Article 97 Explained

Article 97 was adopted in 1972 as the 97th Amendment to the Massachusetts Constitution. It guarantees Massachusetts residents basic environmental rights and protections. Recognizing that public conservation holdings are often the first place government or developers look when they need land, the article also decrees that no public conservation holding shall be converted or disposed of without passage of legislation approved by a 2/3 vote of the Massachusetts Legislature.

Language of Article 97: “The people shall have the right to clean air and water, freedom from excessive and unnecessary noise, and the natural, scenic, historic, and esthetic qualities of their environment; and the protection of the people in their right to the conservation, development and utilization of the agricultural, mineral, forest, water, air and other natural resources is hereby declared to be a public purpose. The general court shall have the power to enact legislation necessary or expedient to protect such rights.

“In the furtherance of the foregoing powers, the general court shall have the power to provide for the taking, upon payment of just compensation therefore, or for the acquisition by purchase or otherwise, of lands and easements or such other interests therein as may be deemed necessary to accomplish these purposes. Lands and easements taken or acquired for such purposes shall not be used for other purposes or otherwise disposed of except by laws enacted by a two thirds vote, taken by yeas and nays, of each branch of the general court.”

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