Chapter 121A is adopted.

Passed by the Massachusetts legislature, the law authorizes municipalities in the state to negotiate long-term (15 to 40 year) tax agreements with developers of residential projects that allow them to pay an agreed upon “urban excise tax” instead of regular property taxes. An attempt to promote housing construction and clear “blighted, open, decadent and sub-standard areas,” the law proves to be critical to the development of what comes to be called the “New Boston,” especially after it is expanded in 1960.*