Recent years have seen tremendous advancement in “planning support tools” that help regulators and stakeholders to understand the implications of different approaches to planning and development.  Such tools can help to build consensus, resolve disputes, and maintain consistency and accountability over time, and can be applied at a variety of different scales and time horizons, from an individual development proposal to a comprehensive plan.  

MetroFuture itself used such tools (in particular, the Community Viz software model) to help educate participants about the implications of alternative scenarios across a wide variety of topic areas.  Other planning support tools include more information about existing conditions or regional growth trends that will affect local conditions and should inform local decisions.   

However, many municipalities do not have the capacity to utilize such planning support tools.  Some towns have little data on recent development and current conditions; even fewer have the capacity to evaluate different future alternatives in a data-driven context.  The “buildout” maps funded by the state in 2000 contained useful information but the associated projections did not functionally support alternative decision-making.  

Municipalities need regularly-updated base maps that depict existing development, environmental resources, developable land, zoning and regulatory constraints, and infrastructure resources, and are accompanied by demographic, economic, and fiscal data about current conditions.  Decision support tools such as the Community Viz model could draw on the information contained in these maps to evaluate the impacts of alternative plans or development proposals.

Consensus building and alternative dispute resolution (ADR) are also key tools that can help stakeholders to resolve differences of opinion productively, rather than leading to divisiveness and litigation.  Consensus building techniques can be applied during planning efforts to foster agreement on desired futures.  ADR techniques involve a mediated effort to reach agreement voluntarily, without the use of litigation.  Such techniques are widespread in other states but underutilized by municipal governments in Massachusetts.  The Massachusetts Office of Dispute Resolution is a state agency charged with expanding the use of ADR in the Commonwealth. 

4.a    MAPC and the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs should partner to create updated buildout maps for each municipality

4.b    MAPC should develop prototype municipal-level applications of the Community Viz model

4.c    MAPC should partner with Massachusetts Office of Dispute Resolution and private service providers to develop guidelines for the use of Alternative Dispute Resolution for land use

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