Turning bogs into villages
Cranberry company envisions development across past expanse

April 1, 2007 - The Boston Globe
By Robert Knox, Globe Correspondent

On one of the region's largest undeveloped tracts -- a vast expanse of bogs and woods that is bigger than some entire towns -- the next chapter of Southeast Massachusetts' development is beginning to take shape.

The vision?

"This is really kind of back to the future," says Michael Hogan, president of A.D. Makepeace Co., owner of the 6,000 acres in question and much of the rest of the immediate area.

The giant cranberry company plans to build a to-be-determined number of old-style villages across the expanse, which includes parts of Carver, Plymouth, and Wareham, with the idea of re-creating traditional small-town New England.

If the development evolves as envisioned, it would cover more land than any other in the region. Comparisons are tricky -- Makepeace's plan is far more decentralized -- but 6,000 acres is double that of Plymouth's sprawling Pinehills development, and four times the South Weymouth Naval Air Base conversion.

Building villages may not seem unusual in these days of so-called smart growth, where dense, clustered development is the preferred model. What makes Makepeace's plan different is that it is starting with a blank slate, a totally rural area that has none of the retail and transportation infrastructure that smart growth is built on.

What now exists on the 6,000 acres is pretty much nothing, except cranberries. There is no public transportation, relatively few roads, and almost no services or stores.

Usually such areas end up as residential subdivisions with large lots. Makepeace plans just the opposite. The village model would create a village center, around which would be stores, services such as doctors' offices, and houses. Still, the plan has modern-day elements; its first phase is an office park that would be built in a newly created business district, near a planned village.

Trees and bogs, at least most of them, would remain. Overall, 70 percent of the land would be undisturbed, and 30 percent developed. Concentrated densities would let the company make money while meeting the preservationist goals local officials, state regulators, and the company itself say they want.

It is a long-term venture, expected to stretch out over 20 years or so, and the specific course it takes depends on many variables, including the marketplace.

For now, Makepeace is not speculating on how many housing units its vision might some day produce. But based on a deal the company made in Plymouth's Agawam Corridor development -- swapping development rights on one parcel for increased density on another -- construction of three villages of about 1,000 units each is within range. That would be a significant increase in the housing stock in the lower half of Plymouth County.

It is a scaled-down vision for a company that thinks big; Makepeace is the largest private landholder in Massachusetts, and the world's largest cranberry producer (based on acres in cultivation).

State environmental regulators have agreed to look at the long-term project in advance, under a special "get it all done at once" provision reserved for such long-term projects. So rather than submit just the first phase -- the 50-acre Tihonet Technology Park in Wareham -- for approval in January, the company opened the entire 6,000-acre property to environmental review.

At the local level, area planners like what they see, at least so far.

"It's a good model," said Loring Tripp , a member of the Plymouth Planning Board .

That's not what Tripp and other area planners said about Makepeace's original plan.

When the family-owned cranberry company announced at the start of the decade that it planned to go into the development business -- cranberry prices were plummeting -- it proposed building a massive development of more than 3,000 single-family homes stretching across the three-town property.

But the communities and conservationists objected, fearing demands on services in isolated areas and the loss of huge swaths of undeveloped land.

The company pulled back, and three years ago hired Hogan -- formerly head of MassDevelopment , the state's economic development agency -- as its chief executive.

While Makepeace pursued some smaller projects, representatives began talking with Plymouth planners about a concentrated, village-style development on a parcel in southwest Plymouth.

The result was the Agawam Corridor rural village project in which town houses, condos, apartments, and single-family houses are centered on a village green.

The proposal, currently under state environmental review, became the template for what the company could do inside its 6,000 acres over the next quarter century, Hogan said.

"Most traditional community centers that our towns grew up around are illegal in today's zoning," Hogan said. It requires large, 2- or 3 -acre lots -- which in turn chew up large amounts of open space.

The rural village model not only avoids that, but also leaves space for other amenities, such as coffee shops, a pharmacy, a book store, and public space "for either a library, a senior center, or charter school," he said, as well as professional services or an assisted-living center. Homes would be built closely enough together so that neighbors would "feel connected," he said. Villages would be surrounded by Makepeace's continued agricultural operations and large swaths of open space.

Local officials and environmentalists like the model, although they caution that more examination is needed for such issues as water rights, environmental impacts, and municipal property use.

"If they remain committed to that model, they have prospects to bring it to fruition," said Robb Johnson , Southeastern Massachusetts Program director for The Nature Conservancy.

Officials from all three communities agreed that one key to concentrating development is the concept, relatively new to the region, of transferring development rights. Plymouth has adopted it; Carver and Wareham are in the process.

The transfer allowed Makepeace, in creating the Agawam Corridor Village, to give up rights to develop some 600 houses on 3-acre plots in exchange for 1,100 denser units.

In Wareham, company officials said they expect about 600 units worth of residential development rights within the 6,000-acre district will be transferred to the site of the town's Tihonet Village , a one-time agricultural and industrial settlement that largely disappeared in the early 20th century.

Transferring development rights from scattered properties could lead to a similar sized village development in Carver, too, said Jack Hunter, that town's planner.

The Plymouth portion of the 6,000 acres, the environmentally sensitive Frogfoot region, is the piece least susceptible to development. Thus, Makepeace would probably transfer development rights out of that section into a site in another part of town.

The biggest issue as Makepeace's village vision progresses? "Transportation," said Hogan.

But others say it's protecting water. Much of the Makepeace property is located above the Plymouth-Carver aquifer, which provides water in seven communities. It's one of the region's greatest natural resources. "The big nut here," said Hunter, "is any stress it would have on the aquifer."

Patrick pushes permit process
Business plan would streamline decisions

March 2, 2007 - The Berkshire Eagle
By Audrey M. Marks, Eagle Boston Bureau

BOSTON — Gov. Deval L. Patrick is hoping to lure businesses to Massachusetts with a new plan that would make it easier and faster to get environmental permits.

Patrick announced plans yesterday at a press conference for expanding online permit processing for environment applications.

"This is regulation at the speed of business," Patrick said.

Ed Coletta, spokesman for the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, said in an interview that 4,087 applications were completed during fiscal 2006.

Arleen O'Donnell, commissioner for the MassDEP, said 75 to 80 percent of those permit decisions were completed within 180 days.

The regulation change would increase the permit decisions to 90 percent in 180 days.

While the details of the proposed regulations are not yet available, Patrick's office said Web-based technology would allow staff to focus more attention to "significant economic development and energy projects."

MassDEP will release the proposed regulations this spring for public comment. A task force will return its recommendations to Patrick by Sept. 1.

Patrick also called for a change to the wetland appeals process. He said many projects are on hold because of a backlog of cases before the Division of Administrative Law Appeals. "Of the 65 rulings (in the past two years), only three changed DEP standards," Patrick said. Patrick has called on a task force including administration and environmental lawyers to focus on streamlining wetlands appeals. The governor is expecting proposals from the task force on May 1.

"I'm not talking about walking away from our environmental responsibilities," Patrick said. "We want a balance between speed and thoroughness."

Patrick vows speedier reviews

March 2, 2007 - The Boston Herald
By Scott Van Voorhis, Boston Herald Business Reporter

Massachusetts can be a tough place to get things built, developers have long complained.

And Gov. Deval Patrick yesterday took aim at what some real estate executives contend has been a prime stumbling block - complex and time-consuming environmental regulations.

Patrick’s proposals include:

Cutting by 20 percent the time the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection takes to award developers the environmental approvals needed to build, officials said yesterday. The MassDEP is pledging to issue 90 percent of its permit decisions within 180 days.

Forming a commission of top environmental lawyers to study reforms in the wetlands appeals process. The aim would be to speed up state decisions in cases where project opponents have filed objections to developers building in wetlands areas.

“This is regulation at the speed of business,” Patrick said.

Patrick proposes faster permitting

March 1, 2007 - The Boston Globe
By Peter J. Howe, Globe Staff

Governor Deval L. Patrick came out with two plans today for speeding up environmental regulatory approvals for business in Massachusetts.

After taking a pounding for the last week from business leaders over his plans to raise corporate taxes by closing what Patrick calls loopholes, the governor shifted to a new theme -- simplifying and accelerating government permitting processes -- that is far more welcomed by businesses.

Patrick said one change will require the Department of Environmental Protection to issue 90 percent of business permits within 180 days of when developers or businesses first apply, up from about 75 to 80 percent now.

The governor is also convening an environmental lawyers' task force to report by May 1 on ways to speed up cases at the DEP's Division of Administrative Law Appeals, where cases involving enforcement of state wetland laws can be appealed by environmentalists or by proponents of construction projects that have been denied.

Patrick said a leading example of the kind of project he wants to rescue from regulatory delays is the proposed 20-tower Hoosac Wind electric generating project in Florida and Monroe, which has been tied up for two years at the division in wetlands appeals.

"It's being held up by an inefficient appeals process, and we have got to do better than that,'' Patrick said. He added that he sees no contradiction between effective environmental protection and "regulation at the speed of business.''

"It will translate into tens of millions of dollars in savings, and more importantly, I think it will lead to hundreds of millions of dollars in new investment'' in job-creating projects in Massachusetts, Patrick said.

Some environmentalists who attended the event at Genzyme Corp. said they agree that environmentally beneficial projects are sometimes getting bogged down in regulatory red tape, but they're anxious about going too far in rolling back environmental review.

Margaret Van Deusen, general counsel and deputy director of the Charles River Watershed Association, a Waltham environmental group, said she was somewhat alarmed to hear Patrick in his remarks refer to the pro-business regulatory climate of North Carolina and Texas, states she said are marked by massive sprawl development.

"Do we want to look like North Carolina or Texas?'' Van Deusen said in an interview. "The question we need to address is how do you wind up with a better environment and better projects and at the same time streamline the process. I hope that environmentalists are really able to give some input.''

Push to protect and permit

February 17, 2007 - The Boston Globe
By Bob Zimmerman, Charles River Watershed Assc. Executive Director

WITH THE GOVERNOR'S appointment of a regulatory permitting ombudsman, opportunities abound for getting it right with development permitting. Currently, major projects need two years, and sometimes longer, to wend their way through local and state permitting processes.

There are a number of ways an ombudsman could help, but in the age of global climate change and water resource depletion, it is critical that he not take the conventional approach of slashing environmental protection in the name of permit streamlining. In fact, if controlling and reversing the damage done to the planet and the Commonwealth is the aim , the governor, his environmental secretary, and the ombudsman should revisit and strengthen environmental regulation.

Strengthened regulation, however, need not make development permitting more onerous. Done well, it could achieve the dual results of speeding up the permitting process and providing for a better environment.

First, while the Massachusetts budget doubled during the 1990s, the state Department of Environmental Protections was level funded. In the years since, the department budget has been cut by nearly 40 percent. DEP deserves significant additional funding from the Patrick administration and the Legislature, regardless of deficit projections, to restore personnel so that it can write and review permits in a timely manner.

Second, an incentive-based environmental certification program similar to that created by Jim Hunt at the Boston Environment Department should be vigorously pursued. Clear, certifiable guidelines detailing environmentally sensitive site design, energy and conservation reductions, building material use, and water and wastewater infrastructure requirements need to be developed and adopted statewide.

Those projects that can certify they have met all the standards should be rewarded with a foreshortened permitting process. Those that have not should be sent back to the drawing board, or at least require closer review and conditioning.

With a foreshortened process based on enhanced environmental design, capital investment budgets would at least balance against traditional permitting and construction by saving permitting money, time, and operation costs for energy and site maintenance for the new projects when constructed.

There are a number of certification programs that could be used for models, but all tend to focus on the building itself, and fail to consider site characteristics, transportation and open space issues, and methods of resolving existing environmental problems by getting developers to think about the effects beyond their sites. All of these things can be built into a certification process. It will be critical, of course, to ensure that public notification and comment are not lost, but certification programs are extremely promising in providing the kinds of incentives that would promote far greater environmental sensitivity than the current array of seldom coordinated individual permits.

Third, state and local building codes need to be revisited for their environmental effects. Writing those codes not only to promote safety, but to promote efficiency in energy and water use makes good sense. Codes coordinated with environmental certification and permitting processes would also enhance streamlining and help protect and restore the environment.

Finally, the elephant in this environmental streamlining room is zoning law in Massachusetts. It is archaic, piecemeal, and in many instances, plays to the fears of homeowners regarding growth and change. It promotes large lot residential development as a way of controlling growth, which, ironically, destroys forests, farms, and open spaces. Piecemeal efforts to amend and improve the law have met with only limited success. If the governor is really going to streamline permitting while protecting the environment, his administration must take on Massachusetts zoning law. Zoning must be rewritten to promote density zones, transportation-oriented development, cluster and open space housing, and reduced requirements for street-width and strip parking, and multiple use districts.

The governor appreciates the need to address the loss of major corporations and industries in Massachusetts, as well as the high cost of housing. The two are intimately linked. And he has identified the permitting processes in the state as a culprit.

But to solve the development, housing, and serious environmental problems, he is going to need to take a different approach to permit streamlining, one which provides incentives for getting the environmental part right, rather than dispensing with those regulations as obstacles to economic growth.

State will examine Makepeace development plans

February 7, 2007 - New Bedford Standard-Times
By Steve Urbon, Standard-Times senior correspondent

WAREHAM — The long-term development plans for the 6,000 acres owned by the A.D. Makepeace Co. are so vast and complex that they have qualified for "special review procedure" status by the state Executive Office of Environmental Affairs, company officials said yesterday.

The designation means, in essence, that state officials issuing permits for projects will look at the whole picture, starting now and continuing for the foreseeable future. Development must make sense in the context of a master plan for the property — and in compliance with local regulations, with much public input.

Robert Keough, a spokesman for Environmental Affairs Secretary Ian A. Bowles, said that the process "allows for a more thorough environmental review over time." Makepeace applied for the special status in December, and informed local officials at that time.

The special status will put future development plans, whatever they may turn out to be, in the context of what came before, rather than have permits issued one project at a time, without seeing how they fit into the overall scheme.

The objective is partly to avoid piecemeal development that might take the land — in Wareham, Carver and Plymouth — in unwanted directions.

Makepeace is committing itself to an extensive "baseline" survey of everything on the land. That will allow state regulators to judge how the overall development of the land is meeting objectives for "smart growth" and land preservation.

Development, said Makepeace CEO and President Michael P. Hogan, will seek to use a technique called "transfer of development rights" to preserve open space where it is most desirable in exchange for allowing more dense development where that is preferred.

Mr. Hogan said that in Plymouth, for example, development of some Makepeace land is resulting in more than 70 percent of the property remaining open space. Mr. Keough said while the state has had the power to designate a Special Review Procedure for many years, in recent times only two other projects have been of such magnitude: the former South Weymouth Naval Air Station and the redevelopment of Fort Devens.

"This will require Makepeace to do more than the standard environmental review process, because this is a moving target," Mr. Keough said. "They don't know everything they want to do, but they want to do it within a general game plan."

The start will be the Tihonet Mixed Use Development Project, where the site includes the Makepeace headquarters as well as some of its best cranberry bogs, said Mr. Hogan.

The idea is to replicate a traditional New England village development that includes all sorts of uses, including commercial and industrial, condos and single-family homes, and recreation "guided by principles of smart growth, low-impact design and pedestrian-scaled development," in the description in Mr. Bowles' announcement.

Mr. Hogan said Makepeace's biggest business remains cranberries and that won't change — but that the company needs to develop some of its land "to meet our fiduciary responsibilities to the shareholders."

And without Makepeace in the cranberry growing business, he said, the remaining growers would find it hard to maintain the volume they need to justify the processing and bottling plants. Makepeace accounts for some 20 to 25 percent of the Massachusetts crop, he said, and is ramping up efficiency with a new system of computer-mapped and computer-controlled irrigation that cuts employee expenses and saves as much as a third of the water.

Apart from Plymouth, Makepeace has announced a handful of smaller development projects in recent months, involving a dozen or two homes in Tihonet South, and two projects in Carver.

But the company has been avoiding "build-out" under existing zoning, which would consume vast percentages of its land with single-family homes on large lots. The prospect of such sprawl has kept the many interested parties at the negotiating table for several years.

Early attempts to coordinate and rewrite the zoning and permitting in the three towns foundered, but Plymouth many years ago signed on to the concept of transferring development rights, which will be a key element in further plans.

After being adversaries at first, the company has also enlisted the support of many environmental groups and land trusts for its efforts to preserve agriculture and open space.

Mr. Bowles said that development will depend on market conditions, zoning changes and land use innovations.

Turning bogs into villages Cranberry company envisions development across past expanse