Land Use Planning

Local planning commissions and municipalities are charged with planning for their community’s future, while respecting the values and meeting the needs of residents today.

Gathering all the information needed to consider natural resource conservation and other issues in town plans, zoning, and land use policies, is a herculean task, which often falls on the shoulders of elected officials and volunteers serving on municipal boards.

By providing technical assistance directly to municipalities and regional planning commissions, the SCI partnership has helped to secure meaningful improvements in land use plans and policies throughout the Northern Appalachians / Acadian ecoregion.

SCI’s work with towns and regional planning commissions has led to local changes that promote and protect landscape connectivity.

Activities include promoting dialogue with municipal boards, in public forums, and in individual stakeholder meetings, hosting landscape connectivity workshops to share tools and lessons learned, and developing best practices and case studies to help communities adopt and implement land use practices that protect wildlife connectivity.