Massachusetts Smart Growth Alliance Consistent with our belief in learning and collaboration, we brought together six cross disciplinary organizations in 2003 to strengthen the network of stakeholders concerned with promoting smart growth in Greater Boston.  CHAPA is serving as the fiscal agent for the Massachusetts Smart Growth Alliance, a new collaboration of six organizations from the housing, environment, social justice, planning and design community that have come together to advance statewide policy consistent with smart growth principles through coordinated advocacy, education, outreach, research and place-based activities.  The six initial members are: Citizens' Housing and Planning Association (CHAPA) Boston Society of Architects (BSA) Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) Environmental League of MA (ELM) Fair Housing Center of Greater Boston (FHCGB) Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC)         The Alliance grew in part out of the Barr Foundation's Smart Growth Cluster which sought to bring cross-sectoral organizations together to begin to address smart planning from a multi-disciplinary systems perspective.  Each of the founding members of the Alliance has experience with advocacy, brings a distinctive approach and set of strengths to the table, and is committed to working on these issues collaboratively over the next decade.  While the Alliance is initially comprised of a small core group of organizational member, it will reach out to work other diverse interests and sectors through formation of advisory groups, issue-specific task forces and affiliate members or endorsers

The City of Boston is a complex, dynamic system influenced by many interrelated forces: the natural environment, built infrastructure, economic systems, as well as social and political systems.

Effective planning for future growth requires a rich understanding of how these forces interact to affect the character of our city as well as insight into the key leverage points where policy, incentives, and investment can be brought together to enhance quality of life.

Primary Approaches

We are presently focusing our efforts on:

Encouraging coordination and systems thinking among stakeholders.
Multi-dimensional problems require multi-dimensional solutions. In order to plan effectively for the future, there needs to be stronger cross-sectoral understanding and coordination among residents, community groups, business leaders, and policy makers. We are working to help build bridges among these stakeholders as well as to encourage and support the coordinated research, data collection, action, and policy development needed to generate powerful collaborative solutions.

Supporting green design.
In the U.S. and worldwide, buildings are a major source of air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.  By providing incentives to encourage the development of buildings that are well sited, energy efficient, and utilize renewable, non-toxic materials, we can help ensure the long-term sustainability of our built environment and the health and quality of life of all residents.

Desired Outcomes

We hope that through our collaboration with a network of funders, nonprofits, issue experts, and civic and neighborhood leaders to contribute to three critical outcomes for Boston:

• Greater cross-disciplinary coordination and citizen engagement in regional problem solving
• A deeper and broadly shared understanding of how Boston works as a system and what interventions are most effective
• Increased use of green design in urban buildings.

Measures

In a recent national survey, Boston ranked 77th out of 83 metro areas on a sprawl index (ranked from most to least sprawling). The city ranked well on residential density, mix of homes, strength of town centers, accessibility of street networks, as well as on jobs and services. Yet it ranked poorly on cost of housing, daily miles driven per person, percent of commuters using public transit or walking to work, average commute time, and average annual traffic delay.

Using national data coupled with data from the Boston Indicators Project, we plan to track regional trends and use them as a guide to identifying leverage points for our work as well as measuring the effectiveness of our interventions. For the most recent report on Boston’s environmental indicators, click here.

Finally, as an organization committed to learning, we also regularly convene nonprofits and research institutions involved in this field to foster shared understanding of the challenges and opportunities facing Greater Boston.

An Invitation

While our efforts are based on research and knowledge of the field, they remain our best bets. We’re eager to learn from your insights, experience, and creative ideas. We invite you to use our suggestion form if you have an idea you believe will further the strategy outlined in this section.