Chap. 0432 An Act to further protect the rights of the commonwealth in tide-waters.

Be it enacted, §c, as follows:
Section 1. All authority or license that has been granted during the present session of the legislature, or that may be hereafter granted by the Commonwealth, to any person or corporation to build any structure upon ground over which the tide ebbs and flows, or to fill up or inclose the same, whether such ground be above or below low-water mark, or within or outside of one hundred rods from high-water mark, or whether it be private property or the property of the Commonwealth, shall be subject to the following conditions, whether they be expressed in the act or resolve granting the same or not, viz.: such license or authority shall be revocable at any time, at the discretion of the legislature, and shall expire at the end of five years from its date, except where and so far as valuable structures, fillings or in-closures, as provided in the act or resolve, shall have been actually and in good faith built or made under the same. All things done under such license or authority shall be subject to the determination and approval of the harbor commissioners, as provided in section four of chapter one hundred forty-nine of the acts of the year eighteen hundred and sixty-six, or of such other board as the legislature may appoint for that purpose. If the legislature shall establish harbor lines within the outer line covered by such license or authority, then such license or authority shall be construed to be limited by and not to extend beyond such harbor line.
Section 2. All license or other authority that has heretofore been granted, or that may hereafter be granted, to build structures upon, or to fill up or inclose any such ground, shall be, as far as reasonably and justly may be practicable, so construed as not to interfere with or impair the right of any person affected thereby to equal proportional privileges of advancing to or towards low-water mark, or one hundred rods from high-water mark, or harbor lines established by law, or so as to impair the opportunity of persons having interests in lands or flats that may be affected thereby to obtain license or authority so to advance. Nothing in such license or authority shall be so construed as to impair the legal rights of any person.
Section 3. Nothing in this act shall be construed to impair any right or authority of the legislature respecting the establishment of harbor lines in any harbor or on any coast or beach.
Section 4. Nothing in this act, and no provision in any other act or resolve expressing in terms that an authority or license to build upon, fill up or inclose ground under tidewater is revocable at the discretion of the legislature, shall have any effect whatever on the construction of grants heretofore made by the Commonwealth, as indicating whether or not a right of revocation attach to such grants.
Section 5.   This act shall take effect upon its passage.
Approved June 21, 1869.