88 
matter of history, it has been the general court, by special enactment, 
which has exercised full and solitary control over the boundaries of the 
commonwealth’s governmental entities.” And finally, as a statutory 
matter, the existing scheme of petition for municipal incorporation, 
annexation, or consolidation? and of boundary changes between 
adjoining towns ‘ requires action by the general court. 
Section 8 (4) of the home rule amendment, of course, does not pro-. 
hibit the legislative enactment of a general law establishing a boundary 
adjustment procedure in which delegated entities are authorized to. 
determine when and under what conditions such adjustment shall take. 
place.® The general court, however, has chosen not to enact such 
legislation. To the extent it has placed any initiative for boundary 
alteration or municipal incorporation on any individuals or group. 
outside itself, the general court has given that group only the right to: 
petition for, not to compel, change.’* Effectively, boundary changes 
i Massachusetts currently can occur only by special act of the 
legislature.!?” 
The implications for a new community development corporation 
are clear. Insofar as any planned new community would require (for 
reasons to be suggested later) the adjustment of existing municipal 
boundaries or the alteration of existing units of municipal government, 
the development corporation would have to secure such adjustment or 
alteration by special act from the general court. The most apparent 
obstacles to this aspect of new community development, therefore, are 
political and practical: how to get the necessary special legislation 
through the general court; and, even if the special legislation can be 
obtained, how to phase its enactment with the work of the development 
corporation so that potential private and other developers at best will 
be attracted to, and at worst not be discouraged from, participation 
in the new community development project. 
Under the envisioned operation of the new communities statute in 
part III, there are several situations in which the development corpora- 
tion would desire the general court to exercise one or more of the 
powers reserved to it by section 8(4). As has been described, the pur- 
pose of the statute is to establish a program of new community 
development that will complement and serve as a true alternative to 
existing programs of urban renewal and redevelopment. The communi- 
ties to be developed, therefore, are to be large, relatively self-sufficient, 
responsive to areal needs, diversified in economic base, and located in 
urbanizing regions containing substantial areas of open space.!28 
To achieve this type of community, and to place the new community 
at the location most advantageous from the viewpoint of rational 
statewide planning, may necessitate the development of a new com- 
munity site overlapping the contiguous boundaries of two incorporated 
Zia (1873), Opinion of he Justice Oh Mace (6 Olan) MS Caet ne 
123 Mass. gen. laws annotated c. 3 sec. 5. 
124 Thid,. C. 42 sec. 7. 
125 The legitimacy of such an enactment in the fact of the home rule status of municipal corporations is 
considered, infra, at note 188. Despite one reading of the amendment that would invalidate such general 
legislation, at least as to a procedure permitting the non-consensual annexation of consolidation of a home 
rule municipality, the possibility of a stricter reading in Massachusetts courts is not great. See generally 
Littlefield, ‘Metropolitan Area Problems and Municipal Home Rule’’ (1962) pp. 25-32. 
126 Massachusetts general laws annotated C. 3 sec. 5; C. 42 see. 7. 
127 Even were a general procedural law to exist, the special act would still be the more important tool in 
new community development. Although ideally municipalities would cooperate to accommodate their 
boundaries to a new community, the greater likelihood is that compulsion from the general court in the form 
of a special law would be required. : 
128 See proposed statute, pt. III, infra, sec. 3(11). 
