Section 54A State consent to issuance of permits to purchaser required; damages in absence thereof - Massachusetts Statutes

Section 54A. If a city or town or any other person purchases any lands formerly used as a railroad right-of-way or any property appurtenant thereto formerly used by any railroad company in the commonwealth, no permit to build a structure of any kind on land so purchased shall be issued by any city or town in the commonwealth without first obtaining, after public hearing, the consent in writing to the issuance of such permit from the secretary of the executive office of transportation and construction. If said secretary does not consent to the issuance of such permit, the owner of the land may recover from the commonwealth such damages as would be awarded under the provisions of chapter seventy-nine.

Notwithstanding the provisions of the second sentence of the foregoing paragraph, there shall be no recovery from the commonwealth in damages under said sentence by an owner of such land purchased after January first, nineteen hundred and seventy-six.