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BOSTON-Gov. Deval Patrick has signed a bill that exempts non-waterfront properties on landlocked, filled tidelands from having to obtain Massachusetts General Law Chapter 91 licensing, a provision established generations ago to regulate activities and development along the state's waterways. The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection administers Chapter 91 licensing.

In practice, the department had been exempting non-waterfront properties located on filled tidelands from Chapter 91 licensing since 1990. However, this February, the state's Supreme Judicial Court ruled that the department lacked the authority to exempt properties located on filled tidelands that are at least 250 feet from the water and separated from it by a public way.

This overturned a lower court ruling in a case in which citizen petitioners sued the state DEP for excluding the $2-billion NorthPoint mixed-use project from Chapter 91 licensing. The Supreme Judicial Court did not fault the developers, but ruled that DEP had "acted in excess of its authority," because the exemption was not authorized by law.