News  AAB Corona Virus Update - Electronic Submission of Variance Applications & Remote Meetings

On March 10, Governor Charlie Baker declared a state of emergency regarding the current Corona Virus outbreak.  In order to promote social distancing and do its part to help prevent the spread of the virus, the AAB will be making the following changes to its procedures during the current state of emergency:

In order to facilitate telework for the duration of the current state of emergency, the AAB will be accepting new variance applications and amendment via email.

• Applications should be sent to william.joyce@mass.gov & bradley.souders@mass.gov.

• The email submission must have the subject line: Variance Application - <Address>, <City>

• The application and all attachments must be in .pdf format

• The copy of the application being submitted must still be signed and the service notice must still be notarized.

• The application and all attachments should be included in a single file, except where that file would exceed 15 megabytes.

  • If the file would exceed 15 megabytes, it may be broken up into as few files as possible to fall below that size limit.

  • We cannot accept any email where the total attachment size exceeds 15 megabytes, where you need to break up your attachment avoid that limit please send the attachments in multiple emails and add "Part X/Y" where X is the current part and Y is the total number of parts to your subject line.

• Currently, the AAB has no mechanism to accept payments electronically.  In the interim, please submit the $50 filing fee via check or money order via mail as normal.  However, in order to ensure the check is assigned to the correct file, you must include the either "Variance - <Address>, <City>" or the Docket Number in the memo line.\

• If you are submitting your application electronically, you do not need to submit a physical copy of the application.

One consequence of the switch to telework is that physical mailing is being reduced to an absolute minimum.  Thus, for the duration of the State of Emergency, notices and decisions will be sent electronically.  If you require a paper copy of a Notice or Decision, please contact the Board's Executive Director, William Joyce at william.joyce@mass.gov to request one, but be aware that the delivery of physical copies may be delayed.