Comprehensive Planning

This spring Brookline will begin developing its new Comprehensive Plan under the leadership of the Comprehensive Plan Steering Group chaired by Select Board Member Warren.

The Steering Group will be guided by in their work by consultants from Agency Landscape and Planning.

The Comprehensive Planning process began in 2023 with the appointment of the Planning Process Study Committee. This Committee was charged with developing a timeline and scope for an inclusive, community-driven planning and zoning reform process.

The Committee explained that Comprehensive Planning works best

• as a process, with near, medium and long-term goals, none of which should be used as an end-game;
• when the town or city begins their process by applying the studies, criteria and visioning already created by that municipality;
• when it uses deep community engagement to discover big consensus ideas, and makes room for the community to participate in the transformation of those ideals into a series of iterative goals.

The new MBTA-CA Harvard Street rezoning provides the first essential building block of our Comprehensive Plan.

Brookline, like all of Massachusetts — indeed, the whole world — faces a climate crisis. Brookline, like all of Massachusetts, but especially the greater Boston area, faces a housing crisis. By passing the MBTA-CA Consensus Warrant Article, Brookline has begun to do its part in addressing those two emergencies.

As part of the process of designing our future, the Harvard Street Corridor rezoning fulfilled current town policies and criteria, values and vision. Over time, it will strengthen and enhance the Main Street character of three of Brookline’s important commercial districts: Brookline Village, Coolidge Corner, and JFK Crossing. And, by establishing design standards using form-based codes, this plan has given Brookline the tools to develop templates for new buildings that add to what we like most about Brookline, while at the same time permitting new homes and businesses.

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