Tim Schofield Quoted In Mass Lawyers Weekly

Tim Schofield provided some insight in this Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly article concerning an interesting new zoning case.

Rooster Ban Challenged in Essex Superior Court
By: Pat Murphy January 13, 2022

“…Boston litigator Timothy N. Schofield says municipal regulation of agribusiness has become a “hot topic” for the real estate bar, coinciding with rising consumer demand for locally grown, organic products. In that regard, Schofield says in recent years urban communities such as Cambridge have enacted ordinances allowing urban farming on a limited scale and subject to strict regulation.

A lot of people want to have [fresh] eggs,” Schofield says, adding that local urban farming ordinances likewise tend to discriminate against roosters. While Schofield notes an increase in such disputes arising in the urban context, he says the dispute between the Deeleys and the city of Beverly falls more in line with disputes arising from municipal attempts to regulate traditional commercial farming activity. “This unquestionably falls within the agricultural exception [recognized under state law], at least with respect to zoning,” Schofield says. “It involves [a farming operation] of more than five acres that is engaged in agribusiness.”