Mass. Gen. Laws » Part I Title XIV Chapter 90
Massachusetts General Laws

Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 90, § 39B (2026)

Certificate of approval; municipal airport site or restricted landing area; application; hearing; issuance

✓ current as of July 2026
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Section 39B. Each city or town before acquiring any property within the commonwealth for the purpose of establishing, constructing, enlarging or improving thereon an airport or restricted landing area, shall apply to the commission for a certificate of approval of the site. Before granting a certificate of approval for an airport or restricted landing area, the commission may, and upon the request of a resident of such city or town shall, hold a public hearing in the city or town where such airport or restricted landing area is to be located and at least seven days' notice of such hearing shall be published by the commission in a newspaper of general circulation in such city or town. The commission may authorize one member or the director to hold such a hearing.

No such certificate of approval of a site for an airport or restricted landing area shall be issued by the commission if such airport or area is situated on any lake or pond outside the metropolitan area, unless such site has previously been approved by the mayor and city council of the city, or at an annual or special town meeting of the town, within which the same is located.

All airports, restricted landing areas, and air navigation facilities shall conform to plans and specifications approved by the commission and shall not be in conflict with the state airport plan and no such airport, restricted landing area or air navigation facility shall be maintained or operated unless a certificate of approval of the maintenance and operation thereof is granted and is continued in force by the commission; provided, that no such certificate of approval with respect to a restricted landing area or air navigation facility on which public funds have been expended shall confer an exclusive right for the use thereof.

This section shall not apply to restricted landing areas designed for non-commercial private use, nor to any airport, restricted landing area or other air navigation facility owned or operated within the commonwealth by the federal government; provided, that each person constructing or maintaining a restricted landing area for non-commercial private use shall so inform the commission in writing; and provided, further, that such person shall construct and maintain said restricted landing area in such manner as shall not endanger the public safety.

A city or town in which is situated the whole or any portion of an airport or restricted landing area owned by a person may, as to so much thereof as is located within its boundaries, make and enforce rules and regulations relative to the use and operation of aircraft on said airport or restricted landing area. Such rules and regulations, ordinances or by-laws shall be submitted to the commission and shall not take effect until approved by the commission.

All approvals or licenses of airports or restricted landing areas granted by the commission prior to the effective date of this section, shall remain in effect.

Notes of Decisions
Cited in 5 cases (1 in the last 5 years), 1971–2021 · leading case: Bldg. Inspector of Lancaster v. Sanderson, 360 N.E.2d 1051 (Mass. 1977).
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Bldg. Inspector of Lancaster v. Sanderson, 360 N.E.2d 1051 (Mass. 1977). “The defendant obtained the annual certificates of approval for his airport from the Massachusetts Aeronautics Commission (commission) as required by G. L. c. 90, § 39B. The certificate for 1974-1975 referred to a runway 3,660 feet in length, and the one for 1975-1976 referred to…”
Town of Harvard v. Maxant, 275 N.E.2d 347 (Mass. 1971). “G. L. c. 90, § 39B. 2 He gave such notice not later than January 10, 1969.”
Hanlon v. Town of Sheffield, 50 N.E.3d 443 (Mass. App. Ct. 2016). · cites it 4× “2 In reversing the judgment, we acknowledge that the motion judge was confronted, as are we, with statutory language *393 in G. L. c. 90, § 39B, that undermines the evident purpose of the statute, and we note that this is an appropriate subject for corrective legislation.”
Roma, III, Ltd. v. Bd. of Appeals of Rockport (Mass. 2018). · cites it 3× “392 (2016), which interpreted G. L. c. 90, § 39B, to indicate that a town may not enforce a zoning bylaw that would prohibit a private landowner from creating a noncommercial private restricted landing area on his or her property, unless the relevant bylaw had been approved by…”
O'Brien v. Boston Clear Water Co., LLC (2021). “90, § 39B, of the aeronautics code to preclude a town from enforcing a zoning bylaw that would prohibit a private landowner from creating a noncommercial private restricted landing area on his or her property unless the bylaw had been approved by the division.”
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.