The Joint Committee on Community Development and Small Business heard from a sponsor about House Bill 303, a proposal to revive a statewide, state-supported community development planning program patterned on an earlier executive-order initiative that provided technical assistance to municipalities.

The bill’s sponsor, Representative Castner, told the committee H303 would give each city and town authority and assistance to develop comprehensive plans covering land use, transportation, open space, housing and infrastructure and to coordinate those plans with regional agencies. “The idea at the time, in the year 2000, was to assist communities in addressing the housing shortage,” the sponsor said, describing prior work in the early 2000s that led to programs such as MassWorks and the Planning for Growth initiative. Castner said regional planning agencies such as the Merrimack Valley Planning Commission and the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC) supported reviving a coordinated planning program.

Representative Castner said the earlier state program provided about $30,000 per community for planning work and that H303 would reinstate a similar resource, updated to include climate-resilience planning. The sponsor said the initiative produced “a snapshot” of local infrastructure and housing needs two decades ago and argued that similar statewide planning would help target future investments and preserve local character while expanding housing opportunities.

Committee members asked how the proposal would coordinate with existing regional planning agencies; the sponsor said regional agencies led much of the earlier effort and remained enthusiastic, naming MAPC and Merrimack Valley Planning Commission as supporters. No formal action on H303 occurred at the hearing; members signaled interest but declined to take votes during the session.

Why this matters: Reviving a funded, coordinated community-development planning program would create a state-supported mechanism to help towns and regions identify infrastructure and housing priorities, potentially shaping where future housing is sited and how state funds are targeted.

What’s next: Committee members said they would continue consideration of H303 in future hearings and executive sessions.