The Commonwealth’s population has been growing very slowly, but we are consuming land seven times faster than our population growth rate. Low density, haphazard development of houses, office buildings, and stores is overwhelming our traditional Massachusetts landscape of historic cities, vibrant villages, and bucolic towns. Now, we face hours wasted in traffic, dwindling water supplies, staggering home prices, and loss of natural areas.

Around the Commonwealth, people are looking for new ways to for our state to grow and prosper. To encourage our state leaders to better provide our citizens choice, opportunity and environmental health in well-designed communities, seven leading organizations representing diverse interests joined forces and formed the Massachusetts Smart Growth Alliance.

What's New

Land Use Partnership Act

NEW! Click here for Land Use Partnership Act info. 

The Land Use Partnership Act updates many planning statutes in Chapters 40A and 41 with the potential to impact the entire state. In addition, the proposed legislation would allow municipalities to opt-in to a higher performance standard and receive new tools for directing development.

On June 23rd, 2008, the Alliance coordinated with MTIC to release a report called Future Mobility in Massachusetts: Meeting the State's Need for Safe and Efficient Mobility, which was authored by TRIP, a national transportation resource group.

This report paints a sobering picture of the rapidly aging and undermaintained transportation infrastructure in Massachusetts. We will need to transform the way we provide transportation in order to build a system that is less dependent on automobiles and offers better service and more choice.

For more information on the MTIC coalition and campaign, please explore the Our Transportation Future website.