Public Waterfront Act (Ch. 91): Massachusetts Coastal Jurisdiction and Permits

Massachusetts General Law Chapter 91 and 310 CMR 9.00 regulations define jurisdiction over projects in flowed and filled tidelands, great ponds, and navigable waterways. The Division of Wetlands and Waterways within the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) administers the program, reviewing projects for navigation, structural soundness, public purpose, and resource protection. Licenses have terms of 10 or 30 years, while permits for work like dredging last 5-10 years.

Use Cases

• Determining permit requirements for coastal construction based on project location and type described in the jurisdiction rules.
• Analyzing regulatory review criteria for waterfront projects based on the six listed review standards.
• Mapping jurisdictional boundaries for coastal areas based on the definitions of flowed tidelands, filled tidelands, and Designated Port Areas (DPAs).
• Comparing license types and terms for water-dependent versus nonwater-dependent uses as outlined in the applicability section.

Strengths

• Description provides specific jurisdictional boundaries (e.g., 250 feet from MHW, 3 miles from shore).
• Explicitly defines multiple license and permit types with distinct terms (10, 30, 5-10 years).
• Outlines a structured six-point review process for project evaluation.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.

Provenance

Source

SCIOPS, likely via NASA Earthdata platform.

Collection Method

Likely contains regulatory and jurisdictional data compiled for the Massachusetts Public Waterfront Act.

Time Range

null

Freshness

null

Geography

Coastal areas, tidelands, and waterways within Massachusetts, USA.