Melrose-Wakefield Hospital Ass'n v. Board of Appeals of Melrose

Although medical office facilities are generally now considered integral to the operation of a hospital, Pellegrino v. City Council of Springfield, 22 Mass. App. Ct. 459, 465-466 (1986), a judge of the Land Court ruled that the word “hospital,” as defined in the Melrose zoning ordinance, precluded the construction, as matter of right, of a medical office building ancillary to a hospital. The case had come to the Land Court on an appeal by the proponents of the project from a decision adverse to them by the board of appeals of Melrose (it revoked two building permits which the building…