This research focuses on the applicability of the federal Fair Housing Act to the practice of municipal land use planning and zoning and examines how this relationship can inform a curriculum intended for municipal authorities on their responsibilities under the Act. The purpose of the Fair Housing Act is to provide equal access to housing through desegregation and non-discrimination. Historically, many municipal governments have used zoning to segregate communities based on race, ethnicity, national origin and disability, among other traits. Today, scholars point to exclusionary zoning tactics and unfair treatment of housing for the disabled, for example, as barriers to equal housing opportunity. Strategies for affirmatively furthering fair housing exist and their implementation is feasible. Municipalities throughout the country implement these strategies through a variety of practices, however emerging cases suggest that not all practice non-discrimination. Through instruction, many more municipal authorities might learn about strategies to affirmatively further fair housing in addition to fulfilling their legal responsibilities as housing regulators. Fair housing advocates and professionals are poised to assume instructional leadership because of their experience working with municipal authorities and their understanding of the Fair Housing Act and its relationship to land use planning and zoning.

The creation of new towns is a deeply rooted planning movement that is based on the human population’s constant search for a better way to live. This is evident in the depth of the movement’s history and the emergence of these towns today. Intentional settlements establish new towns in order to define a specific type of corporate, religious, political, or social community. Through a comparative case study method, the visionary influence on the design and development of two new town intentional communities, Celebration, Florida and Ave Maria, Florida, are examined in this paper. Celebration and Ave Maria each integrate the basic concepts of new town planning and the shared vision behind an intentional community through the vehicle of New Urbanism. The vision, land use, marketing, and governance are examined in each town. The nucleus of each community, the town center, is evaluated through the analysis and comparison of the character of use and architectural design. This in-depth analysis identifies specific connections between the vision for each town and the established identity.

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The purpose of this study is to gain a better understanding of how community gardens can catalyze positive change in an urban environment, to determine and catalog the impacts, and to learn about their importance to small-scale agricultural production. The study surveyed neighbors of the two umbrella organizations community gardens, The Nuestras Raices of Holyoke and Growing the Community of Springfield, who strive to ensure that local families gets enough food to feed their families on a daily basis.

ABSTRACT THE IMPACTS OF TOURISM AND DEVELOPMENT IN NICARAGUA A GRASSROOTS APPROACH TO SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT SEPTEMBER 2007 JENNIFER ATWOOD BURNEY, B.A., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS DARTMOUTH M.R.P., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Directed by: Ellen Pader This study examines the impacts of tourism and development in Nicaragua and how lessons learned from a case study review of tourism and development in Mexico and a Certificate for Sustainable Tourism in Costa Rica, as well as two ecotourism and sustainable development establishments in Nicaragua can be applied to Nicaragua policy. Nicaragua’s political history, land use and policy and the tourism industry are reviewed to determine how sustainable development could be guided by the adoption and implementation of a program based on Costa Rica’s certificate program.

Public transportation ridership levels have decreased since the end of World War II. Transit systems in small cities struggle to maintain ridership levels high enough to continue receiving local subsidies. Individuals with refugee status, and those with limited English proficiency (LEP), represent an opportunity to increase ridership. The bus system increases mobility for people without a car or driver’s license, including many refugees and LEP people, thereby increasing their accessibility to work and education. This thesis places the local bus system in Manchester, New Hampshire in a historical context and identifies some barriers and potentials for increasing refugee and LEP ridership. In addition to increasing headways and hours of operation, recommendations point to improved publicity, including distributing route maps and schedules more widely, using clearer bus stop signs, and providing bus passes for refugees in the first few months after arrival. It should be noted that language did not arise as a barrier to transit ridership in this study.

Low-density residential development patterns in New England have resulted in the excessive loss of farms, forests and other open spaces and increased automobile dependence. Coupled with increasingly high land costs, sprawl has contributed towards an affordable housing crisis in Massachusetts. The need for sustainable development (such as new urbanism and smart growth) has been increasingly recognized, yet efforts have been hampered, in part, due to apathy and local residents’ resistance towards increasing residential densities, resulting in limited choices for willing homebuyers. This study examines perceptions of residential neighborhoods and sustainable development among residents in Hopkinton and Southborough, Massachusetts; two communities with rural and suburban character located in the rapidly growing metropolitan Boston region. A photo-based survey sent through the mail asked respondents to rate scenes of innovative residential settings and to answer questions about their attitudes towards environmental issues, planning approaches and neighborhood preferences, their current residential setting and demographic characteristics. The results from 253 survey respondents showed three important themes: (1) that residents expressed strong environmental values yet many lacked awareness of the environmental impacts of low density housing, (2) strong preference for views of nature and open spaces was prevalent and (3) visual design variables can dramatically influence perceived density. Key findings indicate two sub-groups. Approximately one-third of the respondents strongly support denser, sustainable development alternatives and value neighborhood planning that reduces auto dependency, meets the needs of households with various incomes and protects open space. While, the other two-thirds of the sample favor calm, scenic, low density neighborhoods and would like to see their community preserve its open spaces and maintain its historic and rural aesthetic. The study concludes with recommendations for regionally appropriate approaches to sustainable development that take into account the multiple scales and stakeholder involvement.

Import substitution presents many economic development opportunities that can help regions achieve greater economic sustainability and self-reliance. Yet import substitution is largely neglected in economic development theory, practice and literature. There are few methods and resources available to planners trying to identify import substitution opportunities. However, impending economic challenges, such as energy market instability, climate change and carbon emissions regulation, mean that planners will be called upon with greater frequency and urgency to help regional economies adapt. This study offers and evaluates two methods for identifying import substitution opportunities within a regional economy. The first method is rooted in economic base theory, the dominant approach to regional economic development since the 1930s. The second method is derived from industrial cluster analysis, a much-used economic planning approach since the 1990s. Analysis of these two methods and their application to the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area suggest that: 1) both methods show promise as screening tools to help planners focus economic development resources on subsequent industry research efforts, such as surveys, which are essential to the development of effective policy initiatives; 2) the industrial cluster analysis method is capable of identifying a wider range of candidate industries; 3) the economic base theory method may be more effective in smaller regions; and 4) the economic base theory method is useful for estimating leakage. The study also demonstrates that import substitution integrates aspects of economic base theory, particularly the capability to identify leakage and opportunities to increase industry multipliers, with the facets of industrial cluster analysis that emphasize local interindustry linkages and value chain networks.

This thesis explores how to conduct a regional foodshed assessment and further provides guidance to local and regional planners on the use of foodshed assessments. A foodshed is the geographic origin of a food supply. Before the 1800s, foodsheds were predominantly local — within the city or neighboring countryside. Today most urban areas are supported by a global foodshed. While the global foodshed can present many benefits, it also creates tremendous externalities. In an attempt to address these concerns, promotion of alternative local foodsheds has re-emerged. A foodshed assessment serves as a planning tool for land use planners, as well as for local food advocates, offering an understanding of land use implications that is not often carefully considered. By determining the food needs of a region’s population, the land base needed to support that population can then be identified. In this way, planners can have a stronger basis for promoting working farmland preservation measures and strengthening the local foodshed. This thesis compares the approaches of five previous foodshed assessments and presents a model for conducting an assessment on a regional level. This model is then applied to the Pioneer Valley of Western Massachusetts with the goal of determining how much the agricultural production in the Pioneer Valley fulfills the food consumption needs of the region’s population. The assessment also compares the amount of current working farmlands to open lands available for farming, and the extent of farmland necessary to meet regional food demand for various diet types.

This research examines the perceptions and attitudes of residents in five rural communities located in the Hilltowns of Western Massachusetts: Ashfield, Chesterfield, Conway, Goshen, and Williamsburg. The research aims to explore the divide between local residents’ strongly held support for private property rights and a concomitant desire to maintain the qualities that contribute to the social, ecological, and aesthetic experience of a rural town, including a viable farm and forest economy. Previous research in the same project utilized mailed, written surveys. In this case, in-depth, in-person interviews were conducted with ten residents of the study area in order to complement the breadth of information gleaned from these earlier studies. The research goal was to inform planning efforts that strive to balance the preservation of rural character with growth and change. Questions were asked to ascertain the individual’s connection to the rural community, including length of residency, occupation, and other demographic variables. Further questions were posed to learn how participants felt that landowner rights to develop property and government intervention to preserve land could be effectively balanced. Results showed that landowners’ desire to retain their property rights remains in conflict with their wish to see their communities remain rural in the face of new development. Medium-term residents may be the most motivated group to get involved in ways to balance landscape change and development with a need to preserve town character. According to study participants, local governments should focus their efforts on voluntary, cooperative measures. Such measures should ideally minimize bureaucracy and maximize a multi-jurisdictional approach in considering a variety of techniques to resolve tough land-use conflicts. Local land trusts emerged as the best-positioned entity to forge cooperative ventures with farmers, landowners, and others in protecting the places of greatest value to those who live and work in the rural landscape. The need for education and communication was vitally expressed. This study sheds new light on the different nuanced and sometimes conflicting attitudes about preserving the rural landscape, but also offers hope for solutions based on collaborations between local governments, land trusts, and local residents.