Medford, MA Building Safety: Green Building Code (2026)

Medford adopted the Stretch Energy Code through Ordinance No. 759 on May 4, 2010, codified as Article V of Chapter 10, Buildings and Building Regulations. Section 10-104 directly incorporates 780 CMR Appendix 120 AA, the appendix to the 7th edition Massachusetts Building Code that supplies a tougher energy-efficiency track than the code's base chapter. Medford's ordinance names the building commissioner, the same official who administers Chapter 10's electrical, plumbing and building-standards provisions, as the enforcing agent citywide, so compliance is checked at the building permit and inspection stage rather than through a separate green-building office.

Because § 10-104 sits inside the buildings chapter, projects seeking a permit under § 10-35 pay the standard building permit and inspection fees listed in Appendix A, and the commissioner reviews stretch-code compliance as part of that same review. The ordinance prints no stand-alone penalty for the stretch code, so a violation falls under the chapter's general enforcement authority and, absent a more specific penalty, the citywide general penalty of up to $300.00 per offense in § 1-13, with each day a violation continues counted separately.

Medford's zoning code layers additional renewable-energy rules on top of this baseline, including the solar energy system mandate in Article VI of Chapter 10, so a covered project can face both stretch-code compliance and the separate solar requirement in the same permit review.