Saugus United 2035

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Saugus United 2035

Connecting our past · Defining our future

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Plan Elements

Resources

Latest Updates

Join us for our final Community Forum!
Wednesday, March 16 at 6 p.m.
Join at this link.

About the Project

Welcome to Saugus United 2035, the Town’s long-range master plan! A master plan is comprehensive, covering almost all aspects of life in Saugus. It talks about where we are as a community, where we want to go, and how we’re going to get there. With your help, over the next year and a half we’ll help define a vision, goals, and recommendations to guide Saugus over the next 15 years. Saugus and MAPC are working together, with your guidance, to create the plan.

The town's current master plan is decades old. An update will help the Town manage future growth and development. When completed, the Master Plan will also aid the Town in protecting environmental resources, setting priorities for developing and maintaining infrastructure and public facilities, creating a framework for future policy decisions, promoting open democratic planning, and providing guidance to land owners, developers, and permitting authorities. The $150,000 project is being funded by the Town.

Town Meeting members supported and approved a two-year moratorium on the construction of multi-family dwellings of three or more units to allow the Town to analyze the impact on the Town, which will be addressed through the Master Plan. The two-year temporary moratorium is intended to provide the Town with time to conduct an analysis and comprehensive study to determine the impact of construction on police, fire, and emergency public safety, the school district, the water, sewer, and roadway infrastructure and the safety of the general public.

Project Timeline

Saugus United 2035 is planned to be an approximately two-year project, culminating in early winter of 2022.

Get Involved!

Events

Final Community Forum: Wednesday, March 16 at 6 p.m. Join at this link.

 

Get the latest updates!

Sign up for our email list for regular updates on engagement events and plan progress.

Questions?

Email us if you have questions
about the plan!

Plan Elements

Saugus United 2035 will be made up of three main sections: a Baseline Report, a Road Map, and an Action Plan.

Baseline Report
Baseline Report

The Baseline Report is a snapshot of existing conditions as they relate to neighborhoods, parks, roadways, public services and facilities, the local economy, and historic and natural assets.

Road Map
Action Plan

Roadmap Elements

Vision & Goals

Live

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Vision and Goals

Vision and goals

Coming Soon based on your feedback: Virtual Open House

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Land Use and Zoning

Land Use and Zoning

Saugus' land use patterns are a reflection of the Town’s history and evolution. Where do people live? Where do they shop? Where do they work? Where do they recreate? But also, what is the feel of the neighborhoods? What type of character do they have? Below is a snapshot of the current land use in Saugus. Closely related to land use is zoning. Zoning is the regulatory framework that helps guide the future. The Town is broken into various districts that allow certain uses and regulate how much parking is required, whether a portion of the housing is affordable, how much open space is required, if any, and dimensional standards (heights, etc.). As part of this process we want to understand how you feel about Saugus' current land use. Are there areas that should be changed in the future? Where should future growth occur? What should be the character of future changes? Saugus United 2035 will articulate a future land use vision and provide various recommendations – zoning and other – that will help achieve that vision over the long term.

Maps: Land Use Map, Zoning Map

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Housing

Housing

Housing is always an important issue in Saugus. On the one hand it is important to ensure Saugus is an affordable community. On the other hand, there are concerns regarding impacts on things like traffic and schools. In addition, because the town has a current housing moratorium Saugus United 2035 is an opportunity to coalesce around a vision and develop strategies to grow in a context-sensitive manner. This work will build on data and policies found in the Town's the 2016 Housing Production Plan (also prepared by MAPC).

Maps: Saugus Homeownership Gap Graph, Housing Tenure Map

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Town Facilities and Services

Community Facilities and Services

This portion of Saugus United 2035 focuses on strategies to help the Town ensure that services and facilities are up-to-date and in locations that serve community best.

Maps: Community Facilities Map

Work

Play

Connect

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Economic Development

Economic Development

The Economic Development component of Saugus United 2035 will explore the existing economic climate, including an analysis of industry clusters, composition of the workforce, and existing commercial centers. In addition, the Town and MAPC will review local zoning, permitting regulations, and land use constraints related to economic development, all of which will help create a set of goals, policies and strategies for downtown Saugus, the Route 1 corridor, Cliftondale, and other economic development centers or development opportunity sites. Your input and feedback will be instrumental to choosing those strategies and identifying opportunity sites.

Maps: Business Mix Map, Unemployment Data Map

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Open Space and Recreation

Open Spaces and Recreation

In 2018, Saugus completed an Open Space and Recreation Plan with MAPC, which you can view and download when the survey is completed. The Open Space and Recreation portion of Saugus United 2035 will build on that work and focus specifically on how residents like you use Saugus' open space amenities and facilities and whether they are accessible to a wide range of residents.

Map: OSR Resources Map

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Arts & Cultural Resources

Arts and Cultural Resources, Historic and Cultural Preservation

The history of the Town of Saugus begins at the ancestral lands of the Pawtucket Confederation of Abenaki tribes, who inhabited the area for over 10,000 years before the arrival of English colonists. Through time, Saugus has been shaped by industrial development along the Saugus River, robust transportation infrastructure, and a commercial corridor along what is now Route 1. We know that Saugus’s history and culture run deep—but we want to know what that means to you. Your answers to the following questions will help us get a sense of what’s important to you about the Town’s history and heritage, cultural experiences and opportunities, and creative community—past and present—so that we can begin to envision the future of Saugus together.

Map: Art and Culture Resources Map

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Transportation

Transportation

Saugus’ transportation infrastructure defines how people get around (by car, by foot, by bike, etc.) and how accessible one part of Town is to another. Regardless, how we get around is incredibly important to people’s quality of life, no matter how it’s defined. Your feedback and insights will help formulate a series of goals, strategies and actions to effectively create a more efficient multimodal transportation network that addresses car, public and private bus service, bike and pedestrian needs.

Maps: Transit Lines, Walking and Biking Network, Accident Data

Protect

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Energy, Sustainability, and Resiliency

Clean Energy and Sustainability

The Clean Energy and Sustainability portion of Saugus United 2035 will focus on addressing ways to reduce demand and greenhouse gas emissions through increased efficiency, green technologies, construction standards, etc. in Town-owned facilities and through Town services.

Data text (no map): Saugus was designated a Green Community by the Department of Energy Resources in 2015, and has since been awarded over $800,000 in grants. These awards have enabled the Town to deploy numerous energy efficiency measures - including interior and exterior LED lighting retrofits and energy management system upgrades - that have reduced energy use, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and costs for the community. The Green Communities grant received in 2019 alone was anticipated to reduce energy consumption by 52,379 kWh and save the Town an additional $12,910 annually. In 2017, the Town developed a new solar installation on the capped landfill behind the Public Works. The solar system generates approximately 2 million kilowatt hours of electricity annually, which equates, in GHG emissions reductions, to taking 319 cars off the road each year.

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Historic and Cultural Preservation

The Economic Development component of Saugus United 2035 will explore the existing economic climate, including an analysis of industry clusters, composition of the workforce, and existing commercial centers. In addition, the Town and MAPC will review local zoning, permitting regulations, and land use constraints related to economic development, all of which will help create a set of goals, policies and strategies for downtown Saugus, the Route 1 corridor, Cliftondale, and other economic development centers or development opportunity sites. Your input and feedback will be instrumental to choosing those strategies and identifying opportunity sites.

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Environmental Stewardship

Climate Resiliency and Environmental Stewardship

When planning for 2035, understanding how Saugus can best adapt to the changing climate is necessary undertaking that will help the Town provide better services, same money, and continue to be a Green Community. The Town has already started some of this work, through the Municipal Vulnerability Plan and Hazard Mitigation Plan efforts, and Saugus United 2035 will continue that work.

Maps: Critical Infrastructure, Flooding, Inland Flooding, Sea Level Rise

Past Events

September 15, 2020: Virtual Visioning Workshop

March 24, 2021: Virtual Visioning Workshop 2

June 17, 2021: Virtual Visioning Workshop 3