SECTION 1. Section 10 of Chapter 40A of the General Laws, is hereby amended by inserting after the third paragraph:-

Any municipality in which the Board of Selectmen or City Council is the Special Permit Granting authority and another agency or administrator is the Permit Granting Authority, may elect, by a local ordinance or amendment thereto, to provide in its zoning ordinance, that if a project, within ordinance specified types and parameters, requires zoning relief of any form, whether variance, special permit or otherwise, from the Permit Granting Authority, and also requires zoning relief from the Special Permit Granting Authority, whether special permit or otherwise,  the petitioner may elect to apply for all such relief to the Special Permit Granting Authority which shall then have the power as to that petition to grant all relief required including relief otherwise reserved to the Permit Granting Authority.  The Special Permit Granting Authority shall, however, have the authority to decline to accept such a petition and to require the petitioner to petition the Permit Granting Authority for all of the relief in the petition which is normally reserved to that Authority before filing for the relief required from the Special Permit Granting Authority, if, in its discretion, it determines  that any item of the requested relief normally reserved to the Permit Granting Authority should be determined by that Authority because of its experience and/or expertise in that type or item or its application to the specific project.  Such a determination shall be made in a writing addressed to the petitioner or the petitioner's representative. This Paragraph shall not apply if a use variance is required for the project.