Legal Question in Civil Litigation in Massachusetts

Re: town laws

The question is not legality, but Constitutionality. The significant state interest must overbear the claimed right. As a general rule, towns try to put such bans through under the guise of noise statutes, etc. Such bans rarely pass muster, in full. However, restrictions that are sensible may survive -- helmet laws, for example, are significant restrictions for all vehicle operators (even cyclists under a certain age must wear them).

The growing environmental awareness certainly gives a town the right to ban use of such vehicles in all town land, and near significant town watersheds. The latter can be based on aquifer protection (gas and oil leaks are the issue). This would actually be a zoning by-law limiting permissive property use. Zoning by-laws are regularly upheld -- the infamous "Combat Zone" in Boston was created to do what it ultimately succeeded in: running "big business porn" out of Boston. It survived many First Amendment attacks, and the death throes were long (and, of course, the Internet came in to take some final shots, too).

Zoning laws have been successfuly used for many purposes, and would generally be the easiest way to limit use of such vehicles to very specific areas, just as zoning prohibits building a cement factory on property zoned for one-acre single-family lots.