New England Policy Chronicle
Updates from Around the Region
Editor’s Note: In David Foster’s introduction to this issue of From the Ground Up, he speaks to the importance of considering the myriad needs we ask the landscape to provide: We need enough space for our homes and to grow food for ourselves. We also need space to provide safe modes of transportation, to allow kids the chance to play outside, and to offer moments of quiet restoration, just to name a few. Beyond what our landscape provides for humans, considering the value of nature for nature’s sake only further underscores the importance of carefully considering how space is used, for what purpose, and at what cost. In this edition of the Policy Chronicle, we share three examples from around New England that illustrate how different states are codifying integrated and multi-sectoral approaches to land planning and use. – Alex Redfield
As students across New England return to school this fall, more than a few middle school math teachers will be teaching their classes how to solve for a single variable. In a simple equation with a few known constants, you should be able to find the value of “x” to make a formula work. Applying a similarly linear approach of working to solve for a single variable in land-use policy, however tempting, would almost certainly fail to meet our diverse and overlapping needs in planning for a resilient landscape that supports the lives of all—humans, plants, and animals—who live there. If we try to build as many possible units of housing as quickly as possible, for example, but fail to consider how that housing boom could impact or be impacted by transportation capacity, energy infrastructure, ecosystem integrity, or farm viability, we may cause more problems than we solve.
Though there is unlikely to be any universal equation that spits out the perfect solutions to shape our region’s future, it is clear that solutions are more effective when they integrate diverse perspectives, competing priorities, and holistic analyses early in the process. This ensures that solutions are thought through carefully to deliver maximum impact and to avoid unanticipated consequences.
So, how does multisectoral planning proceed in practice at multiple scales—landscape, municipality, state, and region? How do conservation and development link together in ways that engage local communities to achieve societal goals while respecting local values, protecting human rights, and uplifting all people? How do we address these complicated and fluid problems?
Below are examples from three states that are tackling these land use questions in integrated and innovative ways.
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Vermont
Vermont’s unique approach to the broader need for coordinated land use planning is embodied in three landmark policies and public institutions, all of which combine to create a powerful and effective framework for planning and governance.
The Vermont Housing and Conservation Board (VHCB) was established in 1978 to facilitate public and private investments in the development of affordable housing and the conservation of Vermont’s natural and working lands, all under one roof. (Gus Seeling, VHCB’s Executive Director, offers additional context of their approach to integrating multiple priorities in this issue.)
The underlying vision of VHCB is based in no small part on the landscape-scale approach and spatial analysis contained with the Vermont Conservation Design project (VCD), coordinated by the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department. The 2015 VCD report identified key areas of ecological significance around the state, including large forest blocks and fragile aquatic and riparian ecosystems, to better inform trajectories of both development and land protection.
Vermont Conservation Design identifies key habitat blocks, riparian systems, natural communities, and old and young forest targets. Courtesy of Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department
Finally, several recent legislative initiatives have been adopted that complement the basic framework of Vermont’s Land Use Law, Act 250, which both incentivizes development in targeted growth areas and creates oversight tools to restrict conversion of natural areas. The recent laws that build on this include the Vermont Forest Integrity Act (Act 171, 2016); the Community Resilience and Biodiversity Protection Act (Act 59, 2023); the HOME Act (Act 47, 2023); and the Community Resilience and Biodiversity Protection Through Land Use Act (Act 181, 2024). These bills collectively create ambitious land protection targets, make it easier to build where it makes sense to do so, and establish a model that balances competing land use needs rather than advancing different priorities in isolation.
For a closer look at the Act 181 update to Vermont’s Act 250, read this interview with Representative Amy Sheldon.
Massachusetts
In Massachusetts, a decades-long effort to advance both smart growth and statewide land protection has taken on new and promising momentum under the leadership of the Healy administration.
In 2024, the administration initiated the Massachusetts Integrated Land Use Strategy (MILUS), which seeks to coordinate the conservation of natural and production lands with development while advancing net-zero and biodiversity goals and centering equity and access. The effort squarely incorporates two essential elements for effective coordination: robust engagement across sectors and effective partnership across state and municipal jurisdictions. Engagement across sectors is demonstrated by the active working groups formed as part of the MILUS initiative—welcoming representation from state agencies and partners that specialize in economic development, housing, energy, conservation, environmental protection and water quality, public health, equity, transportation, and infrastructure. To achieve partnership across jurisdictions, the work seeks to develop an interagency agreement on preferred future land uses at a state level that is forged with strong local involvement to align municipal and regional planning with state priorities.
Planning for the future of Massachusetts’ landscape must balance the need for housing, natural resource conservation, transportation, energy infrastructure, and more. Integrating competing priorities into a comprehensive strategy is at the heart of the Massachusetts Integrated Land Use Strategy efforts described below. Graph courtesy of The Global School at Worcester Polytechnic Institute
The overall goals for MILUS include economic development; the construction of 220,000 new houses by 2036; the conservation of 40 percent of the land in the state by 2050; and the transition to 50+ gigawatts of clean energy by 2050. The mapping and planning phase of this effort are intended to produce a GIS Planning Tool by the end of 2025, and final decision-making should occur by spring 2026. If MILUS is successful in convening partners from different sectors of state government to develop tools and advance policies that balance competing land use opportunities and futures, it could provide planners and policymakers across the commonwealth with a new suite of resources and guidance to inform better decisions at local, regional, and statewide scales.
Maine
In contrast to Vermont’s longstanding Housing & Conservation Board framework and the recent ambitious efforts of Massachusetts’ new integrated land use planning initiative, the new Maine Office of Community Affairs (MOCA) offers a fairly modest but important set of resources to streamline coordination between municipal and state-level planners, policymakers, and advocates.
Based on recommendations from the Governor’s Office for Policy, Innovation, and the Future, Maine lawmakers authorized funding to create MOCA as a mechanism to support Maine towns in accessing, utilizing, and shaping technical support and public funding to improve their capacity for climate resilience and future land-use planning projects. Since 2012, when then-Governor Paul LePage closed Maine’s State Planning Office, municipal officials have often felt the pinch of having insufficient capacity to meet state and federal policy goals. Without sufficient support from other levels of government, towns in Maine didn’t have the resources to identify and secure the funding necessary (even when it was available) to implement policy changes in line with broader goals. MOCA is taking on the role of one-stop shop for state and municipal collaboration, with the intent of making it easier for feedback and funding to flow back and forth.
The Maine Turnpike Authority recently shelved plans to develop a new highway corridor leading into downtown Portland after public pushback. The proposed corridor would have run directly through Smiling Hill Farm, one of Maine’s last remaining independent dairy processors. Photo courtesy of Smiling Hill Farm
In addition to serving as a liaison between town and state counterparts, MOCA is also playing a key role in facilitating a new interagency working group adopted by Maine lawmakers at the end of 2024. This working group—consisting of Maine’s Commissioner of Transportation; the Commissioner of Environmental Protection; the Commissioner of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry; the Commissioner of Economic and Community Development; and the Director of the Maine State Housing Authority—is charged with designing a plan for agency coordination to maximize state resources that can help promote smart growth, walkable neighborhoods, mixed-use development, and mixed-income housing in high-use corridors near higher-density downtowns and village centers. Fresh off a very public debate about the true value and wider impact of building new highways to facilitate better traffic flow into the densest metropolitan area in the state, this new inter-agency working group could offer a better way to consider major infrastructure projects or big land-use policy changes. Instead of moving forward with a solution that might fail to consider the bigger picture, MOCA and other initiatives moving ahead in Maine could facilitate better ways to integrate more perspectives and to balance competing priorities earlier in the development process, ultimately yielding better ideas and avoiding unforced errors that are sure to crop up when ideas are advanced without sufficient consultation and analysis.
Alex Redfield is the Policy Director for Wildlands, Woodlands, Farmlands & Communities. On the farm, in state government, and in conservation policy circles, his work for the past 20 years has centered on supporting a just transition of New England’s landscape toward an equitable future. He lives in South Portland, Maine.