In the News

(L to R: Stephanie Camp, Benjamin Lovejoy, Camille Barchers, Janelle Franklin. Photo: Aaron Kupec)

When the South-Central Regional Council of Governments (SCRCOG) in Connecticut won a federal grant to develop a Priority Climate Action Plan (PCAP), Director of Regional Planning and Municipal Services Benjamin Lovejoy turned to the UMass Amherst Master of Regional Planning program. Ten graduate students in a regional planning studio, led by Assistant Professor Camille Barchers, are drafting the plan, which will guide the 27 cities and towns in New Haven County in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and other harmful air pollutants while promoting environmental justice and improving the quality of life for all residents.

Lovejoy was familiar with the program because he is a 2022 alumnus. In fact, two years ago, he and SCRCOG Regional Planner Stephanie Camp, another graduate of the program, were in the same planning studio course that is developing the PCAP.

Given the quick turnaround time required, “I knew there was a potential … we would ultimately have to go with a large consulting firm. They do fantastic work, but there’s often criticism that it’s very cookie cutter,” Lovejoy says. “I knew that Camille would raise the bar and have the students look in a way that’s more dynamic than what I would probably have gotten if I had gone the more traditional route.”

In collaboration with the Networks for Accessibility, Resilience and Sustainability Laboratory and the Center for Resilient Metro-Regions in the Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning at UMass Amherst, students have begun compiling a greenhouse gas inventory of the region, identifying best practices for climate mitigation, implementing a public outreach strategy and more.

For Janelle Franklin, one of the students working on the plan, the opportunity to help shape policy was one of the attributes that drew her to the program.

“We are writing something that’s going to be creating policies to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions,” says Franklin, who is also assistant planner for the town of Hatfield, Massachusetts. “This is going to be a plan that does not collect dust on a shelf.”

Barchers says confronting climate change and its wide-ranging effects resonates with the planners-to-be and serves as a source of motivation.

“I think that’s part of the reason why the students have been so successful because this is the issue that looms large in our head, as we’re preparing future planners. You can never get away from climate change,” she says. “Giving them this project that’s all about mitigation of greenhouse gases allows them to take that passion and that concern, that drive to be a planner and put it into action, which has been really rewarding to see.”

The UMass regional planning team’s work is guided by the principle of environmental justice —that the benefits of greenhouse gas mitigation measures must be distributed equitably among the communities of South-Central Connecticut. The federal government’s Justice40 initiative mandates that 40% of the benefits from the policies recommended by the plan flow through low-income and disadvantaged communities.

The PCAP is funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Climate Pollution Reduction Grant program as part the federal Inflation Reduction Act.

The project’s public engagement process is underway and on track to deliver a draft climate action plan in December. The final version is due in March 2024. This will set the stage for next fall’s regional planning studio to work on the next phase of the initiative: a Comprehensive Climate Action Plan, which will include specific implementation steps as well as a workforce development plan.

Full text of article taken from UMass News & Events.