Terrain.org is an online journal devoted to smart growth that’s integrated with the natural environment. It won a 1999 Media Award for Sustainable Development, and has an entire category devoted to UnSprawl. Randall Arendt’s article, “Cultivating Natural and Cultural Landscapes through Conservation Subdivision Design”, is a good example of increasing sensitivity among Smart Growth advocates for […]
Author: NorthAssocAdmin
Northampton Planning Board to Meet on Implementing Sustainable Northampton Plan
Northampton’s Planning Board will meet on Thursday, February 7 and Thursday, March 6 to discuss and plan for the implementation of the Sustainable Northampton Comprehensive Plan. These meetings begin at 6pm and may last for two hours each. We urge concerned citizens to attend at City Hall, 210 Main Street, 2nd Floor, Room 10 (enter via the rear […]
MA Secy of Energy and Environmental Affairs: Urban Parks Deserve Protection as do Habitat Reserves and Working Landscapes
In a January 16 guest column for South Coast Today, Ian Bowles, secretary of energy and environmental affairs for Massachusetts, argues that Smart Growth needs to provide for urban parks as well as habitat reserves and working landscapes (agricultural and forest lands). It’s not sufficient to presume that compact growth and the preservation of open […]
Gazette: “North King Street condominium project stalls”
Today’s Gazette reports that financing challenges and market conditions have suspended a condo development off North King Street. It was to have been one of Northampton’s largest residential development projects in recent years: James M. Harrity Jr., of Northampton, has put 46 acres off North King Street on the market for $2.4 million. The listing […]
AP: 2007 sales of single-family homes “plunged by the largest amount in 25 years”
Weak December single-family home sales capped a weak year, reports AP today. For the year, sales of single-family homes were down by 13 percent, the biggest drop since a 17.7 percent plunge in 1982. The median price for a single-family home dropped 1.8 percent to $217,000.That was the first annual price decline on records going […]
Gazette Column: “Winter offers a whole new way to view and enjoy the forest”
Today’s Gazette features Virginia Otis’s monthly column about nature… “Go to the winter woods. There is nothing more beautiful than the forest clothed to its very hollows in snow,” wrote Fiona MacLeod in “Where The Forest Murmurs.” (1906) It is an invitation to go snowshoeing, skiiing, or hiking on snowmobile trails to see that clean […]
AP: “Construction of New Homes Falls 24.8 Percent in 2007, the Largest Amount in 27 Years”
AP reports today: The Commerce Department reported Thursday that construction was started on 1.353 million new homes and apartments last year, down 24.8 percent from 2006. It was the second biggest annual decline on record…Many economists believe that the current slump in housing will rival the dive in the late 1970s and early 1980s when […]
Photo Essay: Millyard Brook Swells with Water in Winter
Millyard Brook runs along the back of the parcel Kohl Construction would like to develop behind North Street. It is classified as an “intermittent stream”, meaning there are some days when it is dry, typically in the summer.On January 11, a mild and rainy day, Millyard Brook is clearly not dry, but helping a large volume of […]
Massachusetts Top Court: Towns May Block Development That’s Out of Character with Neighbors
The state’s highest court affirmed that towns have the right to prevent developers from building homes that are out of character with their neighbors. In Norwell, a developer had been trying for years to get approval to tear down a 675 square-foot house and replace it with a 1,920 square-foot house. Yesterday’s Boston Globe reports: The court upheld the Town of […]
Greening Smart Growth: The Sustainable Sites Initiative
The Sustainable Northampton Plan (PDF), recently approved by the Planning Board, includes these goals (p.23): Conserve wetlands with programs to ensure no net loss of wetlands…Preserve existing forests, floodplains, wetlands, and agricultural soils of high ecological value…Recognize that the protection of environmental resources will improve the quality of life and the value of property in […]