Land Protection and Community Preservation

Project Leader: Robert Levite

General Information

Land Protection:

The Land Protection and Community Preservation Project will work with land trusts, towns and municipalities to help them better understand and utilize various tools for protecting important conservation land as well as the practical and legal requirements for monitoring and enforcing conservation restrictions. This will be accomplished through a variety of projects:

(1) Green Valley Institute (GVI) workshops: these workshops will be aimed primarily at the 9 Massachusetts towns within the Quinebaug Shetucket National Heritage Corridor (Corridor) and will focus on educating land trusts and town boards toward adopting new local ordinances

(2) GVI Fact Sheets: this project will involve updating and, where appropriate, adding new fact sheets to be used by various entities within the Corridor to address sustainability issues

(3) GVI Historic Landscape Educational Series: this project includes working with towns in the Quinebaug and Blackstone Corridors to provide education on how to consider and adopt new town ordinances designed to help protect some of the more important historic landscapes within the towns. These may include farms, cemeteries, estates, commercial and industrial ruins, etc.

(4) GVi News Articles: this project involves writing at least 4 newspaper articles for local and regional papers on issues relevant to sustainability and protection efforts in the entire Corridor

(5) GVI Local Facilitation: this project involves facilitating passage of new town ordinances or consummation of agreements for protection of important land, water or historical resources within the Mass. Corridor towns

(6) Mass Land Trust Coalition (MLTC): this project will involve one 90 minute workshop at the MLTC Annual Conference on an issue relevant to land protection and the health and viability of local land trusts

(7) MLTC Legal Project: this project is based upon the supervision of newly admitted attorneys doing basic research and creating factual sheets for use by the entire land trust, conservation commissions and watershed community

(8) MLTC Easement Defense Legal Library: this project is designed to gather together legal cases, briefs, law review articles, etc. that can be helpful to land trusts, conservation commissions, watershed organizations, etc. and their legal counsel in preparing for litigation on issues relevant to land protection

(9) MLTC Easement Defense Policy Advisories: this project is an extension of the now 4 year old project of utilizing practicing attorneys in the land protection field to assess and address priority issues that will enable land trusts and conservation commissions to properly and effectively handle land protection problems and projects;

Ultimately this program will facilitate more targeted land conservation to effectively preserve biodiversity and maintain ecosystem integrity over time. Conservation organizations, towns and agencies will be more targeted in their land protection efforts and will integrate efforts at various scales.

Land and Resource Management

The policy challenge confronting Massachusetts is how to move communities, the state government, towns, organizations and landowners toward commitments and initiatives that are likely to bring about substantial changes in the manner in which Massachusetts develops. Respondents to Extension surveys on Land Use Management, including state and municipal board members and employees and non-profit practitioners indicate that, among public regulatory strategies, there should be significant improvements to: land use statutes, subdivision control regulations, master plans, zoning bylaws and related regulations.

Because UMASS Extension/NREC has the ability to be a facilitator, educator and outreach coordinator not only to individuals, but to communities and organizations who have the ability to affect change, it can effectively work with constituents and audiences to bring about impacts that will have lasting effects. This will involve the development of new tools, the training of relevant audiences, and the evolution of new methods of delivery and the assessment of the effectiveness of these activities. Impact indicators will include: updated and applied master and open space plans, zoning and subdivision regulations that encourage and support sustainable development and increased affordable housing, and private plans for limited development and related conservation. UMASS Extension/NREC will also support state and federal government agencies, municipalities, non-profits and landowners in increasing the rate of land protection and the quality of the land being protected.

Aware of the many external factors that can affect the goals that we pursue, our research and outreach to our audiences will be respectful of all parties involved, while seeking mutually beneficial solutions.

The Land Protection and Community Preservation Project has the following priorities:

• Develop and Promote Land Use Tools & Policies that Foster Sustainable Development.
  Contributing to the development of more advanced Massachusetts planning strategies and resultant programs, as well as to improved land use statutes, will be a priority statewide. At the local level, contributing to the improvement of subdivision control regulations, zoning bylaws, master plans, and other components of the growth management tool kit, should be important in strategic attempts to manage haphazard growth. Sometimes this can be achieved by means of clustering towns in a sub-regional approach, possibly in partnership with regional planning agencies and/or private regional organizations. The University and Extension have the expertise and capabilities to bring much needed education, outreach, technical assistance and other forms of direction and help to state government, municipalities, non-profits and educational groups to help address these issues.

• Promote integration of natural resources protection into land use planning and economic development.
  While natural resource protection is an intrinsic aspect of sustainability, the land use planning and environmental communities sometimes see themselves as being separate from one another. Open space, habitat and watershed protection and planning, greenways, and agricultural and forestry protection need to be integrated within all planning approaches. This requires working on the state, regional and local level with regulatory and non-regulatory tools. It also assumes collaboration across different program areas within UMass Extension. Through applied research, special projects and outreach, Extension/NREC and its collaborators are in a strong position to fill this void in the education of stakeholders at every level.

• Facilitate Balanced Growth, Integrating Land Conservation and Management with Development.
  Balanced community and regional land use can integrate land conservation and development in a variety of ways, including compact development design and/or removing land from development. Further, it can do so with the highest degree of public participation. UMass Extension programs have developed tools for targeted land conservation that effectively preserve biodiversity and maintain ecosystem integrity, while accommodating inevitable development. These approaches can be partnered with expertise in the legal aspects of conservation and other tools available to landowners, municipal officials and volunteers, regional entities and statewide governmental and non-profit organizations. Educational efforts must focus on the public perception that land conservation deprives landowners and communities of value and income.

Activities

• Green Valley Institute workshops
• Green Valley Institute Fact Sheets
• Green Valley Institute Historic Landscape Inventory educational series,
• Green Valley Institute News Articles
• Green Valley Institute Local Facilitation
• Mass Land Trust Coalition Conference Presentation
• Mass Land Trust Coalition Legal Project
• Mass Land Trust Coalition Easement Defense Legal Library,
• Mass Land Trust Coalition Easement Defense Policy Advisories,
• Maintain website: Townboard.org

Inputs: Time and Effort

Outcomes:

This Project will document progress towards the following:

• Participants acquire the knowledge and skills to promote, implement or adopt Land Use plans and programs that accommodate development in a manner that protects ecosystems, water and other natural resources
• Participants develop the knowledge and skills to adopt land management practices that protect and enhance water, other natural resources and ecosystems
• Participants develop the knowledge and skills to promote, implement or participate in strategic land conservation programs that protect ecosystems, water and other natural resources.

Extension program related to this project: Natural Resource & Environmental Conservation