Beth Stafford sat behind the wheel of her car at the intersection of routes 14 and 18 in Whitman, glancing left and right at the businesses and traffic lines as she waited for the southbound light to turn green.

"You can sit here for a while," sighed Stafford, chairwoman of the Whitman Board of Selectmen. "Sometimes it takes three light changes just to get through.

"I know it's not the Expressway or Queen Anne's Corner," Stafford added, referring to the rush-hour gridlock of Route 3 from Quincy to Boston and the intersection of routes 53 and 228 in Norwell. "But the congestion here is getting worse."

Planners for the Massachusetts Highway Department and the Old Colony Planning Council know it, too. That's why the Whitman stretch of Route 18 is on their short list of roads that have the potential to turn into the South Shore's next Queen Anne's Corner if improvements aren't started within the next several years.

While the perennially clotted traffic at the Norwell junction of routes 53, 228 and 3 draws public attention - along with Southeast Expressway stackups - state and regional planners are also keeping an eye on several other future choke points.

Those include the Route 18-Route 27 intersection in Whitman, Route 18 at the former South Weymouth Naval Air Station and in Abington, and the Route 3-Route 139 intersection in Pembroke.

The two intersections already handle combined daily volumes of 30,000 or more vehicles a day, according to state surveys. Route 18 carries 31,000 a day in Weymouth and 23,000 in Abington.

While traffic on those roads has gradually thickened over the decades, the volume has doubled and even tripled at some points on Route 3, and almost doubled on Route 24 since the late 1970s.

By 2010, the Expressway is projected to have average 115,000 vehicles a day, while Route 24 will carry 154,000 where it ends at Route 128, according to the highway department.

As recently at the 1970s, most of the smaller routes still looked like country crossroads. Since then, a booming population and the attendant rise in commuter traffic has transformed the South Shore into one of the state's busiest residential corridors, with Route 3 and Route 24 each handling more than 100,000 vehicles a day.

"Traffic on most highways in the area is already at or over capacity," said Massachusetts Highway Department District Director Skip McCourt. "A number of locations have the potential to develop into problems, but it's hard to know which ones will." McCourt is most concerned about routes 18 and 53, though he said Queen Anne's Corner commuters will see "dramatic improvements" when work there is finished in 2004.

McCourt and Old Colony Planning Council supervisor Charles Kilmer said a knot of five state roads in Kingston might become jammed some day if too many drivers try to avoid Route 3.

"Commuters are already getting creative with alternate routes," Kilmer said.

Routes 3A, 106, 80, 27 and 53 all connect within a mile of each other, but McCourt said "it remains to be seen" if those roads will ever pose a problem, because they run through stable, mostly residential neighborhoods.

For town officials, environmental groups and many residents, the prospect of congestion on previously lightly traveled routes isn't just a problem in itself. It's also a symptom of longer-term changes, from a loss of undeveloped land to the arrival of suburban sprawl.

"We still have a lot of open land," Stafford, the Whitman selectman, said. "But who knows what will happen years from now?"

At the Boston-based Conservation Law Foundation, project director Bennet Heart said more Queen Anne's Corners are guaranteed if the familiar, auto-oriented mix of single-family homes and strip malls expands as it has for the past 20 to 30 years.

"If this model of development continues, people on the South Shore will see a further erosion of the quality of life as they've known it," Heart said.

McCourt and Kilmer aren't much worried about managing traffic buildups.

"There's no problem that doesn't have a solution," McCourt said.

But they agree that the solutions are more complicated in settled places like Whitman, where highway land is scarce and elected leaders have to balance economic growth with the strains it often creates.

Stafford and other Whitman officials are already bracing for the impact of a planned new Stop & Shop supermarket, which will open next year on the old King's Castleland property on Route 18, a few hundred feet north of Route 14.

In Plymouth, Town Administrator Eleanor Beth said she and the selectmen are contending with the same issues amid their community's rapid development.

"Any time we discuss a growth issue, we discuss traffic," she said.

Beth said it appears that the Route 44-Route 3 interchange and a planned Cherry Street exit from Route 3 will handle traffic in the near future.

She declined to speculate on the impact of the potential development of 6,000 acres of cranberry bogs and pine barrens near Myles Standish State Forest.

Route 18 in Weymouth is expected to get as many as 6,000 more vehicles a day when the former South Weymouth Naval Air Station is converted to commercial, residential and recreational uses.

As Weymouth, Whitman and other towns try to look ahead, McCourt said relief is on the way on several roads, from a round of work that's scheduled for the next two years.

In addition to the Route 53 project, which may include lane widening, the state will spend $5 million over the next year to improve four intersections along Route 18.

In Plymouth, the Route 3 exit to Cherry Street is to be finished in 2003. McCourt said that ramp should shorten the rush-hour backups at the Route 44 exit.

The Highway Department is also considering improvements to the Derby Street exit on Route 3 in Hingham, and has begun a comprehensive Route 53 corridor study.

Whitman is getting ready to prepare a master plan for the town. Stafford got a reminder of why town officials made that decision one day last week when she had to idle for an unbroken stream of traffic before she could turn from the Castleland lot onto Route 18.

"We're gonna be here for a while," she said.

© Copyright 2002 Patriot Ledger

Sudbury, Massachusetts - The electric company plans to begin building a new circuit this year that should decrease power failures in town, a company spokesman told selectmen this week.

NStar crews are upgrading an existing circuit in Sudbury, and when that project is completed they plan to begin building the new circuit, according to JoAnne O'Leary, community relations and economic development representative at NStar.

Work on the new circuit, which will start at the station in Maynard and then move into Sudbury, should begin sometime during the first half of this year and take about three years to complete, O'Leary said.

Population growth in the area is driving plans for the new circuit, O'Leary said, because increased demand is taxing the existing system, particularly during peak usage in the summer.

"Basically, we realize there have been some reliability issues," O'Leary said.

Selectwoman Kirsten Roopenian said residents in pockets of south and north Sudbury have experienced frequent power failures.

John Drobinski, selectmen chairman, said some residents have experienced outages for several days during snowstorms.

He described the meeting Monday as productive, but said town officials intend to keep an eye on the electric company.

"We want Sudbury citizens to feel they're getting consistent, reliable, and expedient service from NStar," Drobinski said.

The new circuit will increase double-utility poles in Sudbury, O'Leary said, although NStar has been trying to remove redundant poles when possible.

Utility poles in Sudbury are owned jointly by NStar and Verizon, though O'Leary said NStar erects new poles and removes old ones.

Double poles, which many residents complain are ugly, occur because utility lines are not always transferred from one pole to another at the same time.

The poles typically carry four types of lines: power lines, cable television cables, fire alarm wires, and telephone wires. When a pole is damaged in a car accident or when a circuit is upgraded, electricity lines are usually moved to a new pole first, and then the other lines eventually follow.

For some time, at least, the second pole is necessary because both poles are supporting wires. But even when all the wires are transferred to a new pole, the old one often remains.

"Sometimes, we've seen that they do in fact sit there for a long period of time," O'Leary said.

O'Leary said NStar removed about 100 redundant poles during the summer and early fall. Sudbury has between 200 and 300 double poles, she said, but the vast majority of those are necessary because they are supporting utility lines.

Roopenian said town officials are considering a bylaw that would force companies to move their wires onto new poles so old poles could be removed. "They're not only unsightly, they're probably dangerous," she
said.

On another topic, O'Leary offered advice for residents experiencing power problems.

Power outages are often caused by fallen branches or squirrels, she said, but while company officials usually know generally where the problems is, it helps to hear from residents in order to pinpoint the
problem.

O'Leary urged residents who experience a power outage to call NStar at 800 592-2000.

© Copyright 2002 Boston Globe

Worchester – Edythe Daly has been battling emphysema for some time.

Despite the aches and inconveniences brought on by her illness, though, the 50-year-old former dietary aide said she generally was content with life -- and was especially secure in the knowledge that, at the least, she had a roof over her head.

That all changed two weeks ago, when her new landlord decided he needed an apartment for a relative and evicted Ms. Daly, her daughter, Edith Degaetano, and her 6-year-old granddaughter, Harlene, from their second-floor apartment in a Shrewsbury Street three-decker.

With no lease, the family was forced onto the street.

What makes the story remarkable, Ms. Daly said, is that the family has the money for rent.

They just can't find an apartment.

As soon as a place opens up, you have 15 to 20 people looking at it the first day,'' said Ms. Daly, who has sought refuge with her family in a shelter run by Friendly House. There are just no apartments out there.''

Ms. Daly represents a new breed of homeless people -- those who have no place to go to because of the nationwide shortage of affordable housing.

This unanticipated, growing segment, according to housing officials, is adding a considerable burden to a social service network already stretched thin to meet the needs of people who fit the stereotypical view of homeless.''

The lack of housing coupled by a reeling economy has, over the past year, boosted the numbers of homeless people. But no one is sure just how many Americans have no place to call home. The U.S. Census Bureau estimates, for example, that there are about 281,000 homeless people in the nation.

Social service providers, however, believe that the number of those with no permanent roofs over their heads is significantly higher. Some say there could be as many as 2 million Americans without homes.

The U.S. Census count of the homeless is just a snapshot,'' said Philip Mangano, executive director of the Massachusetts Housing and Shelter Alliance. The Census Bureau went out, took a count, and that was that. The research studies by other groups, however, show the problem is a lot bigger.''


A spokesman for the National Alliance to End Homelessness said 750,000
Americans are homeless on any given night and, over the course of a year, as many as 2 million people experience homelessness.

Last month, the U.S. Conference of Mayors surveyed 27 cities, including Boston, and found that requests for emergency shelter assistance increased an average 27 percent over the previous year.

Officials stress that the homeless problem no longer is restricted to the country's urban centers.

The economic downturn has cut a swath across all job sectors, and homelessness has crept into suburbia and other communities, including rural enclaves that normally are unaffected by the homeless problem.

The homeless -- already handicapped by the faltering economy – were dealt another blow by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Many of the new homeless had entry-level jobs in the tourist and service-oriented businesses -- industries particularly hard-hit when consumer confidence plummeted after the jetliner hijackings.

We turn away people every day. ... The population we serve grows and grows, and we don't have the resources to shelter them all,'' said Peter Gillis, executive director of the Greater Westfield Coalition for the Homeless.

State officials said they were generally able to meet the needs the homeless until the economic crash of the 1980s.

In 1981, for example, there were only two state-funded shelters in Massachusetts -- one in Boston, the other in Cambridge.

Most of those needing help were chronic substance abusers, those released from prisons and people with mental health problems who were discharged from institutional settings in an attempt to mainstream that population.

The economic woes of the computer and other high-technology industries in the 1980s, however, bloated Massachusetts' homeless numbers.

By the decade's end, the state was funding 155 shelters.

Eventually, the economy rebounded, but the prosperity had a downside.

Affordable housing units began to dry up as landlords -- aware that Americans had more disposable income -- hiked rents or converted their units to condominiums to meet market demand. According to Massachusetts Housing and Shelter Alliance, 96 percent of the lodging houses that were available in 1970 had been converted to condos or luxury apartments by 1995.

Those units were never replaced -- planting the seed for the next wave of homelessness brought on by the current recession.

As is the case nationally, officials aren't sure how many people are homeless in Massachusetts.

It is estimated that as many as 6,000 Bostonians are homeless on a given night, while Central Massachusetts Housing Alliance Inc. figures that 3,000 people in this region do not have homes.

Officials said it's very difficult to pinpoint how many people are homeless because many live in abandoned cars and buildings – avoiding any encounter with bureaucracy. Others temporarily live with friends or relatives.

However, social service providers said occasional census counts of emergency shelters can help gauge just how severe the problem is.

A survey last month by MHSA, for example, showed that emergency shelters in Massachusetts are overflowing'' and are not expected to accommodate an increase in the homeless expected to result from recent state budget cuts.

The MHSA -- a public policy advocacy and planning group of 78 organizations serving homeless people through 200 emergency, medical, mental health, substance abuse and other programs -- said that shelters statewide are, on average, operating at 115 percent capacity.

The alliance also reported that Massachusetts shelters have been operating at overflow'' levels over the last 39 months.

In Worcester, facilities are operating at 160 percent of capacity -- about 47 percent higher than 1999.

There are 171 emergency beds in Worcester, most of them at the downtown People In Peril shelter, formerly known as the Public Inebriate Program, and at the Massachusetts Veterans Shelter on Grove Street.

Elsewhere in Worcester County, there are 89 more beds.

Paul V. LaCava, assistant city manager for neighborhood services, said City Hall officials are trying to set up a meeting with administrators at the state Executive Office of Health and Human Services to ensure that Worcester will have enough money to meet the needs of the city's homeless this winter.

Mr. LaCava said that, in a worst-case scenario, the city has enough municipal facilities to house its people. However, he said that there aren't enough qualified people to assist individuals in need of emergency housing services.

We don't want to warehouse people,'' Mr. LaCava said. We want to make sure the services are available to help the homeless. There are also public safety concerns that have to be addressed.''

A special commission was formed last year by City Manager Thomas R. Hoover to examine issues surrounding the homeless. Mr. LaCava, a member of that panel, said shelters in the city are reporting significantly higher'' numbers of people looking for help.

Mr. LaCava said shelter and city officials have been meeting regularly to discuss capacity levels and to project what the deep state cuts will mean for the area's homeless population.

He said the city's hot real estate market has been gobbling up units that formerly were available to low- and moderate-income residents. Homeless advocates say that, at one time, decent local apartments could be had for between $600 and $800 a month. Few of those are now available.

Social service providers said it always has been difficult to fund services for the traditional homeless.'' Now, additional money must be found to construct enough affordable housing for homeless people such as Ms. Daly.

Many of the homeless have jobs,'' said Mr. Mangano. They just don't have places to live.''

A recent study by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development said the need for housing is particularly acute for those who make 30 percent or less of the median income.

In the Boston area, the median income is $43,700 for a single person and $73,000 for a family of four.

Mr. Mangano recommends that 25 percent of all state money for housing be targeted to those in that 30-percent-or-less income category.

For example, there's about $20 million in the state's Affordable Housing Trust Fund. Under Mr. Mangano's plan, $5 million would be available for housing for the most needy.

The state Legislature also is working on a $500 million bond bill for housing. Under the 25 percent proposal, another $125 million would be made available.

In July, U.S. Sen. John F. Kerry, D-Mass., proposed similar legislation in the Congress.

Mr. Kerry submitted a bill that would establish a permanent source of funding for construction, rehabilitation and preservation of housing for low-income people with the goal of creating 1.5 million units by 2010.

The money for the fund would be drawn from excess revenue generated by the Federal Housing Administration and the Government National Mortgage Association.

The proposal, to date, is being cautiously embraced, with several congressmen co-signing the proposed legislation.

To solve the housing problem, you're going to need some deep funding,'' said Mr. Mangano. We want to create more studios and efficiency apartments. Housing money should go to population that needs it the most.''

While government policy-makers are trying to cope with homeless families, they still must deal with the mass of people who traditionally seek shelter in rusting cars, unsecured buildings, trash bins, large crates, boxes and other makeshift housing that offer some protection against brutal weather.

Last week, Gov. Jane M. Swift promised $280,000 to pay for an additional 252 shelter beds.

This is the time of year that most homeless people abandon their warmer-weather hangouts for institutional settings such as the downtown PIP shelter, where they can clean up, get a hot meal and sleep in a climate-controlled environment.

A check last week of spots where Worcester's street people like to camp out for the night showed that most had chosen to seek accommodations in shelters.

Mattresses and cardboard box houses'' near the former South Worcester Industrial Park were abandoned, and neighbors reported that homeless men who had set up camps'' at Institute and Beaver Brook parks also had left.

Police said that late-night pedestrian traffic along Main Street also has died down over the past few weeks.

The cold don't bother me much, and I can take a lot of it, but a lot of people don't mind being indoors after New Year,'' said a hefty, middle-aged-looking homeless man panhandling yesterday afternoon along the Front Street side of City Hall. It's the cops hassling you around here all the time that I don't like.''

The man -- dressed in several layers of clothing, including a parka -- said he was raised in Framingham and was just passing through Worcester for a few weeks.'' He didn't want to talk in detail about his situation.

I gotta go,'' he said.

© Copyright 2002 Worchester Telegram & Gazette

Northboro's population is growing and graying.

The 2000 federal census figures list the town's population at 14,013, up from 11,929 in the 1990 census.

The population continues to increase, as it has every census since 1950,'' said Town Planner Kathryn Joubert.

The town's population was 3,122 in 1950; 6,687 in 1960; 9,218 in 1970; and 10,568 in 1980.

In the latest census, the most populous age group was 35-44, with 2,828 residents. Residents 45 to 54 made up the second largest group, with 2,284 people.

The town's growth has particularly affected the school system, Ms. Joubert said.

But all departments -- from police and fire to the department of public works to parks and recreation -- feel the impact of growth, she said.

A population growth like we've experienced does not just affect one portion of town government,'' she said. It affects everyone.''

Such growth puts pressure on the town to increase its tax base, she said. Ms. Joubert and members of the Planning Board and Industrial Development Committee constantly ask, How do we attract more businesses to town, and the kind of businesses we want?'' she asked.

The town's population is also growing older, which poses a different set of challenges, officials said.

The median age in Northboro has increased from 34.3 in 1990 to 37.4 in 2000. There are 1,872 people in Northboro who are 60 or older.

We've become an older community,'' Ms. Joubert said.

That is hardly unique to Northboro, Ms. Joubert said. It certainly is a trend across the United States,'' she said.

That trend is being addressed in Northboro, as it has been in other communities, by the construction of 55-and-older housing communities. A proposal was recently brought before the Zoning Board of Appeals to build 30 to 32 townhouses at a cost of $450,000 to $500,000 per unit. Some have questioned how many Northboro seniors could afford those prices.

A zoning change is being discussed for next year's town meeting that would allow for denser developments than current regulations allow for communities aimed specifically at those 55 and older.

The aging population comes as no surprise to Laurie Nelson, director of the Northboro Senior Center. We need to be ready to meet the needs of the people in town,'' she said.

The senior center will continue to work on programs to help people age in a healthy, positive way,'' she said.

For the most part, she said, Northboro seniors are active and engaged in the community and their lives, she said.

People really gravitate to things that keep them moving,'' she said. This presents us with a terrific opportunity to provide services to enhance their lives.''

Census figures that provide in-depth information on the town's seniors have not been released, Ms. Joubert said. But Ms. Nelson believes, based on her experience, that most seniors in Northboro have lived in town for some time.

My general feeling is that seniors in town have been here and want to stay here,'' she said. Most people want to age in place.''

Seniors tend to leave town for health or economic reasons, she said. The impact of rising real estate taxes is just a huge issue,'' she said, particularly for seniors on fixed incomes who are unable to keep up with cost-of-living increases and tax hikes.

As the aging population increases, the pressure becomes stronger for people to advocate for legislation that offers tax assistance for seniors, she said.

She also hopes that more intergenerational programs will break down the barriers between generations.

Many times, people kind of look at the older generation and the younger generation as competing for the same funds,'' she said. I don't see it as a competition. I see it as cooperation.''

© Copyright 2001 Telegram & Gazette

Bolton, Massachusetts - The mansion-like homes scattered in the woods, the tart smell of leaves in the crisp fall air, apples on roadside stands, and antiques for sale at the Skinner auction house - life is good in this rural town of 4,500 off I-495.

So good, in fact, that townspeople recently voted to try to keep it exactly the way it is.

Fearful of being overrun by new subdivisions and smack in the middle of the state's new high-tech corridor, Bolton has adopted a ''phased growth'' measure that caps the number of building permits for single-family homes at 37 per year, with no more than six for any single developer. And so a town that already does not permit cafes and convenience stores has put the brakes on homes as well.

''People want to keep the rural character,'' said Stan Wysocki, chairman of the planning commission. ''The center of town looks like it did 100 years ago; our biggest industry is apple orchards. This is a way to manage the growth, as opposed to waking up and realizing we're five classrooms short in the schools.''

Bolton is only the latest Massachusetts community to impose local growth controls, joining many other towns in booming areas along Interstate 495 and on Cape Cod. The controls, some dating back to the 1970s, have generally been upheld by Massachusetts courts.

But Bolton's action comes at a time of renewed scrutiny of such measures. The United States Supreme Court is expected to rule in the coming months on whether a building moratorium in the Lake Tahoe, Calif., area constitutes a government ''taking'' of property that must be compensated under the Fifth Amendment of the US Constitution. The case, filed by a Nevada woman barred from building an A-frame home on her small lot because of erosion concerns, is being closely watched by property rights activists and growth-management planners across the country.

Locally, the measure in Bolton is being criticized not only by large landowners who fear they are being shut out of the lucrative home-building business, but by affordable housing advocates who say the building cap will make Bolton that much more exclusive.

The Bolton bylaw exempts low- and moderate-income housing projects, but several developers have taken the extra step of proposing large affordable-housing projects under the state's anti-snob zoning law known as 40-B. Those projects are exempt from local zoning if towns have less than 10 percent affordable housing; Bolton has less than 1 percent under state-set definitions. New homes start at $600,000, according to local realtors.

For Bolton landowner and developer Brian Lafferty, the Bolton measure is flawed on a number of levels. It has prompted a flurry of 40-B proposals, he said, including his own bid for a 32-unit complex. And it does not affect building on approximately 150 lots which were in the pipeline before the measure went into effect, some of which were rushed in at the last minute - prompting more growth, not less.

But on a philosophical level, the measure reflects a distasteful attitude he has witnessed in the town.

''This is a classic case of, `I have my piece, I'm in, now lock the doors,''' Lafferty said. ''The people behind this bylaw are the newcomers to town, not the people who made this community what it's been for the last 30 or 40 years. They live in subdivisions that could be anywhere in America, but they want to drive through the woods on their way to work and on the way home. They want the rest of the town to stay pristine. That's disingenuous at best.''

Bolton rejected another approach to managing growth - the Community Preservation Act, which blends state and local funds for the three goals of affordable housing, open space protection, and historic preservation. Some 30 communities have already adopted the CPA, and 13 others are voting on the measure today.

Clearly, the citizens of Bolton sought something stronger than the CPA, Lafferty said. But as a matter of policy, the building-permit limit was imposed ''without the benefit of any advance planning of any sort,'' Lafferty added. ''It's a less than ideal route to manage growth, and it doesn't really attain the desired goal.''

Wysocki, the planning commission chairman, said the town is engaged in long-term planning, and the measure was simply a way to make growth more predictable. The measure itself is future-oriented, he said, because it will take several years for building plans in the pipeline to ''drain out.''

Nor is the limit draconian, Wysocki said. The figure of 37 permits per year was set by taking a five-year average, including years of high growth, he said.

Growth-control measures such as Bolton's have generally been upheld by courts if they are temporary and accompanied by major planning efforts to chart a course for the community's future, legal specialists say.

Terry Szold of Community Planning Solutions, a land-use planning consulting firm that advised Bolton, said the key is for the permit cap to be a ''credible number'' and for exemptions to be available as well.

''Communities need emergency controls to make sure there is some way to deal with infrastructure,'' said Szold, who is also an adjunct associate professor at the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at MIT. ''These tools are needed, but shouldn't be a substitute for comprehensive planning.''

Phil Herr, a Newton planning consultant who has advised towns on drafting similar measures, said that growth controls work best when coupled with other provisions that encourage open-space conservation or affordable housing. More than a third of Barnstable's building-permit limit is set aside for affordable housing, for example.

In Lancaster and Westford, the growth limits are set relatively high, so they only kick in during periods of intense growth. But on Cape Cod, the Cape Cod Commission, a regional planning group, recently drafted a new regional plan that calls on all communities to impose growth limits, to keep the rate of development to half that experienced in the last decade.

''They feel they are simply growing too fast,'' Herr said. ''There have actually been fewer devices of this kind than in the '70s, but they are out there. They tend to get adopted on the backside of growth spurts, responding to a problem that has become urgent.''

John Echeverria, a Georgetown University law professor specializing in land use and property rights, said that ''for municipalities to adopt this approach when confronted with growth is OK. But the constitutional questions are in the details - how it's administrated, and what other uses are available to developers.''

In Bolton, there is as yet no legal challenge to the ''phased growth'' measure, based on the idea that the value of land is being reduced by such regulation, requiring the government to compensate property owners. But there is plenty of unease, said Lafferty, the local developer.

''There's one guy with 300 acres, an orchard owner with a couple of hundred acres. These are townspeople who have been around a long time and may not be anxious to sell,'' he said. ''But it's those people who will get hurt. This penalizes the people responsible for making Bolton what it is today - the farmers, orchard owners, large landowners. They're the ones that are punished by this.''

© Copyright 2001 Boston Globe

Six groups join forces for a war on sprawl
Alliance vows to press Romney to guide growth
By Anthony Flint, Globe Staff, 6/11/2003


Housing advocates and environmentalists have banded together to form a
sweeping new political alliance to pressure the Romney administration to do
something about sprawl in Massachusetts, promising to hold the governor's
''feet to the fire'' on his campaign promises to change the rules on
development.



The Massachusetts Smart Growth Alliance is made up of six separate advocacy
groups that have agreed to work together on the sprawl issue. Similar
alliances have organized in states that have overhauled development rules,
including Oregon, Maryland, and New Jersey.

The ''smart growth'' movement has gathered momentum around the country over
the past 10 years, promoting the redevelopment of existing urban areas and
transit-oriented planning to avoid the urban sprawl that comes from building
on undeveloped land in suburban and rural areas accessible only by car.

Governor Mitt Romney made sprawl a campaign issue and put Douglas Foy,
former president of the Conservation Law Foundation, in charge of the new
Office of Commonwealth Development, which oversees housing, the environment,
transportation, and energy. The Legislature has not approved that
restructuring, but the office is working on an antisprawl agenda, and has
circulated a set of draft principles that would guide development in the
future.

Marc Draisen, executive director of the Metropolitan Area Planning Council,
one of the six organizations in the new alliance, said one task will be to
''hold the governor's feet to the fire'' and speak out on specific projects.
''If they are inconsistent with smart growth, we're going to have to say
they should not be built,'' he said.

''I think it's great,'' said Foy, referring to the alliance. ''We need a lot
of voices to push this agenda along.

Members of the new group, which also includes the Citizens Housing and
Planning Association, the Fair Housing Center of Greater Boston, the Boston
Society of Architects, the Environmental League of Massachusetts, and the
Conservation Law Foundation, say the alliance will support policies to
create more affordable housing while working within the state's tradition of
home rule, under which cities and towns control development within their
borders.

Most cities and towns in Massachusetts are struggling to cope with parts of
the current development framework, such as zoning rules that favor
spread-out subdivisions and a tax system that leads to extensive commercial
development to bolster a tax base that can pay for services, said Larissa V.
Brown, program director for the Boston Society of Architects' Civic
Initiative, a two-year-old antisprawl campaign.

''The state needs to have a position here -- to say that it's not OK to
drain water supplies, gobble up open space, or shut out people of modest
means,'' said James R. Gomes, president of the Environmental League of
Massachusetts.

The group's first initiatives will be to create a ''white paper'' to present
to the Romney administration, suggesting steps such as those recently
adopted in Pennsylvania, which push cities and towns to plan together and
share tax revenue across municipal borders. The alliance also wants
affordable housing projects to be compact and near transit, and will press
the Romney administration to overhaul Chapter 40A, the statewide zoning law.

The group also seeks to build a constituency for smart growth by sponsoring
educational events, to get citizens to think beyond the local level, said
David Harris, executive director of the Fair Housing Center.

In addition, another new group, which includes many members in the Smart
Growth Alliance, has formed separately to focus on how new development
policies will affect low-income families. The Greater Boston Action
Committee will promote affordable housing and greater access to transit for
low- and moderate-income workers, said Anthony Davis, a spokesman for
PolicyLink, the national group that helped the committee form.

Anthony Flint can be reached at flint@globe.com.


This story ran on page B1 of the Boston Globe on 6/11/2003.
© Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company.