Without a last-minute agreement between the House and Senate, the authority for public bodies, agencies and commissions to hold their meetings remotely is due to expire at the end of this week, and affected groups are taking note.
As many have discovered over the past two years of trial and error, Zoom is not the savior many thought it would be to make the public hearing process more meaningful and equitable. Fortunately, there is a better way.
A report indicates that virtual hearings have been a positive change for some local planning and zoning boards.
You can’t swing by someone’s office on Zoom. On a more basic level, human beings need personal interaction and crave personal connection.
When COVID restrictions descended on us in March, more than one developer had angst over what that might mean for moving forward on their development projects that they had in front of municipal boards for review. Would the ripple effects of the pandemic bring their projects to a grinding halt?
Massachusetts’ two-month-old ban on public gatherings upended a hidebound real estate development review process that included a steady dose of community forums and public hearings in overflowing meeting rooms.
Real estate agents forced to sit on the sidelines during the coronavirus pandemic may return to a thoroughly changed industry.
