Friends: It might have taken 24 years for the Public Lands Preservation Act (PLPA) to become law, but it has taken less than two months for the Executive Office of Energy & Environmental Affairs (EEA) to create a website dedicated to PLPA Tools and Information. This is one of the much needed, transparency additions to the PLPA bill that MACC and our environmental coalition partners advocated for last year. EEA has created a “one-stop-shopping” for all things PLPA.
Thank you, EEA, for your prompt creation of guidance documents and this website!
The new PLPA website is found HERE
This will be your Go To Spot for all things related to Article 97 Land Dispositions and the new no-net-loss guidance. Save these links for future reference.
Here is a “tour” of the PLPA website:
- PLPA Portal. The PLPA Portal will be used for submission of PLPA documents including Alternatives Analysis, Waiver Requests, and Funding-in-Lieu Requests (not yet ready for prime time, but coming soon).
- PLPA Tracker. The Tracker will have information on proposed Article 97 actions and waiver/modification determinations and funding in lieu findings of the Secretary. (This is under construction).
- PLPA Guidance. HERE Send me any comments on this guidance document. MACC will provide more information about the PLPA website and guidance documents in upcoming Conservation Quarterly Articles.
- Frequently Asked Questions. HERE Please take a look at the Q&A. Send comments to me – we will collect and send onto EEA.
- EEA Appraisal Standards. HERE
- Article 97 Policy (the 1998 policy for No Net Loss is on the website, but a new draft is being prepared to be consistent with the new law) HERE
- An Act Preserving Open Space in the Commonwealth. HERE This is the bill that passed in 2022, after 24 years of hard work by all of us! Thank you to all who had a hand in this effort!
I will be reviewing these documents and can coordinate a Lunch & Learn zoom presentation if there is enough interest.
By the Way – The PLPA Celebration, coordinated by Representative Ruth Balser, Senator Jamie Eldridge, their staff, and others on January 23, 2023, was a fabulous, heart-warming event. It was set in the beautiful State House Library. If you like open space & PLPA, check out the recording of the speeches and the celebration https://malegislature.gov/Events/SpecialEvents/Detail/402
Thank you for all that you do to protect the environment. – Dot McGlincy
Dorothy A. McGlincy
Executive Director