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H946 • 2025

An Act preserving public trust rights in land affected by ocean erosion

An Act preserving public trust rights in land affected by ocean erosion

Active

The official status still shows this bill as active or still awaiting another formal step.

Sponsor
Sean Garballey
Last action
2026-01-29
Official status
Referred to House Committee on Ways and Means
Effective date
Not listed

Plain English Breakdown

Using official source text because the generated explanation was unavailable or could not be confirmed against the official bill text.

An Act preserving public trust rights in land affected by ocean erosion

An Act preserving public trust rights in land affected by ocean erosion By Representative Garballey of Arlington, a petition (accompanied by bill, House, No.

What This Bill Does

  • An Act preserving public trust rights in land affected by ocean erosion By Representative Garballey of Arlington, a petition (accompanied by bill, House, No.
  • 946) of Sean Garballey relative to preserving public trust rights in certain land affected by ocean erosion.
  • Environment and Natural Resources.
  • Status: Referred to House Committee on Ways and Means

Limits and Unknowns

  • This entry is temporarily using official source text because the generated explanation could not be confirmed against the official bill text during the last sync.

Bill History

  1. 2026-01-29 House

    Bill reported favorably by committee and referred to the committee on House Ways and Means

  2. 2025-10-07 Joint

    Hearing scheduled for 10/07/2025 from 01:00 PM-05:00 PM in A-1

  3. 2025-09-26 Joint

    Hearing scheduled for 10/07/2025 from 01:00 PM-05:00 PM in A-1

  4. 2025-02-27 House

    Referred to the committee on Environment and Natural Resources

  5. 2025-02-27 Senate

    Senate concurred

Official Summary Text

An Act preserving public trust rights in land affected by ocean erosion
By Representative Garballey of Arlington, a petition (accompanied by bill, House, No. 946) of Sean Garballey relative to preserving public trust rights in certain land affected by ocean erosion. Environment and Natural Resources.
Status:
Referred to House Committee on Ways and Means

Current Bill Text

Read the full stored bill text 
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Bill H.946

Section 35 of Chapter 91 of the General Laws, as appearing in the 2022 Official Edition, is hereby amended by inserting, after the last sentence of the first paragraph, the following-

Where sea level rise, storms, or other natural processes have caused the landward or lateral movement of a barrier beach into an area which was previously occupied by the bottom of any Great Pond, the portion of the barrier beach relocated into the former bottom of the Great Pond shall be and remain in public ownership. It being the intent of the foregoing sentence that the application thereof to any property not be in violation of either Article 10 of the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights or the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution, the foregoing sentence shall not convert ownership of any private property to public ownership, and, to the extent that applying the foregoing sentence to any private property would have such an effect, the foregoing sentence shall not apply to such private property. As used herein, “barrier beach” shall have the meaning ascribed thereto in Section 10.29 of Title 310 of the Code of Massachusetts Regulations or successor regulations. Upon petition of ten citizens of the Commonwealth that a dispute exists with respect to the location of the former bed of any Great Pond or other facts relevant to this section, the department and the attorney general or a representative designated by the attorney general shall hold a public hearing and receive such evidence thereon as may be presented to them and otherwise proceed in a manner consistent with the procedures set forth in Section 18A of this Chapter.

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