Town of Smithfield v. Churchill & Banks Companies, LLC

OPINION

Justice SUTTELL,

for the Court.

We issued a writ of certiorari to review the State Housing Appeals Board’s (SHAB) decision that the application for a comprehensive permit submitted by Churchill & Banks Companies, LLC (Churchill & Banks) under the Low and Moderate Income Housing Act, G.L.1956 chapter 53 of title 45, was, as of February 13, 2004, substantially complete by the terms of § 45 — 53—6(f)(1). “Substantial completeness” is an elusive standard even when it is grounded, as it so often is, in the more tangible confines of the construction world; it is all the more ephemeral when…