address of said director. The director may appoint such assistants as appropriations permit. He shall have control of all sums appropriated for and to be expended by the office and may apply for and receive such federal, state and county assistance as may be available. Nothing contained in this section shall be construed to affect the powers and duties of a conservation commission established under section eight C of chapter forty.
MA Gen L ch 41 § 70 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title VII - Cities, Towns and Districts|Chapter 41 - Officers and Employees of Cities, Towns and Districts|Section 70 - Planning Board; Duties

Section 70. Every city and every town having a population of more than ten thousand at the last preceding national census shall, and towns having a population of less than ten thousand may, create a planning board, which shall make careful studies of the resources, possibilities and needs of the town, particularly with respect to conditions injurious to the public health or otherwise in and about rented dwellings, and make plans for the development of the municipality, with special reference to proper housing of its inhabitants. In cities the said board shall be appointed by the mayor, subject to confirmation by the council, and in towns shall be elected at the annual town meeting or be appointed in such manner as an annual town meeting may determine.  No planning board shall be established under this section after December thirty-first, nineteen hundred and thirty-six, but any such board established under this section or corresponding provisions of earlier laws and existing on said date shall continue until its existence is terminated under section eighty-one B.
MA Gen L ch 41 § 71 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title VII - Cities, Towns and Districts|Chapter 41 - Officers and Employees of Cities, Towns and Districts|Section 71 - Annual Report

Section 71. Every planning board shall make a report annually to the city council or to the annual town meeting, giving information regarding the condition of the town and any plans or proposals for its development and estimates of the cost thereof. Every such planning board shall file with the director of housing and community development a copy of each report made by it.
MA Gen L ch 41 § 72 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title VII - Cities, Towns and Districts|Chapter 41 - Officers and Employees of Cities, Towns and Districts|Section 72 - Ordinances and By-Laws

Section 72. Cities and towns may make ordinances and by-laws for carrying out the purposes of section seventy and of sections eighty-one A to eighty-one GG, inclusive, and they may appropriate money therefor. The planning board of a town, established under section seventy or corresponding provisions of earlier laws, may be authorized by vote of the town to act as park commissioners therein, and may be vested with all the powers and duties of park commissioners in towns.
MA Gen L ch 41 § 73 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title VII - Cities, Towns and Districts|Chapter 41 - Officers and Employees of Cities, Towns and Districts|Section 73 - Board of Survey; Membership; Length of Existence; Suspension of Powers and Duties

Section 73. In cities which accept this section by vote of the city council or have accepted corresponding provisions of earlier laws, the mayor, with the approval of the city council, may in January in any year appoint three inhabitants thereof to be a board of survey. Of the members first appointed one shall serve for one year, one for two years, and one for three years from the first day of the following February, and thereafter, in January of each year, one member of said board shall be appointed to serve for three years from the first day of February after his appointment, or until his successor is qualified. If a vacancy occurs a member shall be appointed in the manner provided herein to serve for the remainder of the term. The city engineer shall act as clerk of the board. The compensation of the members of the board shall be fixed by the city council. In towns which accept this section or have accepted corresponding provisions of earlier laws, the selectmen shall constitute a board of survey.  No board of survey shall be established under this section after December thirty-first, nineteen hundred and thirty-six; but any such board established under this section or corresponding provisions of earlier laws or by a special act and existing on said date shall continue until its existence is terminated under section eighty-one B. Every board of survey of a city or town which has not accepted the provisions of sections eighty-one K to eighty-one GG, inclusive, or corresponding provisions of earlier laws, shall transmit to the register of deeds of the county or district in which such city or town is situated and to the recorder of the land court within sixty days after the first day of January, nineteen hundred and fifty-four, a statement that there is in such city or town a board of survey and that the city or town has not in the opinion of said board accepted said sections, including a copy certified by the clerk of such city or town of the vote accepting this section or corresponding provisions of earlier laws, or a reference to any special statute under which such board is established. Unless such statement is so transmitted the powers and duties of such board of survey shall be suspended in and in respect to such city or town, until such statement has been sent to such register of deeds and such register has entered such statement in a book in the same manner as is provided in section eighty-one X in the case of planning boards established under section eighty-one A.
MA Gen L ch 41 § 74 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title VII - Cities, Towns and Districts|Chapter 41 - Officers and Employees of Cities, Towns and Districts|Section 74 - Approval of Plans Filed by Citizens

Section 74. After the establishment of a board of survey no person shall open a private way for public use without first submitting to said board suitable plans thereof in accordance with such rules and regulations as the board may prescribe. In cities such plans shall be so prepared as to show the profiles of such way and the method of drainage of the adjacent or contiguous territory. Upon the receipt of said plans, with a petition for their approval, the board shall give a public hearing thereon, after giving notice of the same by publication once in each of two successive weeks in a newspaper published in the city or town, the last publication to be at least two days before the hearing; and after the hearing, the board may alter such plans, and may determine where such ways shall be located and the width and grades thereof, and shall indicate any modifications on said plans. The plans as approved or modified by the board shall then be signed by the board, and in cities shall be filed in the office of the city engineer, and in towns in the office of the town clerk; and the officer with whom they are filed shall attest thereon the date of filing; and thereafter no way in the territory to which the plans relate shall be laid out or constructed except in accordance therewith, or with further plans subsequently approved by the board.
MA Gen L ch 41 § 75 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title VII - Cities, Towns and Districts|Chapter 41 - Officers and Employees of Cities, Towns and Districts|Section 75 - Preparation of Plans by Board

Section 75. The board of survey may, and in cities, upon the vote of the planning board and the city council, shall, from time to time cause plans to be made of such territory or sections of lands in the city or town as the board of survey or the planning board may deem necessary, showing thereon the location of such ways, whether already laid out or not, as, in the opinion of the board, the interest of the public may or will require in such territory, showing clearly the direction, width and grades of each way, and in cities a plan of drainage, and said board may incur such expenses as it may deem necessary therefor, not exceeding the amount appropriated for the purpose. In cities such plans shall be prepared by the city engineer, under the direction of the board. Before causing such plans to be made, the board shall give a public hearing thereon, which shall be advertised in the manner prescribed in the preceding section, and shall, after the making of any such plan, give a hearing thereon, advertised in like manner, and keep the plan open to public inspection for one month after the first advertisement of the hearing. After the hearing, and after any alterations deemed necessary by said board have been made, the same shall be approved, signed, marked, filed and attested as provided in respect to the plans mentioned in the preceding section.
MA Gen L ch 41 § 76 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title VII - Cities, Towns and Districts|Chapter 41 - Officers and Employees of Cities, Towns and Districts|Section 76 - Substitution of New Plans

Section 76. The board of survey may from time to time make new plans in place of plans filed in accordance with the two preceding sections, or make changes on plans so filed; provided, that any action involving new plans or changes in plans already duly attested and filed shall be made only after the notice and hearing, and in all other respects in the manner specified in section seventy-four; and the last plan so made, or the plan with the changes last made thereon and duly attested and filed, shall be the plan governing the future development of the territory affected.
MA Gen L ch 41 § 77 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title VII - Cities, Towns and Districts|Chapter 41 - Officers and Employees of Cities, Towns and Districts|Section 77 - Construction or Alteration of Public Ways; Restrictions

Section 77. The powers of the city council or of the selectmen in regard to highways shall not be abridged by sections seventy-three to eighty-one, inclusive, in any manner, except as provided herein, and the powers conferred by said sections shall be in addition to other powers possessed by cities and towns. No public way shown on any plan filed as aforesaid shall hereafter be laid out, located anew, altered or widened, and no such way, whether already or hereafter laid out, shall be constructed by any public authority except in accordance with the plan duly attested and recorded under said sections. If any person shall open for public travel any private way the location, direction, width, grades and in cities the plan of drainage of which have not previously been approved in writing by the board of survey in the manner provided in said sections, neither the city or town nor other public authority shall place any public sewer, drain, water pipe or light in, or do any public construction work of any kind, or make repairs, on such private way; provided, that this section shall not prevent the laying of a trunk sewer, drain, water or gas main if required by engineering necessities for the accommodation of other territory.
MA Gen L ch 41 § 78 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title VII - Cities, Towns and Districts|Chapter 41 - Officers and Employees of Cities, Towns and Districts|Section 78 - Recordation of Plan; Necessity of Approval by Board

Section 78. No register of deeds shall record any plan showing thereon proposed ways in any town having a board of survey, unless there is endorsed thereon a certificate of said board, or other proper officer by it designated, that all laws applicable to such plan have been complied with. The clerk of each town shall notify the register of deeds of the district where such town is situated of the acceptance by such town of section seventy-three or corresponding provisions of earlier laws, or of any special act establishing a board of survey therein, and also the name of the officer designated by said board to approve plans hereunder.
MA Gen L ch 41 § 79 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title VII - Cities, Towns and Districts|Chapter 41 - Officers and Employees of Cities, Towns and Districts|Section 79 - Entry Upon Lands by Board of Survey for Examinations and Surveys

Section 79. Boards of survey, their officers and agents may, so far as they deem it necessary in carrying out sections seventy-three to eighty-one, inclusive, enter upon any lands and there make examinations and surveys, and place and maintain monuments and marks.
MA Gen L ch 41 § 80 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title VII - Cities, Towns and Districts|Chapter 41 - Officers and Employees of Cities, Towns and Districts|Section 80 - Establishment and Discontinuance of Exterior Way Lines

Section 80. A town which accepts section seventy-three or has accepted corresponding provisions of earlier laws or has accepted any special act authorizing the creation of a board of survey therein may establish, in the manner provided for the laying out of town ways, the exterior lines of any way, the plan of which is approved under section seventy-four or seventy-five or under such special act; and thereafter no structure shall be erected or maintained between the exterior lines of the way so established, except that buildings or parts of buildings existing at the time of the establishment of said lines may remain and be maintained to such extent and under such conditions as may be prescribed by the board of survey of such town. Lines established under this section may be discontinued in the manner provided for the discontinuance of a highway or a town way. This section shall not apply to cities.
MA Gen L ch 41 § 81 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part I - Administration of the Government|Title VII - Cities, Towns and Districts|Chapter 41 - Officers and Employees of Cities, Towns and Districts|Section 81 - Damages

Section 81. Sections seventy-three to seventy-nine, inclusive, shall not authorize the taking of land nor authorize a town to lay out or construct any way which may be indicated on any plan until such way has been laid out as a highway; nor shall said sections render a town liable for damages except such as may be sustained under section seventy-six by reason of the making and filing of any new plan or by reason of changes made in any plan already duly attested and filed, and for such damages as may be sustained by reason of the acts of the board of survey, its officers and agents under section seventy-nine. Any person injured in his property as aforesaid or by the establishment or discontinuance of exterior lines under section eighty may recover the damages so caused under chapter seventy-nine.