At the closing table in Newbury, buyers sign a document that never crosses a buyer's desk in Newburyport. It is a single page, and it does not appear because of anything specific to the house being bought. It appears because the house is in Newbury.
The Right to Farm Disclosure Notification is required under Newbury's Chapter 63 Farming bylaw for every sale, purchase, exchange, or lease of real property in town. Not every farm sale. Every sale. The bylaw states that a landowner must present the notification to a buyer or occupant immediately upon signing a purchase and sale agreement, or before the transfer if no P&S exists, and a signed copy has to be filed with the Board of Selectmen at Town Hall before the transaction closes. Skip it and the fine is $300.
Read the actual language on the town's disclosure form and the scope becomes clear. It informs buyers that they are acquiring property in a town where farming activities occur, activities that may include noise, dust, or odors, and that access to water services in some cases may be affected by nearby commercial agriculture. Nothing in that paragraph says anything about the specific parcel. It is a policy statement about Newbury as a whole, restated on every deal because the town wants every new owner to have seen it, not because your yard has ever grown anything.
That distinction matters more than it looks like it should, because Massachusetts has a second, much narrower law that actually does attach itself to a specific piece of land, and the two get confused constantly.
The law that restates a policy, and the law that restricts a parcel
Chapter 61A is the state's current-use agricultural tax program, and it is nothing like the disclosure. To qualify, a property needs at least 5 contiguous acres that have been actively farmed for the two fiscal years before classification, with a minimum gross sales threshold tied to acreage. In exchange for meeting those conditions, the town taxes the land at its agricultural value instead of its fair market value, which for a working farm can mean a substantially lower bill.
The tradeoff is real. Once a parcel is enrolled, the town's assessors record a lien against it at the Registry of Deeds. If the owner ever sells to someone who intends to convert the use, the municipality has the right of first refusal to match a bona fide offer and buy the land itself. If the land comes out of agricultural use within the look-back period, the owner owes a rollback tax, the difference between what they paid under Chapter 61A and what they would have paid at fair market value, covering as many as five years.
None of that applies to a typical Newbury house on a typical lot. It applies only to parcels that have gone through the classification process and remain enrolled. A buyer can sign the Right to Farm disclosure at closing and still be nowhere near a Chapter 61A property, and a Chapter 61A property triggers obligations the town-wide disclosure never mentions at all.
The clearest way to see the difference is to watch it happen.
What a real Chapter 61A notice looks like
In August 2024, the West Newbury Planning Board received a notice from KP Law, the town's counsel, regarding a 19.16-acre parcel at 23 Archelaus Place that had been classified under Chapter 61A. The owner intended to sell an approximately 1.25-acre portion of that land for residential use. The notice included an assessor's map with the section outlined, and it started the clock on the town's right-of-first-refusal review, the formal process by which West Newbury had a window to decide whether to buy the land itself before the sale to a private party could proceed.
That is what a real Chapter 61A restriction looks like in practice: a specific portion of a specific parcel, a specific legal notice, a specific municipal review period tied to acreage that has been enrolled in the program for years. Nothing about it resembles the general disclosure that Newbury requires on every transaction regardless of acreage or agricultural history.
The paperwork changes at the town line
If the same buyer were closing on a comparable house a few miles away in Newburyport, no equivalent right-to-farm disclosure would appear in the closing package. Newburyport's code of ordinances does not carry a matching bylaw, which tracks with its footprint as a dense small city rather than farm country.
West Newbury sits in between, and its timeline is recent enough to be worth knowing. As late as February 2024, the town had no right-to-farm bylaw at all. Two Georgetown farm owners who also kept cattle in West Newbury organized meetings at Laurel Grange Hall that spring to build support for one, and the town's Select Board began drafting language for a vote. The bylaw passed at West Newbury's Annual Town Meeting on April 28, 2025, and the vote also created the town's Agricultural Committee, the body now tasked with representing farming interests to other town boards.
So the same buyer, house-hunting across three adjoining towns in the same season, encounters three different answers to the same question. Newbury has required the disclosure for years. West Newbury has required it only since the spring of 2025. Newburyport does not require it at all. None of that has anything to do with whether any particular house sits near an active farm. It has to do with which town's meeting warrant included the article.
What this means if you are closing in Newbury
The practical read for a buyer or seller is straightforward, and it is really two separate questions rather than one.
The first question is whether the Right to Farm disclosure applies. In Newbury, it does, to every transaction, and signing it says nothing about your specific lot beyond confirming you have been told that Newbury is a town where farming happens. Treat it as paperwork, not as a signal to investigate further.
The second question is whether the parcel itself carries a Chapter 61A classification, and that is worth an actual look. A title search or a call to the Newbury Assessor's office will show whether a lien is recorded against the property. If it is, ask what acreage is enrolled, what the current use requirement looks like, and what a change in use would trigger in terms of rollback tax or the town's purchase option. That conversation belongs with your attorney, since the numbers depend on how long the land has been classified and what its assessed agricultural value has been each year.
Sellers with acreage that has been in Chapter 61A for any length of time should raise it early, before an offer is drafted, since the town's review window can affect timing in ways a standard thirty or forty-five day closing schedule does not anticipate.
A short FAQ
Does the Right to Farm disclosure mean my house is near an active farm? Not necessarily. It is required for every property transaction in Newbury regardless of location or proximity to farmland, so signing it confirms only that you were given the town-wide notice.
Is the $300 fine something a buyer needs to worry about? The fine is aimed at the landowner or seller who fails to provide and file the notification, not at buyers. As a buyer, your role is simply to receive and acknowledge the form.
How do I find out if a specific Newbury property is classified under Chapter 61A? A title search will show whether a lien has been recorded at the Registry of Deeds, and the Newbury Assessor's office can confirm current classification status directly.
Does West Newbury's newer bylaw work the same way as Newbury's? The core purpose is similar, protecting farming activity from nuisance complaints, but each town's specific filing requirements and enforcement details can differ, so it is worth reading the actual bylaw language for the town where you are transacting rather than assuming the two are identical.
If you are weighing a house in Newbury against one in Newburyport or West Newbury and want a clear read on what paperwork each one actually involves, reach out to Lynne Hendricks. Let's Connect.
