2023 Massachusetts General Laws
Part I - Administration of the Government
Title VII - Cities, Towns and Districts
Chapter 40d - Industrial Development of Cities and Towns
Section 1 - Definitions
Section 1. The following words as used in this chapter shall, unless the context requires otherwise, have the following meanings:—
(a) ''Authority'', an industrial development financing board established by section two.
(b) ''Board'', the board of directors of an authority.
(c) ''Bond'', a revenue bond issued for the purpose of financing a project, and shall include interim receipts, temporary bonds or other obligations issued hereunder.
(c1/2) ''Cogeneration facility'', as defined in section one of chapter one hundred and sixty-four.
(d) ''Construction'' means and includes both construction and acquisition and the term ''to construct'' means and includes both to construct and to acquire.
(e) ''Cost of the project'' and ''cost'', the cost of construction, the cost of acquisition of all lands, structures, rights of way, franchises, easements and other property rights and interests and related riparian or water rights, the cost of demolishing, removing or relocating any buildings, structures or utilities on lands acquired or to be acquired, including the cost of acquiring any lands to which such buildings, structures or utilities may be moved or relocated, the cost of all labor, materials, machinery and equipment, financing charges, interest on all bonds prior to and during the carrying out of a project and for a period not exceeding one year after completion thereof, the cost of engineering, financial and legal services, plans, specifications, studies, surveys, estimates of cost and of revenues, other expenses necessary or incidental to determining the feasibility or practicability of projects, administrative expenses, reimbursement to the municipality of advances to the authority under section nineteen, and for planning costs and other preliminary expenses made for the benefit of but prior to the formation of the authority, and such other expenses as may be necessary or incidental to the projects, the financing thereof, placing of the same in operation and the issuance of bonds under this chapter, including but not limited to the establishment and funding of reserves to secure such bonds.
(f) ''Current expenses'', the amount of reasonable and necessary current expenses in connection with any project as the same may be more fully defined in the trust agreement relating to a project, and shall in any event include the fees and expenses of the trustee under the trust agreement securing bonds issued to finance such project.
(g) ''Federal agency'', the United States of America, the President of the United States of America, and any department of or corporation, agency or instrumentality heretofore or hereafter created, designated or established by the United States of America.
[There is no clause (h).]
(i) ''Financing document'', a lease, installment sale agreement, conditional sale agreement, mortgage or loan agreement between a municipality acting by and through an authority as lessor, seller, mortgagee or lender and a user as lessee, purchaser, mortgagor or borrower.
(j) ''Governing body'', in a city having a Plan D or Plan E charter the city manager and the city council and in any other city the mayor and city council, and in towns the board of selectmen.
(k) ''Improvement'', includes reconstruction, remodeling, rehabilitation, extension, enlargement and ''to improve'' includes to reconstruct, to remodel, to rehabilitate, to extend, to enlarge and to improve.
(l) ''Industrial enterprise'', an enterprise engaged in applying skill and labor to the giving of new shapes, new qualities or new combinations to matter as material products or to the assembly, processing, preservation, storage, handling or transportation of manufactured or natural products, or to stationary facilities and equipment necessary or useful in connection with railroad operations, including railroad rights of way and all associated tracks and facilities or to the making of works of art by self-employed artists or to the construction, renovation and equipment of a medical diagnostic imaging facility which has been granted a certificate of need in accordance with the provisions of section twenty-five C of chapter one hundred and eleven or to the construction and renovation of a nursing or convalescent home licensed under the provisions of section seventy-one of chapter one hundred and eleven, including renovations for energy conservation purposes or to the operating of a continuing care facility. Industrial enterprise shall also include the operation of a child care center or a school-aged child care program, as defined in section 1A of chapter 15D. Industrial enterprise shall also include an enterprise primarily or incidentally engaged in cogeneration by means of cogeneration facilities or in production of electric energy by means of small power production facilities. In any city or in a town subject to the provisions of clause (k) of subdivision (2) of section twelve, industrial enterprise shall also include commercial enterprise, which shall mean the conduct of a trade or business. A project undertaken by a nonprofit corporation authorized by law to provide facilities for educational, cultural or social services, including provision of working capital, or a project undertaken by a governmental entity for governmental purposes shall be deemed to constitute an industrial enterprise but shall not be deemed to constitute a commercial enterprise. Projects located within the boundaries of an empowerment zone as it may have been established in a city or town, pursuant to regulations of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, 24 CFR subsections 597 and 598, shall be deemed to constitute an industrial enterprise but shall not be deemed to constitute a commercial enterprise. Bonds may be issued under this chapter to finance costs of such facilities, including such costs paid prior to the authorization of such bonds as the board of directors of the Massachusetts Industrial Finance Agency, referred to in this chapter as the MIFA board, shall approve in connection with the provision of such facilities; and for this purpose the term commercial enterprise shall be read to include the operation of such facilities, but the requirements of clause (e) of subsection (2) of section twelve shall not apply if the MIFA board determines that the issuance of the bonds will result in a public benefit. Rental housing, other than residential housing operated in connection with a continuing care facility and facilities to be rented primarily to transient guests, may not be financed under this chapter. Artists' studios having incidental living accommodations attached thereto shall not be deemed to be rental housing within the meaning of this chapter.
(m) ''Industrial development facilities'', facilities used in connection with any industrial, or research and development enterprise or any part thereof, located within or partially within the municipality creating an authority, including any or all buildings, docks, wharves, ships, improvements, additions, extensions, replacements, appurtenances, land, rights in land, riparian rights, water rights, franchises, machinery, equipment, furnishings, landscaping, utilities, approaches, roadways, energy conservation facilities, facilities designed to reduce consumption of petroleum products and other facilities necessary or desirable in connection therewith or incidental thereto, such as, but not limited to, office, warehouse, terminal, transportation and back-up power generating facilities, which facilities need not merely be in connection with or incidental to other facilities if the operation of such facilities themselves is an industrial enterprise.
(n) ''Municipality'', a city or town or, where the context requires, two or more cities or towns joining together to form an authority to carry out industrial development.
(o) ''Pollution Control Facilities'', facilities for the prevention, avoidance, reduction, control, abatement, elimination or monitoring of pollution of air or of waters by any means by industrial enterprises, public utilities or others, including, but not limited to, any air pollution control facility, noise abatement facility, water management facility, thermal pollution control facility, waste water collection system, waste water treatment works, sewage treatment works, sewage treatment system or site, and including any or all property, rights, franchises and facilities necessary or desirable in connection therewith or incidental thereto.
(p) ''Project'', industrial development facilities, pollution control facilities or solid waste disposal facilities, or the construction, acquisition, equipping or improvement thereof or any combination of the foregoing.
(q) ''Public utility'', any gas company or electric company as defined in section one of chapter one hundred and sixty-four, or any municipal corporation which owns or may acquire municipal lighting plants as referred to in section two of said chapter one hundred and sixty-four or any person, firm, association, or private corporation which owns or operates works or a distribution plant for the manufacture and sale or distribution and sale of gas for heating and illuminating purposes, or of electricity, within the commonwealth as referred to in section two of said chapter one hundred and sixty-four or any domestic electric utility or foreign electric utility as defined in section one of chapter one hundred and sixty-four A.
(q1/2) ''Small power production facility'', as defined in section one of chapter one hundred and sixty-four.
(r) ''Solid waste disposal facilities'', facilities for the disposal of refuse, garbage and waste or any of the foregoing, by incineration or other means, including any or all property, rights, franchises and facilities necessary or desirable in connection therewith or incidental thereto. Solid waste disposal facilities may include facilities for the manufacture of electricity or steam primarily from solid waste and facilities for the manufacture of electricity from steam produced primarily from solid waste, in either case with pipes, wires, boilers, generators and other equipment incidental thereto. For the purpose of this clause the word ''primarily'' shall be deemed to mean not less than ninety per cent net thermal units in normal operation. Solid waste disposal facilities may also include additions and modifications to boiler facilities in existence on January first, nineteen hundred and seventy-eight, owned or operated by a public utility, which additions or modifications are necessary or desirable to permit any such boiler facility to burn solid waste or a mix of solid waste and other fuel.
(s) ''Trust agreement'', an agreement or indenture securing one or more series of bonds of an authority and complying with the provisions hereof.
(t) ''User'' means one or more persons acting as lessee, purchaser, mortgagor or borrower under a financing document and may include a party who transfers the right of use and occupancy to another party by lease, sublease or otherwise.
(u) ''Continuing care facility'', a facility at which there is furnished to individuals, other than an individual related by consanguinity or affinity to the person furnishing such care, board and lodging together with nursing services, medical services or other health related services, regardless of whether or not the lodging and services are provided at the same location, pursuant to an agreement effective for the life of the individuals or for a period in excess of one year.
