Who are abutters and how does notification work for a Boston ZBA case?
Abutters are the property owners within the statutory notification radius (about 300 feet) of a proposed project; Boston ZBA applicants must formally notify them before the hearing.
Massachusetts zoning requires that abutters — the neighbors within roughly 300 feet of the subject parcel — be formally notified of a ZBA hearing so they can weigh in. Who those neighbors are is a matter of public record: Verdwise computes the actual abutter list for any Boston address from the City's parcel geometry, along with how many of those parcels are recorded as owner-occupied on the assessing roll.
That gives you the notification list and its composition as fact. It is not a measure of who will actually show up — Verdwise does not track hearing attendance, and nothing in the record links owner-occupancy to turnout or to how an appeal was decided.