Last week, the Massachusetts Chapter of the American Planning Association (APA-MA) presented MAPC with two awards: the Social Advocacy Award for and the Metropolitan Mayors’ Coalition Regional Housing Task Force and the Outstanding Planning Project Award for MassBuilds, a visual database of development in the Greater Boston region. Earlier this month, MAPC's Clean Energy team received the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Leading by Example Award.
Regional Housing Task Force (Social Advocacy Award)
Many MAPC staff members across multiple departments worked on the Regional Housing Task Force.*
The APA-MA Social Advocacy Award is given “for a program, project, group, or individual that advanced social justice, inclusion, and fairness for marginalized populations.”
To address the housing crisis in Metro Boston through regional collaboration and mutual support, the Metropolitan Mayors Coalition (MMC) launched a Regional Housing Task Force to establish a regional housing production goal and identify strategies to achieve that goal throughout the 15 participating communities. The Taskforce includes mayors and managers, as well as municipal staff, from the following municipalities: Arlington, Boston, Braintree, Brookline, Cambridge, Chelsea, Everett, Malden, Medford, Melrose, Newton, Quincy, Revere, Somerville, and Winthrop.
Members of the Task Force worked with MAPC to agree on principles to guide housing preservation and development, project labor force and housing demand, consider housing growth capacity, and assess affordability need. Based on this and economic forecasts, development trends, and analysis of recent production, the Taskforce adopted a regional housing production target to meet demand from households at a range of incomes.
MAPC also built the Regional Housing Task Force website to present strategies to facilitate housing production and preservation.
*Regional Housing Task Force photo - clockwise from top left: Jessie Partridge (Research Manager), Karina Milchman (Chief of Housing & Neighborhood Development), Tim Reardon (Director of Data Services), Lizzi Weyant (Director of Government Affairs), Francis Goyes (Regional Housing & Land Use Planner), Matt Zagaja (Lead Civic Web Developer), Eric Youngberg (Full Stack Web Developer), Sarah Philbrick (Socioeconomic Analyst II), Amanda Linehan (Director of Communications), and Jeanette Patoja (Public Health Planner).
MassBuilds (Outstanding Planning Project)
Eric Youngberg (Full Stack Web Developer), Sarah Philbrick (Socioeconomic Analyst II), Matt Zagaja (Lead Civic Web Developer), and Tim Reardon (Director of Data Services) with the APA-MA Award for Outstanding Planning Project.
It’s hard to look at development from both a regional perspective and a local perspective. That’s why MAPC created MassBuilds, a visual database of development in the Greater Boston region. It’s fast becoming one of the most comprehensive databases of past, present, and future development in the area. As it grows, it will only become more valuable.
MassBuilds is the first and only catalogue of development projects that are recently built, permitted, or in planning throughout Massachusetts. The result is a living library powered by a community of data stewards, web developers, and citizens. Anyone can go to the website and track planned or past developments and see town-by-town trends in aggregate, over time. The database includes specific details about each development, including information such as year of completion, commercial area, number of housing units, and proximity to public transit. All data is exportable in .csv and .shp file formats.
Leading by Example
Commissioner Judith Judson (Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources), Cammy Peterson (Director of Clean Energy), Patrick Roche (Assistant Director of Clean Energy), and Meg Aki (Clean Energy Analyst II).
On Dec. 6, MAPC's Clean Energy Department received the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Leading By Example Award for outstanding clean energy and sustainability achievements. The award celebrated energy and climate programs, spotlighting the peak demand program, LED streetlights, net zero planning, and our work on the state’s Energy Efficiency Advisory Council.
We’re honored to be recognized for outstanding clean energy and sustainability achievements in the agency category and look forward to continuing the daily work to reduce energy, costs, and greenhouse gas emissions for all who live and work in Metro Boston.