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Shaping the Future of Your Community

June 2007

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. This series exposes the harsh reality of land loss in Massachusetts: More land has been developed in Massachusetts in the last 40 years than in the previous 340 years. This trend shows no signs of slowing.

Shaping the Future is Mass Audubon’s response to Losing Ground. There are many ways that you as an individual can make a real difference and help shape a better future for your community and the Commonwealth.

Download a Copy of Shaping the Future of Your Community!

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.

The guidebook Shaping the Future of Your Community gives you the tools for active involvement. It also guides you in determining what you can do to minimize the impacts of a development project that has already been proposed. Using this guide, you can craft and implement effective strategies to:

• Update and implement community plans
• Identify and protect the highest priority lands
• Provide incentives for well-planned growth
• And establish and apply regulations to minimize the impacts of development

For more than 110 years, Mass Audubon has been dedicated to protecting the nature of Massachusetts for wildlife and people. Working with you, we can maintain the Commonwealth's natural heritage for the benefit of future generations. You can make a difference in shaping the future of your community. This booklet will assist you in taking steps toward effective action.

Shaping the Future of Your Community is divided into the following six sections,

• Chapter 1 - How to Be an Effective Advocate
• Gain Credibility and Support to Achieve Your Goals
• Chapter 2 - Who's Who of Local, Regional, State, Federal Management, and Environmental Agencies
• Target Your Efforts and Get Results
• Chapter 3 - Local Land Use Planning and Conservation Strategies
• The Building Blocks of a Healthy and Sustainable Community
• Chapter 4 - Zoning, Regulatory Land Use Controls, and Incentives
• You Get What You Zone For. Update Your Land Use Rules With Innovative Tools
• Chapter 5 - Land Protection
• Funding Sources, Gifts, Tax Incentives, Land Trusts, and More
• Chapter 6 - Project Review and Permitting
• How to Engage in Permitting to Get the Best Results from Development Projects

Shaping the Future of Your Community also provides access to related information and resources:

• Federal, State, and Local Environmental and Land Use Laws and Regulations Summary Chart
• Useful contacts and links provided throughout each section, as well as at the end of each chapter

Choose the topic that you are most inclined to start working from. Together the entire Shaping the Future series provides a comprehensive tool kit that will enable you to work effectively with others in your community and with land conservation organizations.

Download individual sections of the document:

Cover Page * (527 kb)
Acknowledgements * (83 kb)
Introduction * (172 kb)
Chapter 1- How to Be an Effective Advocate * (240 kb)
Chapter 2- Who's Who of Local, Regional, State, Federal Management, and Environmental Agencies * (198 kb)
Chapter 3- Local Land Use Planning and Conservation Strategies * (272 kb)
Chapter 4- Zoning, Regulatory Land Use Controls, and Incentives * (322 kb)
Chapter 5- Land Protection * (492 kb)
Chapter 6- Project Review and Permitting * (338 kb)
Federal, State, and Local Environmental and Land Use Laws and Regulations Summary Chart * (131 kb)

Download the entire document*. (2.7 mb)

For more information please send your email inquiries to advocacy@massaudubon.org or call 781-259-2171.

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