HOUSE DOCKET, NO. 998        FILED ON: 1/13/2009

HOUSE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  No. 1062

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

_______________

In the Year Two Thousand Nine

_______________

An Act Relative to the Rehabilitation of Community Resources..

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

SECTION 1. Section 2 of chapter 44B of the General Laws, as appearing in the 2006 Official Edition, is hereby amended by striking the definition of “Rehabilitation” and inserting in place thereof the following:—

“Rehabilitation”, the remodeling, reconstruction and making of extraordinary repairs to historic resources, open spaces, lands for recreational use and community housing for the purpose of making such historic resources, open spaces, lands for recreational use and community housing functional for their intended use, including but not limited to improvements to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act and other federal, state or local building or access codes.  With respect to historic resources, rehabilitation shall have the additional meaning of work to comply with the Standards for Rehabilitation stated in the United States Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties codified in 36 C.F.R. Part 68.  With respect to land for recreational use, rehabilitation shall include the replacement of playground equipment and other capital improvements to the land or the facilities thereon which make the land or the related facilities more functional for the related recreational use.

SECTION 2.  Paragraph (2) of subsection (b) of section 5 of chapter 44B, as so appearing, is hereby amended, in line 41, by inserting after the word “section”, the following words:-  The community preservation committee shall also make recommendations to the legislative body for the preservation, rehabilitation, and restoration of open space, historic resources, land for recreational use, and community housing in which the city or town has a real property interest, but may not have been acquired or created as provided for in this section.