Pioneer Valley Planning Commission Valley Vision Toolbox Home

How to Use This Toolbox

In order to assist communities in the implementation of our Valley Vision regional land use plan, the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission, with input from the Valley Development council, has developed a Smart Growth Toolbox specifically tailored to the communities in the Pioneer Valley region. This toolbox provides fact sheets, case studies and model bylaws for over 40 smart growth concepts and tools that could be applied at the municipal level.

The communities that constitute the Pioneer Valley vary greatly in land use, density, population, and community character. From the Urban Core to the rural Hilltowns along Berkshire county, to the rich agricultural Valley communities to the bedroom communities in the Quabog Hills, growth pressures vary greatly throughout our region. We fully understand that not all 40 smart growth tools are applicable to all 43 communities in Hampden and Hampshire counties; therefore we have taken the time to identify specific smart growth tools that are appropriate for each community.

There are multiple ways to use this smart growth toolbox. If you know exactly which tools you would like more information on, you can go directly to the Smart Growth Strategies webpage and access direct links to the fact sheets for the 16 Valley Vision strategies and 26 smart growth tools. Bylaws can be accessed through each of the smart growth tool fact sheets.

If you need more assistance in determining which smart growth tools would be more appropriate for your community, you can access your Community Checklist. These Checklists were developed by PVPC utilizing information from your community plans. For each of our 43 communities, we looked at your Master Plan, Open Space Plan, Community Development Plan, and Commonwealth Capital Applications and highlighted those smart growth tools that were identified by the community in these plans. Links to the smart growth tools fact sheets and case studies are provided through the Checklist. PVPC staff also highlighted additional appropriate smart growth tools that might have been overlooked in our community plans.

We encourage you to also visit the introduction section of this tools box to better understand the challenges to smart growth we are experiencing in the region, as well as hear from several communities on how they are using Valley Vision to implement at the local level.

If you have additional questions or need assistance implementing any of the tools mentioned in this toolbox, please contact the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission at 413/781-6045.