Port and Harbor Planning in the Massachusetts Coastal Zone

The primary goals of the Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management's (CZM) Port and Harbor Planning Program are to:

• Help ensure that waterfront areas in the Commonwealth grow in a safe, environmentally sound, and economically prosperous manner.
• Balance potentially competing uses within a harbor or port to maximize public benefits.

Specific strategies include promoting meaningful public access to the water's edge and encouraging the creation or expansion of water-dependent facilities in developed port and harbor areas. This approach maximizes the value of these developed ports and ensures that businesses requiring close proximity to harbors, such as shipping, fish landing, and other marine-industrial uses, have a place to flourish on a sustainable basis. The success of these plans, however, often rests on the navigability of the ports, and therefore is closely linked to navigational dredging activities within these areas.

CZM has developed a set of regulations for the Review and Approval of Municipal Harbor Plans (301 CMR 23.00) that articulate the steps and standards that must be met for a harbor plan to be formally approved by the state. These steps and standards are necessary because state-approved harbor plans have the ability to modify certain dimensional and use standards and guide the application of other requirements within the state's Chapter 91 Waterway Licensing Regulations (310 CMR 9.0). Many of the major ports in Massachusetts, including Boston, New Bedford/Fairhaven, Fall River, Salem, and Gloucester, have either completed a state-approved harbor plan or are in the process of developing one. In the case of Boston, there are multiple harbor plans either completed or in development for different sections of the city's waterfront. Smaller harbors that do not wish or need to "customize" the statewide regulatory controls established under Chapter 91 may not choose to seek state approval of their harbor plan. CZM also provides assistance and guidance for less-formal harbor planning activities to address community needs.