VHB Vanasse Hangen Brustlin, Inc City of Lowell

1. Not Your Average Sustainability
Session: Getting to the Bottom of
Sustainable Comprehensive Plans
Massachusetts Association of Planning Directors Conference – June 5, 2014

2. Agenda
 Sustainability Master Plan Defined
 Why?
 Principles
 Process
 Attributes and Elements
 Implementation and Evaluation
 Discussion and Questions
 Deep Thoughts

3. Meet VHB
 300+ employees in 4 offices
around the MA
 Integrated planning,
transportation, land
development &
environmental services
 Innovative tools and
resources to meet your needs

4. City of Lowell, MA
 Lowell is home is just over 106,000
residents, making it the fourth largest
city in the Commonwealth
 Plan E form of government
 Creative economy central to rebirth of
City – approx. 200 live/work studios
and 250 active artist studios
 UMass Lowell expansion: 7 new
buildings since 2012 and 45% increase
in student enrollment in the last 6
years to a total of 17,000
 Lowell General Hospital anchors
strong medical field

5. Two Terms Defined:
 A Sustainability Comprehensive Plan focuses on the long-term viability of
the economic, environmental, social and cultural aspects of communities and
regions.
• APA provides one definition, “…[a] plan to meet the needs of current and
future generations without compromising the ecosystems upon which
they depend by balancing social, economic, and environmental resources,
incorporating resilience, and linking local actions to regional and global
concerns.”
 A Sustainable Comprehensive Plan is an active, living document with
engaged stakeholders and active projects that remains at the forefront of
development and planning actions.

6. Why do a Sustainability Comprehensive Plan?
 Incorporate sustainability
principles into planning and
decision-making
 Create more resilient, livable
communities
 Plan for all critical
infrastructure, resource
needs and potential impacts
(heat island, flooding, etc.)
 Keep up with the times!

7. Sustainability Principles
• Livable built environment
• Harmony with nature
• Resilient economy
• Interwoven equity
• Healthy communities
• Responsible regionalism

9. Sustainability Comprehensive Plans should…
 Link with current redevelopment
initiatives
 Include a comprehensive
background review to establish
community consensus
 Seek wide-scale buy-in and
develop diverse stakeholders to
carry plan goals and strategies
forward
 Track progress of quantifiable
objectives; many goals cannot be
easily tracked, and that’s OK!

10. Our Experiences
Greenfield
 2012-2013
 Builds upon existing planning
efforts including Sustainable
Franklin County
 250+ people attended workshops
 550+ ideas generated
 40+ Master Plan Advisory
Committee meetings
 Used MindMixer for ongoing,
virtual participation
Lowell
 2010-2013
 Update to 2003 Master Plan with
a comprehensive sustainability
vision
 Engaged 800+ people in data
collection, 175+ in innovative
planning tool (Community PlanIt)
 Multi-language visioning sessions
attended by more than 160
stakeholders
 Approved by Council Spring 2013

11. Process

12. Engagement
• Diverse participation
• Departments and municipal staff
• Transparent decisions
• Disadvantaged leadership
• Ongoing information
• Community-wide & neighborhood
involvement
• Social media use
• Mix it up!
Authentic Participation Build Lasting Buy-In
Design the plan development
process to link with implementation
• Think about critical stakeholders and
have them help shape the vision from
the start
• Look for ways to integrate with
emerging initiatives
• Engaged stakeholders and links to
new initiatives create built-in
implementation oversight and
actions

13. Process – Do your Homework
 What other planning processes
are currently happening?
– Understand planning
environment
– Beware planning fatigue!
 What has your community/region
engaged in recently?
 What other entities may be
embarking on a similar process?

14. Process – Analyze Existing Conditions
 Collect data
 Engage stakeholders at all levels
 Look at existing local plans
 Look at Regional/State Plans
 Set the stage for consensus

15. Process – Create a Vision and Set Goals
 Develop a vision for the plan and
create realistic goals
 You don’t need a lot of goals…less is
more!
 Goals should define where you want
to be in X number of years, i.e., in 10
Years…
 Ask questions to get the answers

16. Process – Develop Realistic Strategies
 Strategies achieve the goals
 Keep it simple
 Remember – you want to be able to
implement these
 Are they conflicting with other
strategies in the plan?
 What does this look like in 5-10
years?

17. Process – Create Meaningful, Accountable
Implementation Plan
 Use indicators and metrics
 Monitor outcomes and goal progress
 Commit resources
 Assign responsibilities
 Communicate your success!

18. Process – Evaluation Criteria
 A set of conditions or principles that
measure how an action is consistent
with sustainability goals
 Help to prioritize and organize actions
for implementation
 Can be updated and reassessed to
help the community reprioritize
based on changing conditions
 Is helpful in dealing with “Master Plan
paralysis”

19. AttributesandElements

20. Attributes
Consistent Content
• Identify strengths,
weaknesses, opportunities &
threats
• Set measurable objectives
• Layout future vision
• Maps, tables, graphics, &
summaries
Coordinated Characteristics
• Comprehensive--cover all
relevant topics
• Coordinated--vertically &
horizontally
• Integrated--include other plans’
recommendations
• Persuasive--communicate
clearly

21. Elements: Greenfield
 Traditional chapters plus….
 Climate adaptation
 Energy efficiency
 Food access
 Health and wellness
 Social services
 Renewable energy
Or….integrate these into the
traditional chapters!

22. Elements: Lowell

23. Implementation & Evaluation

24. Developed our plan with implementation as a priority:
 Focused on engaging groups critical to our objectives, including:
residents and business owners in redevelopment areas; and service
providers who will be critical leaders for community-based actions
 Facilitated discussions that gave like-minded people a chance to
connect, explore ideas and build coalitions
 Offered creative use of city resources to support projects furthering
plan goals
Implementation & Evaluation: Lowell

25. Collaborative projects emerge from
public and staff consensus building
– Example: Mill City Grows, partner NPO,
focused on the production and
consumption of locally grown food
– Community garden program and urban
farming
Implementation & Evaluation: Lowell

26. Implementation & Evaluation: Lowell
Build support for existing projects:
 Cambodia Town
 Building and expanding bike lane
infrastructure
 Downtown two-way traffic conversion
Implementation & Evaluation: Lowell

27. Implementation & Evaluation: Lowell
Reimagining Plans
 Downtown Evolution Plan
 Hamilton Canal District Plan
 JAM Urban Revitalization Plan
Building Plans
 Ayer’s City Industrial Park
 Open Space and Recreation Plan
 Lowell’s Cultural Plan

28. Implementation & Evaluation: Lowell
Ayer’s City Industrial Park should be an
active, economically vital, attractive,
environmentally and economically
sustainable commercial/industrial
district that:
– Supports and enhances existing businesses;
– Attracts new development/businesses that
create jobs and support the City’s tax base;
– Provides attractive multi-modal
links/connections to and between adjacent
residential and commercial districts; and,
– Enhances appreciation of and connection to
natural resources.

29. Implementation & Evaluation: Lowell
Open Space and Recreation Plan
– Combined planning processes
– Gathered data to support both plans
– Avoided planning fatigue

30. Implementation & Evaluation: Lowell
LowellStat
– Building sustainability plan
goals into departmental goals
– Tracking progress
– Reporting back
– Numbers 4 Neighborhoods

31.  Create/identify a champion
 Institutionalize the Comprehensive
Plan
 Communicate!
 Measure, track and report progress
 Constantly identify new stakeholders
Implementation: Best Practices

32. Implementation: Greenfield
1. Create a Sustainable
Greenfield Implementation
Committee
2. Promote the results of
Sustainable Greenfield
often
3. Use the Sustainable Master
Plan as the Go-To reference
for all Town projects

33. Implementation: Greenfield
5. Track, measure, and report
progress of implementing
Sustainable Greenfield
strategies
6. Identify and incorporate
additional stakeholders into
the implementation stage

34. Discussion and Questions

35. Discussion
 What are obstacles to
creating a:
– Sustainable Comp Plan
– Sustainability Comp Plan?
 What elements are the most
challenging?
 How do we ensure
implementation?
 What resources/information
do you need?

36. If you don't know where you are going,
you'll end up someplace else. -Yogi Berra

37. In absence of clearly defined goals, we become strangely
loyal to performing daily acts of trivia.
- Author Unknown

38. Angela Vincent | avincent@vhb.com | 603.305.5385
Craig Thomas | cthomas@lowellma.gov | 978.674.1445
Yovani Baez | ybaez@lowellma.gov | 978.674.1413