Writing Resilient Regulations in Norwood: A Path Toward Climate-Ready Growth
By Jiwon Park, Regional Land Use Planner II
Pictured: Norwood Town Hall
July 8, 2025 – As communities across the MAPC region grow and evolve, they face the dual challenges of meeting local housing and economic needs while adapting to a changing climate. When guided by thoughtful planning, new development and redevelopment can offer powerful opportunities to advance both goals. By updating local land use regulations through a climate resilient lens, communities can harness development to reduce flooding, expand tree cover, and make neighborhoods cooler, greener, and more livable.
This is particularly important in mature communities, where much of the built environment predates modern standards for climate-resilient infrastructure. In these areas, redevelopment can be a major environmental win, creating opportunities to manage runoff more effectively, enhance public space, and improve overall environmental performance.
Recognizing this potential, MAPC partnered with the Town of Norwood to review the Town’s Subdivision Rules and Regulations and Site Plan Review Regulations. The goal is to ensure future development supports climate resilience by reducing flood risks, protecting natural resources, improving air and water quality, and creating safer and more accessible streets for all.
How We Did it
MAPC employed a four-part process:
🔍 Understand Local Priorities
Norwood’s local Hazard Mitigation Plan, Municipal Vulnerability Program Action Plan, and Sustainability Action Plan provided a foundation for understanding what climate and sustainability issues matter most to residents and the goals related to these issues. Four key priorities emerged: managing stormwater; reducing heat; preserving trees; and making streets more sustainable and inclusive.
📚 Review Tools and Best Practices
We looked at what other Massachusetts communities have done – e.g., Canton, Lexington, and Acton have all recently updated their regulations – to modernize their land use regulations in response to environmental and community needs. Those examples included detailed stormwater performance standards and requirements for preserving natural features like trees and open space. We also reviewed model regulations from regional planning agencies and used tools like the Mass Audubon Bylaw Review Tool to help identify strong approaches.
🛠️ Conduct a Technical Review
We went through Norwood’s existing rules line by line and pinpointed what could be strengthened to meet today’s challenges. We proposed practical, implementable updates from road widths to tree protection.
🤝 Engage with Town Departments
We coordinated with key departments including Public Works/Engineering, Fire, and the Building Department to ensure the updates align with the Town’s operational practices and needs.
What’s New and Why It Matters
The final recommendations support resilience and livability through:
Smarter Street Design: Suggested standards call for narrower and slower travel lanes, wider ADA accessible sidewalks, and more space for planting street trees. These changes reflect best practices from sources like the National Association of City Transportation Officials and aim to make Norwood’s streets safer while helping to reduce flooding and the heat island effect.
Stronger Stormwater Management: Suggested standards require developers to manage stormwater on-site using Low Impact Development techniques like rain gardens, permeable paving, and infiltration systems. These updates also clarify design standards using up-to-date precipitation data, increasing the required infiltration threshold where feasible.
Better Tree and Open Space Protection: Suggested rules require preserving mature trees when possible, offering options for mitigation when removal is unavoidable. Open space requirements also ensure that designated areas are functional by requiring contiguity, minimum sizes, and environmental and recreational value.
Integrated Site Planning: Suggested Site Plan Review standards will ensure that climate resilience is considered early in the development process. The recommendations included incorporating a climate resilience checklist into the site plan review process, establishing clearer thresholds for when the site plan review is triggered, and prioritizing the use of permeable pavement in parking areas.
What’s Next
Building on this work, Norwood will continue internal conversations to refine and adopt updated regulations that reflect MAPC’s recommendations and advance the Town’s climate resilience goals.
Norwood’s approach illustrates how even incremental changes to local regulations can have a big impact. By embedding climate resilience into the technical details of street widths, stormwater design, and tree preservation, the Town is aligning its everyday development processes with long-term sustainability goals.
Interested in taking this approach in your community?
If your community is interested in strengthening local development regulations to support climate resilience, MAPC is here to help. Municipalities with local funding can contract directly with MAPC for technical assistance. If funding is a barrier, you may also consider applying to MAPC’s Technical Assistance Program (TAP), which supports projects that advance both local and regional priorities. Learn more about how to partner with us through TAP on our website.