{"id":705,"date":"2016-01-15T09:28:05","date_gmt":"2016-01-15T14:28:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bowditch.com\/bowditchrealestateblog\/?p=705"},"modified":"2020-07-31T13:26:50","modified_gmt":"2020-07-31T13:26:50","slug":"a-win-for-retail-chains-as-wellfleets-formula-business-zoning-bylaw-is-ruled-invalid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bowditch.com\/bowditchrealestateblog\/2016\/01\/15\/a-win-for-retail-chains-as-wellfleets-formula-business-zoning-bylaw-is-ruled-invalid\/","title":{"rendered":"A Win for Retail Chains as Wellfleet\u2019s \u201cFormula Business\u201d Zoning Bylaw is Ruled Invalid"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Retail chains scored a victory in a recent Massachusetts Land Court decision, <a href=\"http:\/\/masscases.com\/cases\/land\/2015\/2015-12-459503-DECISION.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Cumberland Farms, Inc. v. The Town Of Wellfleet, et al<\/a>, in which the Land Court struck down a provision of Wellfleet\u2019s zoning bylaw that regulated \u201cformula businesses.\u201d Cumberland Farms appealed a decision by the Wellfleet Zoning Board of Appeals to deny Cumberland Farms\u2019 proposed development plans to demolish two existing buildings and construct one larger building and a canopied fuel pump filling station. The Town\u2019s \u201cformula businesses\u201d zoning bylaw requires businesses that would like to open a store in the Town and identify themselves as having twenty-five or more similar concept store locations worldwide that are obligated to carry and display merchandise in a standardized array to obtain a special permit. The Board denied Cumberland Farms\u2019 application for relief from this bylaw.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>In its appeal to the Land Court, Cumberland Farms argued that the bylaw was invalid both on its face and as applied to Cumberland Farms\u2019 proposed use of the property. Judge Keith C. Long agreed with Cumberland Farms, finding that the Town failed to provide any evidence that a store which is classified as a \u201cformula business\u201d uses the land differently from one that is not. Judge Long further found that the bylaw regulated land based on its owner rather than its use, which is improper and a form of economic protectionism. Wellfleet failed to offer much, if any, compelling evidence to justify its bylaw, and it will be interesting to see if other retail chains will be able to use this case as a guide for challenging similar \u201cformula business\u201d or similar zoning restrictions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Retail chains scored a victory in a recent Massachusetts Land Court decision, Cumberland Farms, Inc. v. The Town Of Wellfleet, et al, in which the Land Court struck down a provision of Wellfleet&rsquo;s zoning bylaw that regulated &ldquo;formula businesses.&rdquo; Cumberland Farms appealed a decision by the Wellfleet Zoning Board of&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>A Win for Retail Chains as Wellfleet\u2019s \u201cFormula Business\u201d Zoning Bylaw is Ruled Invalid - Commercial Real Estate Insight &amp; News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bowditch.com\/bowditchrealestateblog\/2016\/01\/15\/a-win-for-retail-chains-as-wellfleets-formula-business-zoning-bylaw-is-ruled-invalid\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Win for Retail Chains as Wellfleet\u2019s \u201cFormula Business\u201d Zoning Bylaw is Ruled Invalid - Commercial Real Estate Insight &amp; News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Retail chains scored a victory in a recent Massachusetts Land Court decision, Cumberland Farms, Inc. v. 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