Mass. Gen. Laws » Part I Title VII Chapter 40C
Massachusetts General Laws

Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 40C, § 6 (2026)

Certificates of appropriateness, non-applicability or hardship; necessity; applications and plans, etc.; building and demolition permits restricted

✓ current as of July 2026
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Section 6. Except as the ordinance or by-law may otherwise provide in accordance with section eight or said section eight or nine, no building or structure within an historic district shall be constructed or altered in any way that affects exterior architectural features unless the commission shall first have issued a certificate of appropriateness, a certificate of non-applicability or a certificate of hardship with respect to such construction or alteration.

Any person who desires to obtain a certificate from the commission shall file with the commission an application for a certificate of appropriateness, a certificate of non-applicability or a certificate of hardship, as the case may be, in such form as the commission may reasonably determine, together with such plans, elevations, specifications, material and other information, including in the case of demolition or removal a statement of the proposed condition and appearance of the property thereafter, as may be reasonably deemed necessary by the commission to enable it to make a determination on the application.

No building permit for construction of a building or structure or for alteration of an exterior architectural feature within an historic district and no demolition permit for demolition or removal of a building or structure within an historic district shall be issued by a city or town or any department thereof until the certificate required by this section has been issued by the commission.

Notes of Decisions
Cited in 3 cases, 2006–2011 · leading case: Springfield Pres. Trust, Inc. v. Springfield Library & Museums Ass'n, 447 Mass. 408 (Mass. 2006).
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Springfield Pres. Trust, Inc. v. Springfield Library & Museums Ass'n, 447 Mass. 408 (Mass. 2006). · cites it 3× “3 G. L. c. 40C, § 6. See G. L. c. 40C, § 10 (a)-(c).”
Roman Catholic Bishop v. City of Springfield, 760 F. Supp. 2d 172 (D. Mass. 2011). · cites it 2× “Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 40C, § 6 (West 2010).”
Collins v. Historic Dist. Comm'n, 897 N.E.2d 1281 (Mass. App. Ct. 2008). · cites it 3× “40C, § 2, the town’s historic district by-law was designed “to promote the educational, cultural, economic and general welfare of the public through the preservation and protection of the distinctive characteristics of buildings and places significant in the history of the Town…”
Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.