The
Center for Economic Development (CED)
The Center for Economic Development is a research and community-oriented
technical assistance center that is partially funded by the Economic
Development Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce. As an EDA
Center housed at the Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional
Planning, it fits well with the Department's long tradition of outreach
to Massachusetts' cities and towns, and is well suited to meet EDA's
mission, goals and objectives. As a case in point, its faculty and
students have worked on economic development issues in more than
200 cities and towns in the past ten years. As well, its faculty
has specializations that include industrial development, retail/commercial
development, tourism, marketing, employment training, quantitative
analysis and data analysis.
The Center's role is to provide technical assistance to communities,
undertake critical community based studies, disseminate information,
and to enhance local and multi-community capacity for strategic
planning and development. This approach is designed to relate the
concerns and goals of commerce and industry to those of the broader
community. The Center can then work closely with both community
and business sectors, providing information and assistance needed
for growth, management, and public benefit. The Center's clientele
and cooperators reflect that the Center does indeed work well with
all sectors: community development corporations, state agencies,
municipalities, regional planning agencies, developers, business
leaders, chambers of commerce, local officials, public groups and
the managers of firms.
The
Center for Rural Massachusetts (CRM)
The
Center for Rural Massachusetts was established at the University of
Massachusetts in 1985 because a new set of problems had arisen in
the rural part of the state, driven by rapid economic growth in urban
areas, a widespread belief that uncontrolled growth posed a major
threat to natural and built rural environments, major changes in the
rural economy, and concerns about the welfare of rural residents.
In the first decade of its existance, the Center's efforts addressed
these problems through a program of applied research focusing on
ways that growth could be managed and controlled through actions
of rural communities. In retrospect, these efforts were quite successful,
and the measures proposed in Center publications have been studied
and adopted not only in Massachusetts, but also elsewhere in the
United States and the world. Some former employees of the Center
now hold highly significant planning positions in urbanizing parts
of America, and others are writing about ideas initiated here in
Massachusetts.
Starting in the middle part of the 1990's, the Center changed in
two ways. One was to provide assistance and support to two new programs
directed at rural Massachusetts communities. One of these was the
Massachusetts
Rural Development Council, and the other the Massachusetts
Citizen Planner Training Collaborative.
The second change was tighter integration with activities in the
Department of Landscape Architecture
and Regional Planning. The Director's
Report for 1996 to 2001 provides details on these activities.
Citizen
Planner Training Collaborative (CPTC)

The Citizen Planner Training Collaborative provides local planning
and zoning officials with tools to make effective decisions regarding
their community's current and future land use.
- Training workshops delivering a Level I and Level 2 core curriculm,
taught twice a year across the state by expert attorneys and professonal
planners.
- Internet access to core training units, a bylaw collection,
many planning related links, training calendars, and e-mail discussion.
- On-demand training to any community needing to focus on a specific
topic.
- One-day conferences addressing important land use issues on
a more in-depth basis.
CPTC is a member of the Local Capacity Building Partnership - an
affiliation of training providers assisting local officals in dealing
with land use issues.
Urban
Places Project (UPP)
UPP was founded in 1995 to provide urban design and neighborhood
planning services to low-income, central neighborhoods in mid-sized
cities, communities that have not traditionally had access to design
and physical planning assistance. Co-founded by Associate Professors
Patricia McGirr, and Henry Lu (of U.Mass), and Ann Forsyth (now
at Harvard and continuning as a collaborator) UPP's twenty projects
have integrated teaching, research, and service.
Using workshops, surveys, interviews, exhibitions, and small-group
meetings the UPP works with neighborhood residents, officials, and
business people to help articulate goals and create visions for
neighborhoods or for particular sites. The Urban Places Project
has particular expertise in open space planning and park design,
vacant lot reuse, planning and design workshops, and neighborhood
planning. UPP emphasizes both long-term visions and short-term redevelopment
options. In many cases UPP also provides assistance in implementing
initial phases of these plans through activities such as planting
trees and cleaning up vacant lots. Over 150 students have been involved
with UPP as interns and in classes.
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