Past Stories
UMass Amherst training conference empowers citizen planners
More than 274 town planners from across the Commonwealth assembled in Worcester on March 15 to gather and share critical information impacting the future of their communities, and to hear keynote speaker Senator Pamela Resor of Acton discuss the need to empower those communities with new zoning tools.
It was all part of the seventh annual conference of UMass Amherst’s Citizen Planner Training Collaborative (CPTC), sponsored by UMass Extension in collaboration with the state Department of Housing and Community Development.
The annual outreach conference – Advanced Tools and Techniques for Planning and Zoning – has increasingly become both a training ground and a rallying point for the state’s local planning and zoning officials, many of whom serve in a volunteer capacity without previous formal training in planning law. It is also one of the ways in which UMass Amherst outreach most directly benefits local communities, with direct access to the combined research of the university and the public policy resources of state government.
Senator Resor, chair of the legislature’s Joint Committee on the Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture, announced that this term – her fifth – will be her last in the state Senate, capping a political career that began 27 years ago when she was elected to the Acton Select Board specifically to address an environmental issue – polluting of the town's water supply by the W.R. Grace Co.
Snow squalls whipped past the tall windows of the Hogan Conference Center at the College of the Holy Cross as Senator Resor applauded the group before her, many of whom serve their communities on a volunteer or part-time basis and face a wall of ambiguous statutes and regulations as they sort through development and conservation issues in their towns.
State Senator Pamela Resor, center, chair of the Joint Committee on the Environment, Natural Resources & Agriculture, was keynote speaker at UMass Extension's Seventh Annual Citizen Planner Training Collaborative Conference March 15 in Worcester. She is flanked by CPTC director Michael DiPasquale and Extension director Nancy Garrabrants.
"You have substantial powers and frustrating limitations," she told the crowd of planners. Resor, who has worked on zoning reform for the past six years, also cited what she called an "essential truth" that the CPTC conference addresses: "In order to accomplish the Commonwealth's goals for housing, open space, thriving town centers, and smart growth, and in order to sustain our working landscapes – our citizen planners need to be given the tools of the trade." But Resor added that the state has come up short in its support.
"Some of our tools are outdated, some are too complex. Some are downright inappropriate, leading us to land uses that none of us want," she said.
Many at the conference had worked with Resor over the past few years to form what she called "the self-energized-totally-ad-hoc" zoning reform working group. And while Resor expressed disappointment that the goals of the group haven't been met in the legislature, she also stated her belief that "the conversation is bringing us closer to some resolutions."
Resor said she agreed that the state should financially assist towns in planning efforts and with improvements in water, sewage and schools, and that the assistance should be available to all towns.
"I am leery of any system that fills up the tool kits of some communities while leaving others in the past," she said, but added, "The devil will be in the details." Resor called the CPTC conference "essential." "We have so many planners with little or no experience and who work on a volunteer basis, and here they can get a broader picture of the issues facing them and network with other planners in the state." Networking was a common theme at this year's conference, which brought together volunteer and professional planners from 109 different towns, with speakers and moderators from state and local agencies, community organizations, law firms, and universities.
Eighteen program workshops ranged from Planning and Zoning Resources for Massachusetts Communities to Tools and Best Practices for Streamlining Local Permitting, and included sessions on topics such as Smart Growth, drinking water protection, fair housing and subdivision control. For the first time, participants were eligible for continuing education credits for maintaining American Institute of Certified Planners certification.
CPTC director Michael DiPasquale called the annual gathering "a unique opportunity for planners to connect with each other and with state organizations and resources." Erika Jerram, one of two planners from Framingham at the conference, agreed. "I'm new to local planning so I still have a lot to learn," explained Jerram who has been on the job just six months. "I went to a great session this morning on the state toolkit and I feel like I'm learning how to go from planning to reality." Jerram was also interested in Massachusetts law because she moved to the state from Pennsylvania. "I know the planning lingo but not the legal lingo," she added.
Andy Port, town planner in Hanover with a population of 14,000, was also interested in case law. "As planner, I should know the legal issues before I go to town counsel about a project," he said.
Port graduated from the Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning program at UMass Amherst in 1999 and was attending his fourth CPTC annual conference. He said that, like many small towns, his was concerned about new smart growth zoning. "Mixed use is a new thing for us," he added.
Hilda Greenbaum, a member of Amherst's zoning board of appeals, attended the conference with three colleagues and, after missing last year's meeting because of snow, was glad to see the storm outside subsiding at the lunch break. Greenbaum sat in on a morning session about special permits and variances, led by Glenn Garber of UMass Extension.
"I re-learned some things that hadn't been used by the ZBA in a while," she said. "I will certainly take some of this information back to my colleagues in Amherst."
After a session on Smart Growth zoning, Medway planning board chairman Andy Rodenhiser said his town – like many – is looking for the right balance between development and conservation. "Medway is in deficit financing. We have a primarily residential tax base," he said. "But our primary objective is to develop the town in an appropriate way and still keep its rural character."
Rodenhiser said he attends the conference "every year" and that community planners don't always have the knowledge and tools to work efficiently, "So I'm learning some new skills and keeping current with state programs," he said. Echoing the sentiment of many at the conference, Rodenhiser says the nature of the citizen planner is activism and community involvement.
"I complain like everyone else," he said, "but I got involved."
CPTC is jointly supported by UMass Extension and the Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning at UMass Amherst, along with the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development, Massachusetts chapter of the American Planning Association, the Massachusetts Association of Regional Planning Agencies, the Massachusetts Association of Planning Directors, and the Massachusetts Federation of Planning and Appeals Boards.
Story and photographs by Ben Barnhart.
