Town of Monson
10 things worth a decision in the Zoning Bylaw: places where it does not agree with something else in it, with the contents, with the zoning map or with the Town's own record of what it has amended, and places where it would be easier to administer written another way. Each names the evidence, and says whose decision it is.
None of them are corrected in the published text. The bylaw on this site reads exactly as Monson prints it, and changing any of this is an amendment rather than a correction.
Against the text current through 2026
The bylaw contradicts itself or is incomplete here. Only Monson can settle these, and only by amendment — correcting them here would state as law something Monson has never adopted.
[Automated statute and consistency scan, medium confidence.] Two provisions carry the same number, so a citation to it is ambiguous and the site can publish only one of them at that address. This may be the reader's fault (a running head taken for a heading) rather than the bylaw's; check the source.
Check the PDF at each number; if the duplication is real, renumber at the next amendment.
read from the Town's materials
[Automated statute and consistency scan, medium confidence.] The bylaw cites sections by number that the converted text does not contain. Some are references to other bylaws or to a superseded numbering; some will be sections the PDF reader failed to recognise. Either way a reader who follows the citation finds nothing.
For each number, decide whether it is a stale citation to amend or a section the conversion missed to re-read.
read from the Town's materials
The bylaw and the zoning map are one instrument, and these are the places where they do not agree.
[Automated statute and consistency scan, low confidence.] The bylaw names these districts with a code in parentheses and the map layer we hold has no polygon carrying that code. Overlay districts commonly sit on a separate layer; a base district missing from the map is a gap.
Check whether each is an overlay on another layer or a base district the map should carry.
read from the Town's materials
[Automated statute and consistency scan, medium confidence.] The zoning map layer carries these district codes, and the converted bylaw text never writes them. Either the map uses abbreviations the bylaw does not (the bylaw may name the district in words), the layer is not the map of record, or the text is stale.
Match each code to the district the bylaw establishes by name, in districts.yaml, or replace the layer.
read from the Town's materials
Where the ordinance appears to require, permit or prohibit something the state act it is adopted under does not allow it to. These are readings of two published texts side by side, not legal advice, and each names the provision on both sides so counsel can check it rather than take our word.
[Automated statute and consistency scan, low confidence.] MGL c. 94G, § 3(a)(2) allows a city or town to prohibit marijuana establishments only by a vote of the voters at a general or special election, unless the municipality voted no on Question 4 in 2016 (in which case a bylaw suffices until 31 December 2019).
Confirm the prohibition was adopted by ballot question, or the town's 2016 vote.
read from the Town's materials
[Automated statute and consistency scan, medium confidence.] MGL c. 40A, § 3 forbids a bylaw to "require a special permit or other discretionary zoning approval for the use of land or structures for a single accessory dwelling unit" in a single-family residential district. This provision mentions a special permit in the same breath as the accessory dwelling.
Read the provision: a special permit for a second ADU, or for an ADU larger than the statute protects, is allowed; one for the first protected ADU is not.
read from the Town's materials
[Automated statute and consistency scan, medium confidence.] MGL c. 40A, § 3 forbids a bylaw to "require a special permit or other discretionary zoning approval for the use of land or structures for a single accessory dwelling unit" in a single-family residential district. This provision mentions a special permit in the same breath as the accessory dwelling.
Read the provision: a special permit for a second ADU, or for an ADU larger than the statute protects, is allowed; one for the first protected ADU is not.
read from the Town's materials
[Automated statute and consistency scan, medium confidence.] MGL c. 40A, § 3 forbids a bylaw to "require a special permit or other discretionary zoning approval for the use of land or structures for a single accessory dwelling unit" in a single-family residential district. This provision mentions a special permit in the same breath as the accessory dwelling.
Read the provision: a special permit for a second ADU, or for an ADU larger than the statute protects, is allowed; one for the first protected ADU is not.
read from the Town's materials
[Automated statute and consistency scan, high confidence.] MGL c. 40A, § 3, as amended by the Affordable Homes Act (St. 2024, c. 150, in force 2 February 2025), says the use of land or structures for a single accessory dwelling unit in a single-family residential district "shall not require owner occupancy of either the accessory dwelling unit or the principal dwelling". This provision conditions the accessory dwelling on the owner living on the lot.
Confirm the provision post-dates 2 February 2025 or has since been amended; if not, the owner-occupancy condition is unenforceable against a protected-use ADU and the text should be brought into line.
read from the Town's materials
Nothing here contradicts anything, and nothing here exceeds the statute. These are places where what is written makes the bylaw harder to administer, to cite or to read than it needs to be. Each is still a change only Monson can make.
[Automated statute and consistency scan, medium confidence.] A term with two definitions in one bylaw means one reading or the other, and the site resolves a use of the term to the nearest definition in scope. Where the two are the same words in two places that is only untidy; where they differ it is a drafting question.
Compare the definitions; if they differ, say which governs where.
read from the Town's materials