Session Laws

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

Chapter 97 of the General Laws is hereby amended by striking out sections 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, and 13 and inserting in place thereof the following ten sections:-

Section 8. The system of plane rectangular coordinates shall be the North American Datum of 1983 as established by the National Ocean Services/National Geodetic Survey (NOS/NGS), or its successors for defining and stating the geographic positions or locations of points on the surface of the earth within the commonwealth and shall be known as the Massachusetts Coordinate System North American Datum (NAD), 1983.

For the purposes of the use of said system the commonwealth is hereby divided into a mainland zone and an island zone.

The area now included in the following counties shall constitute the mainland zone: Barnstable, Berkshire, Bristol, Essex, Franklin, Hampden, Hampshire, Middlesex, Norfolk, Plymouth, Suffolk and Worcester.

The area now included in the counties of Dukes County and Nantucket shall constitute the island zone.

Section 9. As established for use in the mainland zone, said system shall be named, and in any land description in which it is used it shall be designated, the "Massachusetts Coordinate System, NAD 1983, Mainland Zone".

As established for use in the island zone, said system shall be named, and in any land description in which it is used it shall be designated, the "Massachusetts Coordinate System, NAD 1983, Island Zone".

Section 10. The plane rectangular coordinates of a point on the earth's surface, shall be used in expressing the position or location of such point in the appropriate zone of said system, and shall consist of two distances, either expressed in meters and decimals of meters or in the United States survey feet and decimals of a foot. One of these distances, to be known as the easting or "X" coordinate shall give the position in an east-west direction; the other to be known as the northing or "Y" coordinate shall give the position in a north-south direction. Such coordinates shall be made to depend upon and conform to the plane rectangular metric coordinates values for the horizontal control stations of the North American Horizontal, Geodetic Control Network as published by said National Ocean Service, National Geodetic Survey or its successors, and whose plane coordinates have been computed on the systems defined in this chapter.

Section 11. Nothing contained in this chapter shall prohibit the conversion of the coordinates on the metric system to the United States Survey Foot nor shall the use of distances in feet and decimals of a foot be prohibited from any map, report of survey, deed, or other document. For conversion of meters to United States survey feet, the meters shall be multiplied by 39.37 and divided by 12 which results in a constant multiplier having a value of 3.28083333333 to 12 significant figures.

Section 12. For the purpose of more precisely defining said system:

1. The Massachusetts Coordinate System, NAD, 1983, Mainland Zone, Federal Zone Code M2001, is a Lambert conformal conic projection of the North American Datum of 1983, having standard parallels at north latitudes 41<= (degrees) 43' (minutes), and 42<= (degrees) 41' (minutes), along which parallels the scale shall be exact. The origin of coordinates is at the intersection of meridian 71<= (degrees) 30' (minutes), west of Greenwich and the parallel 41<= (degrees) 00' (minutes), north latitude. This origin shall have the coordinates: North (Y) = 750,000 meters and East (X) = 200,000 meters.

2. The Massachusetts Coordinate System, NAD 1983, Island Zone, Federal Zone Code I 2002 is a Lambert conformal conic projection of the North American Datum of 1983, having standard parallels at north latitudes 41<= (degrees) 17' (minutes) and 41<= (degrees) 29' (minutes), along which parallels the scale shall be exact. The origin of coordinates is at the intersection of the meridian, 70<= (degrees) 30' (minutes), west of Greenwich and the parallel 41<= (degrees) 00' (minutes), north latitude. This origin shall have the coordinates North (Y) = 0 meters and East (X) = 500,000 meters.

Section 13. The use of the term "Massachusetts Coordinate System" on any map, report of survey, or deed or other document, shall be limited to coordinates based on the Massachusetts State Plane Coordinate System as defined in sections eight to thirteen, inclusive.

Section 14. The coordinate system based upon the North American Datum of 1927 which prior to the enactment of this statute was defined as the Massachusetts Coordinate System shall be now designated the Coordinate System, North American Datum of 1927, (NAD 1927), and can continue in use for the preparation of any maps, reports of survey, or other documents, until such time as the Board of Registration of Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors declares, with the concurrence of the chief engineer of the Massachusetts department of public works, by regulation that said Coordinate System, (North American Datum of 1927), shall no longer be used except for interpreting existing maps, reports of surveys, deeds or other documents. For the Coordinate System, North American Datum, 1927 the commonwealth is divided into the same two zones defined in section eight.

Section 15. The plane rectangular coordinates of a point on the earth's surface, to be used in expressing the position or location of such point in the appropriate zone of said system, shall consist of two distances, expressed in feet and decimals of a foot. One of these distances, to be known as the "X coordinate", shall give the position in an east-west direction; the other to be known as the "Y coordinate", shall give the position in a north-south direction. Such coordinates shall be referred to the appropriate origin as defined in section sixteen, and shall be made to depend upon and conform to the plane rectangular coordinates of the triangulation and traverse stations of the former United States Coast and Geodetic Survey within the commonwealth, as these coordinates had been determined by said survey.

Section 16. The Coordinate System, North American Datum of 1927, Mainland Zone, consists of a Lambert conformal projection of the Clarke spheroid of eighteen hundred and sixty-six, having the standard parallels at north latitude 41<= (degrees) 43' (minutes) and 42<= (degrees) 41' (minutes), along which parallels the scale shall be exact. The origin of coordinates for this zone is at the intersection of the meridian 71<= (degrees) 30' (minutes) west longitude and the parallel 41<= (degrees) 00' (minutes) north latitude. This origin is given the coordinates: `tuc X=600,000 feet; Y=0 feet

The NAD 1927 Coordinate System, North American Datum of 1927, Island Zone, consists of a Lambert conformal projection of the Clarke spheroid of eighteen hundred and sixty-six, having the standard parallels at north latitudes 41<= (degrees) 17' (minutes) and 41<= (degrees) 29' (minutes), along which parallels the scale shall be exact. The origin of coordinates for this zone is at the intersection of the meridian 70<= (degrees) 30' (minutes) west longitude and the parallel 41<= (degrees) 00' (minutes) north latitude. This origin is given the coordinates: `tuc X=200,000 feet; Y=0 feet

The position of said system shall be as marked on the ground by triangulation of traverse stations established in conformity with the standards adopted by the former United States Coast and Geodetic Survey for first-order and second-order work, whose geodetic positions had been rigidly adjusted on the North American Datum of nineteen hundred and twenty-seven, and whose plane coordinates have been computed on the system herein defined. Any such station may be used for establishing a survey connection with said NAD 1927 coordinate system.

Section 17. For the purpose of describing the location of any survey station or land boundary point in the commonwealth it shall be a complete, legal and satisfactory description of such location to give the position of said survey station or land boundary point on the Massachusetts Coordinate System. Nothing contained in sections eight to seventeen, inclusive, shall be interpreted as requiring any purchaser or mortgagee to rely exclusively on a description based on said system.