Hamel v. Board of Health

As part of a plan to protect the drinking water supply of the Katama section of Edgartown from contamination, that town’s board of health (board), acting under authority conferred by G. L. c. Ill, § 31, adopted a regulation prohibiting the construction of guesthouses in the affected area. Paul G. Hamel and Carolyn Hamel own a four-bedroom house located on a two-acre lot that is subject to the board’s regulation. They wish to construct a two-bedroom guesthouse with its own septic system and brought a complaint in Superior Court for a declaration that the “no guesthouses” regulation was a…