The lapse of a variance is a troubling issue for a real estate developer. Variances are subject to stringent legal standards that are difficult to meet, and obtaining a variance can involve protracted, expensive (in both monetary and political capital), and sometimes venomous proceedings before local zoning boards of appeal (or, worse, litigation). The risk of lapse of variances (and other development permits) is an increasingly urgent problem for real estate developers who have stalled projects due to lack of financing and/or adverse market conditions.

Now there is a significant recent case in Massachusetts that may give some developers protection against (or, perhaps, even a temporary safe harbor from) the risk of losing their variances to lapse while they continue to wait for this grim market cycle to run its course.

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