SMI Investors, Inc. v. Planning Board

In 1973 the plaintiff’s predecessors in title (the Chiras) were granted a special permit by the Tisbury board of appeals to develop their 107-acre tract bordering on Lake Tashmoo as a cluster development. The planning board disapproved the subdivision plan, however, on the ground that the proposed 150-dwelling unit development exceeded the density requirement of a 1973 amendment to the zoning by-law (50,000 square feet per lot). Litigation followed, as a result of which a judge of the Superior Court ruled, in favor of the Chiras, that the applicable density requirement was that in effect…