A new blueprint lays out what Greater Boston governments can do to reach policy and resilience goals by 2050, focusing on equity, the climate crisis and public health.
The Metropolitan Area Planning Council unveiled its sweeping 30-year roadmap Thursday after years of consultation with the 101 cities and towns in its Metropolitan Boston region.
The 433-page MetroCommon 2050 plan reimagines transportation, housing, the economy, local governments and the arts. It also includes recommendations for how to meet Massachusetts’ deadline of net-zero emissions by 2050. Realizing the vision requires buy-in from policymakers, who will be able to create change at the municipal and state level, as MAPC executive director Marc Draisen told the audience gathered at JFK Presidential Library for the plan’s launch.
“We don't have too much direct power to change things at MAPC,” Draisen said. “But I believe our great power is through the ability to teach and learn, to educate and convene, to bring people together.”
State representatives who spoke on a legislative panel at the event praised the plan’s breadth and its work in putting different goals — like housing and transportation — in the same document.
“Every policy has the opportunity to be intersectional in one way or another, perhaps none more than housing,” said Rep. Andy Vargas, who represents Haverhill. “We think about the opportunities that that provides for economic stability, for health, safety, transportation.”
Vargas pointed to last year’s state legislation that mandates new multifamily housing in the 175 cities and towns near MBTA stations, underlining the intersection of housing and transit.
Rep. Christine Barber, who serves Somerville and Medford on Beacon Hill, said such a wide-reaching blueprint is key to making equity a reality in a region with so many different local governments.
“This plan is really helpful in helping us figure out how to get there,” she told GBH News. “These are all really complicated problems that we all have to work on together. I represent two small cities and we can’t do this on our own.”
Rep. Michelle Ciccolo, who represents Lexington and Woborn, said she plans to directly bring the plan to the State House.
“I will be looking to the detail to see how the ideas that are expressed in the plan can be codified into statutes or funded through budget line items,” Ciccolo told GBH News. “Because it's not just about legislation that we pass, it's also about the funding to advance those priorities.”
Draisen said the final plan has value beyond just what’s on the page: the process of creating it was instructive, as residents, planners and local leaders collaborated to set policy priorities for the next 30 years.
“Thousands of people participated in the development of this plan — and we call them plan builders,” he told GBH News. “And those are the people who are going to be going up to the state house and city town and town hall and saying, ‘these are our priorities, we need you to get these things done.’”
Produced with assistance from the Public Media Journalists Association Editor Corps funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.
