Lancaster 2035 Strategic Comprehensive PLan
Help us build Lancaster's future vision and implementation plan
Lancaster 2035 Strategic Comprehensive PLan
Help us build Lancaster's future vision and implementation plan
Help us build Lancaster's future vision and implementation plan
Help us build Lancaster's future vision and implementation plan
Help us identify and prioritize goals. Survey closes March 31, 2024
The Town of Lancaster has begun the process of writing a new comprehensive plan. The plan will provide a long-term vision for the future, while strategically focusing on the most important issues and opportunities.
The plan will be implementation focused with a list of next steps.
Lancaster's last master plan was adopted in 2007 and is out-of-date.
Now is the time to share your vision and plan for our shared future
Scroll down for what the plan will include.
Lancaster selected Plan Sustain, Inc. to help them build Lancaster 2035.
Plan Sustain is a mission driven consultancy. Our vision is to empower communities to plan for what they see as the best way to achieve a livable, healthy, sustainable, and resilience future.
All elements in the plan will build on the existing plans and the vision, values, and goals that emerge from the planning process. We aim to identify the community vision and opportunities to implement that vision, not to reinvent what is working.
The housing element will build on the existing Housing Production Plan. It will explore strategic opportunities and consider demographic changes to identify existing and future housing opportunities.
The economic development element will build on the existing but dated 2015 Economic Development Plan, village plans, and the 2010 Expedited Permitting Guidebook. It will focus on strategic opportunities, existing town policies, regulations, and processes and recommend opportunities.
This element will draw heavily from the existing Open Space and Recreation Plan, testing recommendations and inventory with the Planning Board, Conservation Commission, Recreation Commission, and staff. The plan will look to identify strategic opportunities that might be parts of the next plan, since the current open space plan expires in 2024, and other opportunities..
The natural and cultural resources element will build on the inventory information in the Open Space and Recreation Plan, Historic Commission Annual Reports, and Lancaster Historical Society inventory and reports. Remote analysis from MassGIS data layers will be included.
This element will build on some sections that will be part of land use, natural resources, circulation, and service and facilities. Having a separate section, however, allows a stronger focus and brings these concepts together. The content will reflect some of the work that Lancaster and the Lancaster Energy Commission is doing (annual energy reports and green communities). It will also build on Lancaster’s Municipal Vulnerability Program resilience assessment and the resulting Hazard Mitigation Plan. This is not a detailed plan of energy performance, but rather will identify new cross-cutting opportunities.
This element will draw heavily on the Lancaster Capital Improvement Program (CIP) and input from relevant boards (e.g., Finance Committee and Select Board) and recommendations that come out of strategic opportunities identified elsewhere in the plan. This is not a detailed assessment of services or facilities.
This plan element will be heavily influenced by what emerges from the vision and goals from the planning process. It will be informed by existing studies (e.g., 2015 Complete Streets, 2016 Lancaster’s Trail Vision, 2013 Route 117 Corridor Profile, and 2020 Self-Evaluation and ADA Transition Plan) and by MassDOT and RPA traffic counts. It will not be an assessment of road conditions and capital improvement needs. It will consider safety, capacity, accessibility, optimization for different modes of travel, and parking.
This plan element will be heavily influenced by what emerges from the vision and goals from the planning process. It will be informed by existing studies (e.g., 2015 Complete Streets, 2016 Lancaster’s Trail Vision, 2013 Route 117 Corridor Profile, and 2020 Self-Evaluation and ADA Transition Plan) and by MassDOT and RPA traffic counts. It will not be an assessment of road conditions and capital improvement needs. It will consider safety, capacity, accessibility, optimization for different modes of travel, and parking.
While the vision, values, and goals that the plan will identify will provide a long-term framework that should be valuable for the next could of decades. The implementation plan, however, will be strategically focused on what Lancaster can do immediately, in the short-term, in the medium-term, and in the long-term. It will provide a roadmap for the next decade, including a list of proposed policies, regulatory changes, investments, and other policy changes, and link them to the relevant elements of the plan. Proposed changes will be conceptual, for example with financial cost and revenue analysis being that high level analysis discussed earlier and regulatory changes having the substance but not the detailed code. The framework provided will be sufficient to prioritize actions and assign them to the responsible party for implementation, but more detailed analysis will be needed when Lancaster is ready to implement changes.
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