Restrictive declaration

A restrictive declaration is a commitment recorded against property, typically executed to secure a land-use approval: the owner promises specified obligations — mitigation measures, design limits, affordability terms, phasing — and the promise runs with the land, binding successors. Declarations are the standard vehicle for making a rezoning's or special permit's negotiated terms durable.

In diligence they are first-order documents: a lot may carry obligations no map or district table shows, enforceable years after the approval that created them. Any lot whose zoning traces to a discretionary action should be searched for recorded declarations, and the declarations read for what they still require.