Who is a member?
Our members are the local governments of Massachusetts and their elected and appointed leadership.
In June, the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, the Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development, and the Massachusetts Department of Transportation announced a collaborative strategy called “Planning Ahead for Growth,” an initiative encompassing sustainable development principles for the future of the environment, housing, and transportation in the Commonwealth.
The strategy calls for a state, regional, and local partnerships to accomplish four plan components:
1. Identify priority areas where growth and preservation should occur.
2. Create prompt and predictable permitting to allow projects to move forward.
3. Invest public resources in identified priority areas.
4. Market those assets to others.
To complement the strategy, each of the three secretariats will focus on individual policy goals.
Energy and Environmental Affairs will work to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent by 2020, using levels in 1990 as a baseline. It will also focus its efforts on investing in habitat lands, working farms, forests and urban parks.
Housing and Economic Development will concentrate on the state’s goal of producing 10,000 multi-family housing units per year through 2020, located near transit, municipal and employment centers.
The Department of Transportation will work to triple walking, biking and transit travel by 2020, using sustainability principles developed in its December 2012 GreenDOT Implementation Plan. These principles apply to its strategic planning activities, project selection process, design and construction, and system operations.
The strategy parallels an increasing interest nationally in the concept of smart growth – the practice of building community centers with housing and transportation availability near jobs, stores and schools.