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Shaping the Future of Your Community logoSustainable Communities Toolkit

These resources will provide information that can help you create, manage and maintain a sustainable community.

Stormwater Management and Water Quality


Community Planning and Smart Growth

  • EEA* Smart Growth Case Studies and Model Bylaws
    EEA’s Smart Growth / Smart Energy toolkit has great case studies, slideshows and model bylaws for a number of different sustainable planning tools and techniques, including:
    • Low Impact Development (LID)
    • Inclusionary Zoning
    • Agricultural Preservation
    • Transfer of Development Rights
    • Transit Oriented Development
    • and much more.

  • American Planning Association

  • Natural Lands Trust, Inc.
    Growing Greener (1997) (PDF).  A booklet of methods for municipalities to use to protect interconnected networks of open space, and ensure that their conservation goals are achieved in a manner fair to all parties. Describes amendments to municipal comprehensive plans, zoning ordinances, and subdivision ordnances. 


  • Massachusetts Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development (EOHED), Division of Community Services
    • The Division of Community Services builds the capacity of individuals and strengthens communities through a comprehensive and integrated service delivery approach. This page includes many resources for community development, including
          “A Guide to State Development Resources”
          “Citizen Planner Training Collaborative”, and
          information on a “Peer-to-Peer Technical Assistance Program”
    • EOHED’s Smart Growth Initiatives

  • ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability
    STAR Community Index. A national, consensus-based framework for gauging the sustainability and livability of U.S. communities, helping local governments set priorities and implement policies and practices to improve their sustainability performance.


  • Green Neighborhoods Alliance
    Mass Audubon is a founding member of the Green Neighborhoods Alliance, a group of planners, environmentalists, state and municipal officials, lawyers and real estate agents who joined together to promote Open Space Residential Design (OSRD), a method of residential development that conserves open space in new subdivisions. The Green Neighborhoods website has a wealth of information on OSRD,  including model bylaws and regulations and case studies.


  • The Green Infrastructure Approach to Community Planning
    The Green Infrastructure approach to community planning states that just as a community has a 'Grey Infrastructure', it has a 'Green Infrastructure' -- that is just as important to the community's healthy functioning. The Green Infrastructure approach takes a community's green and open spaces (parks, playgrounds, forests, farms, wetlands....etc.), and looks at the ways in which they work together to provide the community with a suite of benefits -- from cleaning the air and water, to providing habitat for local wildlife, and places for residents to recreate and play. In this Letter to the Editor in ArchitectureBoston, Jack Clarke, Mass Audubon’s Director of Government Affairs and Public Policy, makes the case for Green Infrastructure planning. (Winter, 2009) (PDF 124K).


  • Planning for Sustainable Growth Along 495
    495 MetroWest Development Compact. Mass Audubon’s Shaping the Future program is partnering with the Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development, the Central Massachusetts Regional Planning Commission, the Metropolitan Area Planning Council, the MetroWest Regional Collaborative and the 495/MetroWest Partnership, in a development compact study for the 495 / MetroWest region. This Compact will create a shared framework for state, regional, and local strategies for sustainable growth and development in the study region.

Land Protection

Climate Change

Placemaking

  • Project for Public Spaces
    A non-profit organization dedicated to helping people create and sustain public places that build communities.


  • Place Matters
    An organization supporting the creation and maintenance of sustainable and vibrant communities and regions through the application of innovative decision making tools and methods.


  • Sustainable Communities Network
    Placemaking: Tools for Community Action(PDF)


* Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs


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