Shaping the Future of Your Community: a Citizen's Guide to Involvement in Community Planning, Land Protection, and Project Review in Massachusetts. Mass Audubon's "Losing Ground" series documents the changes in Massachusetts land use. More land has been developed in Massachusetts in the last 40 years than in the previous 340 years. The emphasis of this guide is on participation with implementation and application of community laws, regulations, and policies because it is often at the local level that citizens can have the most significant influence on land use practices. http://www.massaudubon.org/advocacy/news.php?id=777&type=news#download.

Trustees 2017, the Trustees of Reservations 10-year strategic plan. Can be viewed at: http://www.thetrustees.org/documents.cfm?documentID=613. Trustees 2017 identifies new challenges and commitments for the 116-year-old organization, in an era when the scarcity and cost of conservation land is expected to continue to increase. Essex County is the home of 21 of those Reservations; for a complete list, visit http://www.thetrustees.org/pages/1581_property_directory.cfm.

The 2007 Massachusetts Bicycle Transportation Plan is being prepared in cooperation with the U.S Department of Transportation to develop a prioritized plan of on- and off-road bicycling improvements in order to implement a statewide bicycling network. View the state map of existing bicycle facilities, projects, and proposals and the proposed network at http://www.massbikeplan.org/.

A Homeowner's Guide to Bats booklet available from MassWildlife. With summer’s hot, humid weather, some Bay State homeowners may discover bats residing in their home! Attics are the most common portion of a house in which bats roost and raise their young. After a few hot summer days, an attic may become too warm for the bats, forcing them out and sometimes into people's living quarters as they search for cooler places to roost. www.mass.gov/masswildlife

Urban River Conference presentations now available on line. Co-sponsored by EPA New England and the Urban Harbors Institute, with cooperation from the Center for Watershed Protection, the conference covered urban river success stories, contaminated sediments, public access and urban land conservation, stormwater and illicit connections, urban river restoration, and monitoring and report cards as a way to get results for your river, and a survey of various resources for urban rivers. http://epa.gov/ne/urbanrivers.

Green Zoning. The town of Epping, NH recently passed an ordinance incorporating energy efficiency into its zoning bylaw. http://nhplanning.com/epping/Article22/ARTICLE22.pdf. You might also want to check out the Smart Communities Network Green Building Codes and Ordinances web page at: http://www.smartcommunities.ncat.org/buildings/gbcodtoc.shtml#efficiency

Proceedings for the 2nd National Low Impact Development (LID) Conference are available online at http://www.bae.ncsu.edu/topic/lidconference07/. This conference highlighted new and continuing work including research, developments, and community adoption of LID throughout the United States with a special emphasis placed on coastal applications of LID. View Conference web site at http://r.listpilot.net/c/soil/1hq6x8s/aa1r

Neither too Slow nor too Smart: Contemplating the Growth of the Bay Region. Paper presented at Urban Form and Metropolitan Spaces, Apr. 2-3, 2007, Rome, Italy by Richard Bender and John Parman. Looks at the problem of accommodating population growth in ways that preserve and if possible reclaim open space. Available at http://www.dau.uniroma1.it/futureofthecity/forms_spaces_texts/@01Bender_Parman.pdf 

Going Comprehensive: Anatomy of an Initiative that Worked. CCRP in the South Bronx. Two expert practitioners, Anita Miller and Tom Burns, have written a guidebook on comprehensive community development, in particular examining the Comprehensive Community Revitalization Program (CCRP) that produced one of America’s most remarkable urban turnaround stories, that of New York’s once-stricken South Bronx. http://www.lisc.org/content/publications/detail/5396

Renovate or Replace? The Case for Restoring and Reusing Older School Buildings booklet, published by 1990 Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and Save Our Land, Save Our Towns President Thomas Hylton. Pennsylvania’s traditional cities and towns enjoy two enormous assets that suburbs can’t match: the ability to walk from one place to another and the sense of place and belonging that comes from having long-established neighborhoods. http://www.saveourlandsaveourtowns.org/neighborhoodschools.html

Ecological Revitalization and Attractive Nuisance Issues Fact Sheet. Superfund sites are being cleaned up and restored while integrating natural features such as wetlands, meadows, streams, and ponds to provide habitat for terrestrial and aquatic plants and animals, and for low-impact or passive recreation, such as hiking and bird watching. The potential exposure of wildlife can be a concern when waste or contaminants remain on a site following cleanup (i.e., attractive nuisance). http://www.epa.gov/tio/download/remed/542f06003.pdf

Better Site Design: A Handbook for Changing Development Rules in Your Community. In an effort to ensure that every community is equipped with the tools it needs to facilitate environmentally-friendly growth, the Center for Watershed Protection is making its Better Site Design Handbook available for free download. http://www.cwp.org/PublicationStore/bsd.htm.

The Powerful Link Between Conserving Land and Preserving Health by Howard Frumkin and Richard Louv. Do people benefit from parks and green spaces? When we protect land, do we protect public health? Increasingly the evidence suggests that people benefit so much from contact with nature that land conservation can now be viewed as a public health strategy. http://www.cnaturenet.org/01_news_center/articles/FrumkinLouv.html.

Parks, Public Greenspace, and Smarter Growth: Opportunities for Linking Land and People. A Translation Paper commissioned by the Funders' Network for Smart Growth and Livable Communities. When local governments use park assets as part of a comprehensive approach to growth and development, they bring life back into cities, leverage new economic development, and lead to important measures of improved health, youth development, water quality and habitat protection, and neighborhood revitalization. http://www.fundersnetwork.org/usr_doc/Parks_and_Smarter_Growth.pdf

Ontario's'Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe. Over the next 30 years, the number of people living in Ontario is expected to grow by approximately four million. Through the Places to Grow initiative, the McGuinty government is committed to ensuring that this growth contributes to prosperous, healthy and diverse communities in all parts of the province. http://www.pir.gov.on.ca/English/growth/ggh_docs.htm

Emergency Response and Traditional Neighborhood Street Design from the Local Government Commission is a 12-page fact sheet containing case studies that illustrate how issues around emergency-vehicle access to narrow streets were handled in three cities. http://www.lgc.org/freepub/land_use/factsheets/er_streetdesign.html

Integrating Schools into Healthy Community Design from the National Governor's Association (NGA) examines state policies on school siting, school construction financing, and Safe Routes to School programs focusing on how policies can benefit communities, improve children's health, and reduce the need for infrastructure expansion. http://www.nga.org/Files/pdf/0705SCHOOLSHEALTHYDESIGN.PDF

U.S. EPA Nonpoint Source Outreach Toolbox, a comprehensive set of Web-based resources designed to assist communities across the U.S. conduct locally effective watershed education and outreach activities. www.epa.gov/nps/toolbox

Starting a Walking School Bus fact sheet from the Safe Routes to School Walking School Bus web site provides a quick introduction to the benefits of a walking school bus. Find out how to start one in your community! http://www.walkingschoolbus.org/Walking_School_Bus_Basics.pdf.

Healthy Eating by Design, an initiative of the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation explores the ways the built environment affects food access. A recent paper suggests new ways to approach food access by enlisting the expertise of urban planners and using planning and regulatory tools that could permanently change the food access equation. http://www.rwjf.org/files/publications/other/communitydesignhealthyeating.pdf.

The Aging in Place Initiative – Developing Livable Communities for All Ages is a collaboration of national organizations and the MetLife Foundation. It was developed to help America’s communities prepare for the aging of their population and to become places that are good to grow up, live in and grow old. http://www.aginginplaceinitiative.org/storage/aipi/documents/blueprint_for_action_web.pdf

Waterfront Access Issues Are Subject of Sea Grant/Coastal Zone Management Report. As ''a tide of demographic and economic change sweeps through coastal towns, harbors, and communities,'' access to the shores both from land and sea becomes an ever larger problem for recreation, commerce and industry, all competing for space. http://www.seagrant.umaine.edu/index.htm.

Crunching the Numbers on Low-Impact Development in Minnesota. Finance & Commerce 05/09/2007 (Minneapolis, MN). Minnesota public and private entities have produced the state's first cost-comparison of low-impact development (LID) finding that LID "was cheaper to build, cheaper to maintain, and more profitable." However, existing zoning laws, stormwater management regulations and other barriers inhibit LID http://www.fmr.org/projects/lakeville_lid_study.

Massachusetts in top 10 States doing the most to wean themselves from oil dependence. Clean cars, clean fuel, Smart Growth and public transit are strategies states are employing for creating less oil-intensive transportation habits says Addicted to Oil: Ranking States’ Oil Vulnerability and Solutions for Change from the National Resources Defense Council. http://docs.nrdc.org/air/air_07061901a.pdf

More Low-Income Housing Being Built Green. Despite unique challenges, a growing number of community-based housing organizations in rural areas are building environmentally sensitive, affordable homes, A new report by the Housing Assistance Council describes successful rural green developments around the country. http://www.ruralhome.org/manager/uploads/GreenBuildingReport.pdf.

Confronting Climate Change in the U.S. Northeast: Science, Impacts, and Solutions from the Northeast Climate Impacts Assessment (NECIA), a collaborative effort between the Union of Concerned Scientists and a team of independent experts. Report and fact sheets for each state available at http://www.climatechoices.org/ne/resources_ne/nereport.html.

Coastal Landforms, Coastal Processes and Erosion Control on Cape Cod & Southern Plymouth. Massachusetts DVD. From Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute’s (WHOI) Sea Grant Program and Cape Cod Cooperative Extension features visits to 11 sites including beaches, dunes, barrier beaches, coastal banks, and salt marshes. Experts discuss the interactive coastal processes that created and allow for the continued existence of these important resources and examine a variety of coastal erosion control alternatives. To get a free copy, contact WHOI’s Sheri DeRosa at sderosa@whoi.edu.

Cost Savings in Public Housing Revitalization. A new study by the Urban Institute on redeveloping severely distressed public housing as mixed-income housing found annual housing subsidy costs for a prototypical mixed-income redevelopment project are $3.9 million lower than such costs for distressed projects left standing, improvements in the well-being of low-income families translate into an estimated $313,000 annual savings in such public costs as unemployment insurance and criminal justice, and "the effective redevelopment of the prototype project could reasonably be expected to increase local property tax revenues by an average of $492,000 annually compared with the status quo." http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/411497_cost_benefits_hope_VI.pdf

Green Resources to Preserve Affordable Multifamily Properties. National Housing Trust. Features green incentive programs that may be used in an effort to preserve existing affordable multifamily properties. http://www.princes-foundation.org/index.php?id=192

Getting Up To SPEED: A Conservationist's Guide to Wildlife and Highways. Habitat loss is the most significant threat to America’s biodiversity, and one of the greatest consumers of habitat is poorly planned, sprawling development. Better transportation planning can shape future growth, thereby enhancing the quantity and quality of the habitat left for wildlife. http://www.defenders.org/programs_and_policy/habitat_conservation/habitat_and_highways/resources/getting_up_to_speed.php
Eco-Logical: An Ecosystem Approach to Developing Infrastructure Projects. A shared vision of an enhanced and sustainable natural environment, combined with the view that necessary infrastructure can be developed in ways that are more sensitive to terrestrial and aquatic habitats. Puts forth the conceptual groundwork for integrating plans across agency boundaries, and endorses ecosystem-based mitigation. http://www.environment.fhwa.dot.gov/ecological/eco_index.asp

The Great Neighborhood Book: A Do-it-Yourself Guide to Placemaking. author Jay Walljasper explains how most struggling communities can be revived, not by vast infusions of cash, not by government, but by the people who live there. Using a technique called “placemaking”-- the process of transforming public space – the book offers inspiring real-life examples that show the magic that happens when individuals take small steps, and motivate others to make change. http://www.pps.org/info/products/Books_Videos/great_neighborhood_book

Conservation Based Affordable Housing: Improving the Nature of Affordable Housing. The Conservation Fund has released the conservation-based affordable housing study. Available at: 
http://www.conservationfund.org/?article=3192&back=true

Teardowns Resource Guide The National Trust for Historic Preservation's Teardowns Resource Guide is a one-stop-shop for information on teardowns and the tools that are available for use to best manage this trend.  View these and other teardown resources online at: http://www.nationaltrust.org/teardowns/resource_guide.html

EPA's National Service Center for Environmental Publications Monthly list of new titles available from the Center online at  http://nepis.epa.gov/EPA/html/Newtitles.htm .

EPA Releases Excessive Heat Guidebook The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has produced the Excessive Heat Events Guidebook. The Guidebook is designed to help officials plan for and respond to excessive heat events. The guidebook and "in-brief" companion piece can both be downloaded at http://epa.gov/heatisland/about/heatguidebook.html.

Protecting Water Resources with Higher-Density Development According to a study by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), low-density development is not necessarily best for water quality. The study showed that higher-density development, especially when integrated into a watershed protection strategy, might actually be a better way to protect water resources. Available at: http://www.epa.gov/smartgrowth/pdf/protect_water_higher_density.pdf

Design Manual Helps Communities Create Context Sensitive, Walkable Streets The Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) has developed "Context Sensitive Solutions in Designing Major Urban Thoroughfares for Walkable Communities," which provides guidance and demonstrates how major urban streets can be designed to support walkable and bikeable communities, compact development, and mixed land uses. Available at http://www.ite.org/css.

New Publications Available from the DCR Office of Cultural Resources The Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR), Office of Cultural Resources is pleased to announce the publication of the second and third installments of the Terra Firma technical bulletin series. Available at: www.mass.gov/dcr/stewardship/histland/publications.htm

Article 2 of the Center for Watershed Protection Wetlands & Watersheds Article Series released Earlier this summer, "Using Local Watershed Plans to Protect Wetlands" was released for free download. Federal and state permitting programs do not regulate indirect impacts to wetlands; however, they can be managed at the local level through land use and development regulations. Visit the wetlands website at http://www.cwp.org/wetlands/index.htm to learn how and why wetlands should be part of watershed management.

From Poverty, Opportunity: Putting the Market to Work for Lower Income Families. According to a new report from The Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Program, "public and private leaders have a substantial, and widely overlooked, opportunity today to help lower income families get ahead by bringing down the inflated prices they pay for basic necessities, such as food and housing." Generally, these families pay more for the same consumer products than higher-income families, the report says.  To access the report, visit http://www.brookings.edu/metro/pubs/20060718_PovOp.pdf

Ipswich Affordable Housing Plan now online. Prepared pursuant to the State's Planned Production Plan regulations relative to 40B projects. Once approved by the State, it may give greater flexibility to defer 40B projects, provided that a certain number of affordable units are created in a given year. Available for download at: http://www.town.ipswich.ma.us/plandev/pdf/
Affordable%20Housing/Ipswich%20Aff%20Housing%20Action%20Plan%20FINAL%20DRAFT%201-3-06.pdf

CommonWealth Magazine Growth and Development Extra 2006. Special Issue on "Constructing the Future" with articles on smart growth, suburban life, zoning, and land use reform. Available to order at: http://www.massinc.org/index.php?id=501.

One-fifth of the Nation: America's First Suburbs, The Brookings Institution Feb. 2006.
Neither fully urban nor completely suburban, America's older, inner-ring, "first" suburbs have a unique set of challenges such as concentrations of elderly and immigrant populations as well as outmoded housing and commercial buildings. This paper defines first suburbs throughout the nation, examines their similarities and differences, and, finally, sets out a policy agenda tailored specifically to these distinctive places.
Available for download at: http://www.brookings.edu/metro/pubs/20060215_FirstSuburbs.htm

Looking Toward the Future: The Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC) Releases Population and Employment Data Through 2030.
MAPC is pleased to release its population and employment projections for 164 eastern Massachusetts communities. These figures demonstrate likely growth patterns in the region if past trends continue into the future. Key findings indicate that the region is expected to add 465,000 people and 240,000 jobs between the years 2000 and 2030. Available at: http://www.mapc.org

Groundwork Lawrence Newsletter http://www.groundworklawrence.org/AboutGWL/aboutgwl.htm

Harvard Forest's Wildlands & Woodlands: a Vision for the Forests of Massachusetts. In a new scientific report, Dr. David Foster the Director of Harvard University's Harvard Forest along with his colleagues is calling for a bold new land protection effort to stave-off accelerating forest fragmentation in Massachusetts. They recommend protecting half of Massachusetts as forest. Available at
http://harvardforest.fas.harvard.edu/wandw/index.html%20

Ipswich River Watershed Association's November 2005 Restoration Conference proceedings available at http://www.ipswichriver.org/docs/2005RestorationConference.doc

Lincoln Institute of Land Policy's Planning Policy and Politics: Smart Growth in the States examines the evolution of smart growth systems in key states across the country: Oregon, Florida, New Jersey, Maine, Rhode Island, Vermont, Georgia, Maryland, and Washington. The chapters identify the major policies and political realities that precipitated the adoption of new planning systems; pinpoint the key stakeholders in new legislation; describe the features of various growth management systems; outline the implementation records; and examine the political prospects for the future of these smart growth systems. Available for purchase at: http://www.lincolninst.edu/pubs/pub-detail.asp?id=1067

MassHighway's Project Development & Design Guide Public Draft is available at http://www.vhb.com/mhdGuide/mhd_GuideBook.asp. New & revised Chapters of note include Shared Use Path & Greenways, Landscape & Aesthetics, and Wildlife Accomodation.

Massachusetts Housing Partnership's Open Space, Housing Construction and Home Prices: What's the Payoff from Smart Growth? is available at http://www.mhp.net/uploads/resources/cape_ann_report.pdf

Massachusetts Smart Growth Alliance's Shared Destinies: a Smart Growth Agenda for Massachusetts is available at http://www.ma-smartgrowth.org/policy/policy_index.htm

Metropolitan Area Planning Council's Once is not Enough Water Reuse report available for download at www.mapc.org. The MetroFuture Trends to 2030 presentation and briefing materials are available at http://www.metrofuture.org/

Merrimack Valley Planning Commission Newsletter http://www.mvpc.org

North Shore Housing Trust Newsletter http://www.nshousingtrust.org/about.html

Sierra Club's Building Better: a Guide to America's Best New Development Projects. Highlights projects that offer transportation choices, revitalize neighborhoods, and preserve local values. Features 10 and 12 Summer Street in Manchester-by-the-Sea. Available at http://www.sierraclubplus.org/sprawl/report05/buildingbetter.pdf. 

Trust for Public Land's Groundswell: Stories of Saving Places, Finding Community.
People long for a sense of community in today's fast-paced world, for connections to one another and to natural places of peace and beauty. Quietly, and for more than twenty years, a growing network of community trails, riverfront parks, forests, farms, gardens, and other green spaces has begun to satisfy this hunger, offering welcome refuges in neighborhoods, rural towns, and cities across the country. Available for purchase at http://www.tpl.org/tier3_cd.cfm?content_item_id=20151&folder_id=175