Mass. Gen. Laws » Part I Title VII Chapter 41
Massachusetts General Laws

Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 41, § 81E (2026)

Official map; purpose; recordation

✓ current as of July 2026
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Section 81E. Each city or town having a planning board established under section eighty-one A may, by action of its city council or town meeting adopt an official map, prepared under the direction of such planning board and showing the public ways and parks therein as theretofore laid out and established by law and the private ways then existing and used in common by more than two owners. Such official map is hereby declared to be established to conserve and promote the public health, safety and general welfare. Upon the adoption of such a map, and upon any change therein or addition thereto made as hereinafter provided, the city or town clerk shall forthwith file with the appropriate registry of deeds a certificate of such action and a copy of such map as adopted or as changed or added to. A copy of such official map or any change thereto, shall be furnished to the executive office of housing and livable communities. After a plan bearing an endorsement of approval or accompanied by a certificate as provided in the subdivision control law has been recorded, the ways shown on said plan shall be and become a part of the official map. No public water supply or sewer or other municipal utility or improvement shall be constructed in any public or private way in any city or town having an official map elsewhere than in a subdivision approved under the subdivision control law, unless such way has been placed on or made part of such map.

No permit for the erection of any building elsewhere than in a subdivision approved under the subdivision control law in any city or town having an official map shall be issued unless a way giving access to the lot upon which such proposed building is to stand has been placed on or made a part of such map; provided, that an applicant for a building permit which has been denied under this section shall have the same remedy as a person whose application for a building permit has been denied under section eighty-one Y of this chapter.

If such law is not in effect in any city or town adopting an official map, such city or town shall forthwith provide a board of appeals in the manner set forth in section eighty-one Z, which shall have jurisdiction over appeals under this section in the same manner as provided in sections eighty-one Y to eighty-one AA.

Notes of Decisions
Cited in 2 cases, 1968–2018 · leading case: Poremba v. City of Springfield, 238 N.E.2d 43 (Mass. 1968).
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Poremba v. City of Springfield, 238 N.E.2d 43 (Mass. 1968). “In large measure, the present § 81I took the place of G. L. c. 41, § 81E, inserted by St. 1936, c.”
Neli Ridge, LLC v. Town Clerk of Wilmington & Another, 103 N.E.3d 1237 (Mass. App. Ct. 2018). “The town has an "official map" under G. L. c. 41, § 81E, which affects the issuance of building permits.”
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