Additional Helpful
Organizations
New England Legal Foundation
address
Law Office of
David Grossack
Trains pro se activists
address
Websites
Massachusetts State
General Court
(Senate & House of Representatives)
link
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State News
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- “Flying High without
PILOTs: Town of Brookline’s Use of a Ground Lease to Thwart
Property Tax Exemption for a Charitable Non-profit”
- By Arshag A. Mazmanian, Esq. , October 1, 2007
The Town of Brookline, Massachusetts, granted a re-zoning
to accommodate a non-conforming structure proposed by a non-profit,
while the Town concurrently acquired the property for ground-leaseback
to a developer so that this entity could collect then rent on
the sublet ground lease to the non-profit. The portion of the
rent equivalent to the real estate taxes that would have been
paid if the land were both owned and occupied by a non-charitable
entity is paid by the developer to the Town. The Town thereby
evades the situation of receiving minimal revenue through PILOTs
(payment in lieu of taxes), at most, by a tax-exempt property
owner.
More on this
topic: Zoning
and Buliding Codes — National
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 “New
Wave of UNESCO World Heritage Sites Proposed” - By Carol
W. LaGrasse (PRFA Position Brief, June 2007)
This spring, the National Park Service announced that 36 locations
in the United States have been proposed for UNESCO World Heritage
Sites, adding to the twenty that already are designated in this
country. Such international recognition potentially threatens
private property rights because preservationists could exploit
the designation to stop the use of land in the region just beyond
a site’s borders.
More on this
topic: Biosphere
Reserves & World Heritage Sites
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- “Unjustified Privileges
of Environmental Non-Profits” - By Carol W. LaGrasse,
The Rhodes Real Estate Review, January 1999. Reprinted
by permission.
Marie and Joe Hill were destroyed by the results of an environmentalist
campaign to preserve their Massachusetts farm to the group’s
tastes. Another land preservation group, Scenic Hudson, has tied
up the future of a family-owned concrete block plant in New York,
and cost the owner over $2 million on permits, in the name of
protecting nearby rattlesnakes.
More on this
topic: Land
Trusts
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- “Preservation
Group Straps Massachusetts Farm Couple” — By Carol W. LaGrasse
(Reprinted from the New York Property Rights Clearinghouse,
Vol. 4, No. 2 (Spring-Summer 1997, PRFA)
Bankruptcy court appeal may be the final chapter for Marie
and Joseph Hill, an elderly couple who are being evicted from
their scenic dairy farm in South Dartmouth on Buzzard’s
Bay, after losing a battle with a local preservation group, FORM.
More on this
topic: Land
Trusts
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Hill
Farm
Photo Gallery |
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