Introduction
The objective of our study was to find 3-5 mid-sized communities in Massachusetts that demonstrate exemplary planning practices and achievements. Mid-sized communities were defined as those with populations between 15,000 and 50,000 people. Towns whose populations are fewer than 15,000 are less likely to have a full-time planning staff, possibly limiting the quantity and quality of planning that would otherwise result. At the same time, communities with populations over 50,000 are automatically eligible for grant money, and are more likely to invest in planning and community development projects.
This size restriction limited our study area to 98 out of the 351 cities and towns in Massachusetts.
For the purpose of this study we have defined exemplary planning as: cities or towns whose planning practices are worthy of emulation, or serve as a model of planning which can be transferred to other cities or towns with similar circumstances. One of the greatest obstacles that we encountered was finding the balance between planning for what the community needs, as opposed to planning for what community leaders want. It's important to make clear that the focus of this study was not on the best planning practices, but rather the most exemplary.This is the first studio project done of its kind: this project could not have been done five or ten years ago due to the volume and quality of data that was gathered using the Internet. Without the availability of this data, this project would have required us to go to each town in our study group, gather data from different offices, and read each newspaper daily to find out what was going on. This would have also led us to question the consistency of our data, and we would not have been able to compare so many different communities statewide.
The quantitative data sets we used came primarily from the Department of Revenue, the United States Census Bureau, and the Executive Office of Environmental Affairs (EOEA). Hundreds of articles were researched and read using Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe, and statewide databases such as Massachusetts Municipal Data Bank. Over 30 interviews were conducted, in person and by phone, with regional planning commissioners, community leaders, town planners, and private citizens. Town websites were consulted, as well as visits to the finalist communities.
 |
Copyright © 2000 University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Created in 2002 by Alexandra Proshina. Maintained by the Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning. This is an official page of the University of Massachusetts Amherst Campus |