Massachusetts's need for more regional planning

The Globe makes a case for stronger regional planning in Massachusetts, citing the 135-acre mixed-use Westwood Station project and objections by neighboring Canton and its plans to block the project in court. Allston/Brighton's neighbors in Brookline, Watertown, Newton, and Cambridge will be significantly affected by Harvard and Boston College expansions.

Cambridge submitted comments to the State opposing the Harvard Science Complex Phase One Waiver, citing in particular "the area's transportation network, which is already at or near capacity." And Cambridge will have a representative on the State's Citizen Advisory Committee to review Harvard's expansion.

Time will tell if our other abutting communities will sit back and let Boston manage the projects or seek to get involved themselves.

Tension at the town line - The Boston Globe

"But a consistent region-wide approach requires the intervention of state government, with the force of law. The Legislature needs to get involved. It might consider reviving the Office of Commonwealth Development, an innovation of the Romney administration, and give it the power to assess the regional impact of developments and trim them down or order mitigation if they overburden the local infrastructure. Or it could vest these powers in the Executive Office of Environmental Affairs, which now is limited to project-by-project evaluations."