• Introduction
•  
• How To Use
•  
• Tim Brennan Letter
•  
• Panel Presentation
•  

...the Commission recognizes that our region is facing significant growth, poor air quality, environmental impacts and loss of farmlands...

WELCOME TO THE PIONEER VALLEY
SMART GROWTH TOOLBOX!

This toolbox was developed by the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission to help our member communities implement smart growth strategies at the local level. This toolbox provides model bylaws, fact sheets, case studies, and visualizations for over 30 smart growth concepts that can be used by municipal boards and local citizens throughout the Pioneer Valley. The toolbox also provides community specific information on growth and development over the past 20 years, and a Smart Growth Community Checklist to help you get started in selecting smart growth strategies that are appropriate for your community.

This Smart Growth Toolbox was developed as part of Valley Vision 2, the regional land use plan for the Pioneer Valley. Valley Vision 2 is a Smart Growth plan, in that it is designed to promote compact, mixed use growth in and around existing urban and town centers, while promoting protection of open space and natural resources outside developed centers.

Access to all of these Valley Vision components can be found on our website at www.pvpc.org.

Sprawl Without Population Growth

The need for a smart growth plan for the region is clear: the Pioneer Valley continues to experience an increase of residential and commercial development with minimum population growth. Between 1970 and 2000, the population in the Pioneer Valley region has remained relatively stable with a net increase of only 4.4 percent. During this same period, 38,244 acres of undeveloped and farm land were converted to higher intensity uses for an increase of 35.7 percent in acres of developed land. This rate of development is unexpected given the limited growth of the region’s population. 

New development in the Pioneer Valley is primarily residential. Between 1971 and 1999, over 30,000 acres were converted to residential development, while only 4,500 acres were developed for commercial and industrial uses. Most residential sprawl is in the form of ANRs, or “Approval Not Required” developments. ANR developments allow a parcel owner to subdivide a lot into two or more parcels, as long as the parcels have the required street frontage on an adequate, public way. Massachusetts is currently the only state in the nation that permits Approval Not Required developments through its state Zoning Act.  In Belchertown, one of the region’s fastest growing communities, 847 new lots were created over the past decade (1995-2005), and of these, 75%, or 640 lots were ANRs. 

Market Forces Encourage Sprawl

There is no question that housing preferences and market forces support the sprawling form of development shaping our region.  The exodus of Pioneer Valley residents to suburban and exurban homes is strongly linked, for example, to the demand for a single family home in the country. 

A major problem is that housing choices in the Pioneer Valley are extremely limited, so much so that in many communities there are no alternatives to single family homes on large ANR lots.  Consumers will need choices such as cluster housing, Traditional Neighborhood Developments, townhouses and in-town mixed housing types in order to channel market forces toward reducing sprawl.

The Costs of Unplanned Growth on the Pioneer Valley

Unplanned growth and continued sprawl development can affect our health, air quality, environment, economy, community character and quality of life. Due to sprawl development, the region is losing farmland at an alarming rate and is considered one of “most threatened agricultural regions in the United States” by the American Farmland Trust. Between 1987 and 2002, the acreage of farmland in the region dropped 20.6 percent over 15 years, and the number of farms declined 10.2 percent. As the most active agricultural region in state, loss of farmland not only affects our local food supply, but also our tourism industry. 

Sprawl can also contribute to an increase in vehicle miles and traffic time for residents of the Valley.  Over the past decade, job growth has been focused in urban core communities, while residential growth has moved to suburban and exurban communities.  As a result, more workers are driving longer and farther to work. In the Pioneer Valley region, total vehicle miles traveled increased 27% from 1980-2000 and carpooling declined from 19% to 9% of all work trips.  In addition, the average commute time in the Pioneer Valley has increased, from 18 minutes to 22 minutes between 1990 and 2000.

All of this additional driving has affected our air quality -- air quality in the Pioneer Valley is among the worst in the nation. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the Pioneer Valley region is in “serious non-attainment” of Clean Air Act standards for ground level ozone, which is the principal component of smog. High ozone levels can contribute to breathing problems, such as asthma, as well as damage plants and trees. While many of the urban areas in the Pioneer Valley tend to have high levels of ozone, rural areas are also subject to increased ozone levels because wind can carry ozone hundreds of miles from its original source.

Numerous studies have noted the impacts of sprawl development on our public health. One of the prominent characteristics of sprawl development is increased dependency on the automobile, and in turn this dependency contributes to more sedentary lifestyles, therefore increasing our health risks. Health trends over the past thirty years show a continual decrease in physical activity and an increase in obesity and respiratory problems. For example, the number of trips the average American adult takes on foot each year dropped by 42% from 1975 to 1995. Meanwhile, the time spent in traffic has increased by 236% since 1982. In addition, from 1980 to 1994, the number of people with asthma in the US increased by 102%, accounting for approximately 500,000 hospitalizations, 5,000 deaths and 134 million days of restricted activity a year.

Sprawl also increases the cost of new homes, because dispersed development requires more infrastructure, including longer roads, sewer and water lines.  These additional costs are then passed onto the homeowner, and are reflected in the increased cost of housing. Sprawl development is also 14% more expensive to service in Massachusetts than controlled growth development. New homes that are built in sprawling developments do not generate enough taxes to support the infrastructure and service costs these developments require. These extra costs are then made up by the property taxes on all residents in the community, not just those within the new development.

Sprawl also affects the economic development potential of the region. The flight to the suburbs contributes to disinvestment in our urban communities in the Pioneer Valley.  As middle-income families move out of cities, they take their incomes with them.  Urban property values drop, and cities receive less income from property taxes.   This causes a decline in the quality of urban services and schools.  The net result is a downward spiral for cities, which can only be arrested by attracting middle-income residents back to cities through providing more housing choices and urban amenities. 

What you can do

Individuals and communities can each play very important roles in smart growth.  All important social change begins with individual actions.  And in Massachusetts, all zoning is local, so communities control the single most important tool for smart growth. We encourage you to use this toolkit to foster change in your community and adopt land use regulations that preserve your community character and maintain a high quality of life. As a smart growth plan, we encourage you to promote and concentrate development in existing town and city centers, and to protect valuable green spaces and active farmland. By rethinking land use development for the Pioneer Valley, we can help promote economic development, protect the environment, and provide equitable housing options for the residents of the region, and for future generations to come.   

For a summary of growth and development trends in your hometown, and for an assessment of smart growth tools appropriate for your community, click here.

Average Travel Time in the Pioneer Valley, 2000, in minutes