Public Affairs, Massachusetts
A contested project in Massachusetts is decided in the months before the first public hearing: in the select board office, at the chamber breakfast, in the Facebook group and in the local paper. The PR Bunker, led by Don Martelli, is the public affairs firm for contested development projects in Massachusetts: the stakeholder map, the officials and third-party validators, the permitting message, the hearing room and the press, with 165 million square feet of permitted Massachusetts development behind it.
"Projects in Massachusetts are not losing on the merits. They are losing in the gap between the land-record filing and the first public session, when a select board member, a fire chief or an abutter hears about the project from someone other than the developer. Public affairs is the work of closing that gap before it opens."
Under the 2026 siting framework and Executive Order 658, early engagement is now a filing requirement. The community is the first permit.
Before founding PR Bunker I ran a large Boston agency as its president, a firm known for winning town meeting votes. Today I am also president of the Revere Chamber of Commerce, which means I sit on the community's side of the table too. The public affairs playbook that permitted 165 million square feet is the same one, run earlier, with the people who actually decide in the room.
Stakeholder and decision map
Who decides, who influences the deciders, and who will organize against you: select board, planning board, fire and water chiefs, abutters, the chamber, the paper, the Facebook group. Built before site control is public.
Officials and third-party validators
Briefings for local and state officials before the first public session, and the credible local voices, trades, first responders and business owners, who will speak for the project when it matters.
Permitting and siting message
One plain-language case for the project that works in the hearing, the EFSB or OEJE filing, the op-ed and the kitchen table: water, noise, traffic, power, tax revenue and who benefits, in numbers.
Hearing and public meeting strategy
Preparation for every session, from the first listening session to the vote, including who testifies, in what order, and being in the room.
Local media and issue management
The outlets residents actually read, the reporters who cover the town, the Facebook groups where opposition forms, and a daily briefing so the project team is never surprised.
Opposition and crisis response
When the petition drops, the moratorium article lands on the warrant, or the project name leaks before you planned to say it. And if the town has already said no, the rebuild.
Massachusetts rewrote the rules for contested projects in 2026. The consolidated siting framework, 980 CMR 16.00, requires pre-filing community engagement before an Energy Facilities Siting Board application. Executive Order 658 makes a community benefits agreement a permit condition for any data center over 25 megawatts and bars state agencies from signing NDAs with developers. Towns are banning data centers and proposing battery storage moratoriums faster than the Attorney General can reject them. The merits still matter. They are no longer enough.
Under the 2026 siting framework, large energy and storage projects must run community engagement, including public meetings in the host community, before filing with the EFSB.
For data centers over 25 MW, a signed agreement with the host municipality, reviewed against Office of Environmental Justice and Equity standards, comes before any state permit.
State agencies cannot sign nondisclosure agreements with data center developers. The code-name era is over. The town will know, so tell it first.
Towns have banned data centers outright and proposed battery storage moratoriums the Attorney General keeps rejecting. A legal path is not a community path.
The same four questions decide every contested project at the first meeting, and the answers have to be in numbers, in plain language, before the opposition supplies its own.
The host community effectively holds the first veto. Winning the room is public affairs work, and it cannot be delegated to the lawyers.
That is what the rules require. Getting there is a public affairs job, and it is the one PR Bunker does.
A public affairs firm for contested development projects in Massachusetts is the counsel that manages the community, the local officials and the public record around a project residents are organizing against: the stakeholder map, the briefings, the hearing strategy, the local press and the third parties who speak for the project. The PR Bunker, led directly by Don Martelli, is that firm for data centers, battery storage, energy, housing and commercial projects across the Commonwealth, with 165 million square feet of permitted development behind it.
Before site control is public. The window between the land-record filing and the first public session is where most projects lose the town, and under the 2026 siting framework and Executive Order 658, engagement is now a filing requirement. Starting at the hearing is starting late.
A decision map of who votes, who influences them and who will organize; briefings for officials before the first public session; one plain-language case for the project that works in the hearing, the filing and the paper; third-party validators; preparation for every public meeting; local media and online listening; and a response plan for the petition, the moratorium article and the leak. Lobbying at the statehouse is a different job, and so is the legal filing.
Lobbyists work the statehouse. Lawyers work the regulations. PR Bunker works the community: the residents, the local media, the select board room. You get Don Martelli in every room, a former Boston agency president and current chamber president who has sat on both sides of the table. No junior handoffs.
Ask four questions. Has the firm permitted projects in Massachusetts towns like yours, not only advised on them? Will the senior person be in the hearing room, or will the work be handed to an associate at the first session? Can they name the local officials, reporters and civic groups that will decide your project before you brief them? And do they start before the project is public, or show up a week before the vote? If the answers are yes, yes, yes and before, you have found the partner. The full sequence from first rumor to first hearing is in How Should a Developer Handle Organized Community Opposition?
Yes. Under Executive Order 658, any data center over 25 megawatts needs a signed community benefits agreement with the host municipality, reviewed against OEJE standards, before any state permit, and state agencies can no longer sign NDAs with developers. PR Bunker runs the community risk assessment, the agreement strategy, the plain-language materials, the hearings and the press. The practice page is Data Center Community Relations in Massachusetts
The PR Bunker does. Battery storage is decided at the first public meeting, where residents ask about fire, water runoff, noise and property values, and most projects answer a week too late. The practice page is Battery Storage Community Relations in Massachusetts
Under 980 CMR 16.00, effective February 27, 2026, applicants for large energy and storage facilities must run a pre-filing community engagement process before filing with the Energy Facilities Siting Board, including public meetings in the host community, outreach to abutters and environmental justice populations, and a record of what was heard and what changed. The plain-English timeline is The EFSB Pre-Filing Process in Plain English
By diagnosing which no you got, a substance no, a process no or a trust no, going quiet for 60 to 90 days to listen, and coming back with the community rather than at it, with visible changes the town can claim as wins. Moratoriums expire and boards turn over. The playbook is Your Project Got Banned. Now What?
Yes. The 165 million square feet behind this practice is mostly housing, mixed-use, commercial and institutional development permitted in Massachusetts towns and Boston neighborhoods. The questions change, traffic and parking instead of water and megawatts, and the sequence does not: map the room, brief the officials, answer in numbers, be there before the headline. The wider practice is at https://www.prbunker.com/community-relations
Stakeholder map, officials and validators, the permitting message, public meetings, local media. You get me in every room. No junior handoffs.
Have a project, campaign, or comms challenge in mind?
Want to be a guest on the PR Bunker podcast?
Reach out and let’s talk.
