City of Newburyport v. Woodman

Seaport Village, LLC (Seaport), appeals a Land Court judge’s decision granting summary judgment to the city of Newburyport (Newburyport) on the ground that Seaport’s offer to purchase certain agricultural land from a trustee did not constitute a bona fide offer for the purposes of G. L. c. 61A, § 14, as in effect prior to March 22, 2007. We reverse.

Background3 Eleanor Woodman, as the trustee of the Eleanor J. Woodman Realty Trust (Woodman), owns two parcels of land in Newburyport that have been classified and assessed as agricultural or horticultural land pursuant to G. L. c. 61 A. 4 The…