What is SDAT?
The SDAT program~is a community assistance program that focuses on the principles of sustainability. SDATs bring teams of volunteer professionals (such as architects, urban designers, planners, hydrologists, economists, attorneys, and others) to work with community decision-makers and stakeholders to help them develop a vision and framework for a sustainable future.~ The SDAT program provides a broad assessment to help frame any future policies or design solutions in the context of sustainability.
The SDAT process helps communities:
• understand their structure at various scales and contexts;
• explore~interactions~between ecological, sociological, economic, and physical systems;
• visualize potential futures;
• articulate the qualities of a place;
• advance the principles of sustainable communities; and
• define the role of stakeholders and players in both the public and private sectors.
The SDAT community assistance program provides communities with six components:
- Preliminary visit
- Three-day visit from a multidisciplinary team
- A report highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of the community with regard to~sustainability, along with the opportunities and obstacles to change
- Consultations after a three-day visit
- A conference call six months after delivery of the assessment report to review progress
- One-day follow-up visit to complete a secondary assessment, one year after the SDAT report is delivered
A team of architects and other professionals such as planners, hydrologists, economic development specialists, and others are selected for~each multidisciplinary SDAT team based on their credentials and the specific needs of each community. The~team works in conjunction with local stakeholders to help shape the community’s strategy to increase sustainability. In order to provide the most objective assessment, the team members are from outside the particular communities.
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It is important that people we are contacting know that this program is a nation-wide program and that we are only the third municipality in Massachusetts to go through it.~ As you know, Northampton and Pittsfield did this in 2005, and it has made a big difference to their communities, especially Pittsfield, which was in terrible shape but is now coming up very quickly.~ This is a big deal and it's a one-time opportunity to figure out how our town will be formed and reformed over the coming decades.
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It is also very important that the agricultural community get involved.~ After all, they control and/or rely upon open land for their livelihood.~ Random development doesn't help agriculture at all, and that's where we will be headed unless we decide how we are going to grow, and after this economic downturn is over, we're going to grow.~
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Also, it is likely that we will get train service here and after that we are going to be under very heavy development pressure.~ Boston and Worcester will be easily accessible by rail and people will be looking out here to make this their bedroom community.~ It's tempting to think about how much land will be worth at that time, but there are other ways to get the value out of land that don't require abandonment of agriculture.~ Nobody wants to see the agricultural base of this community abandoned.
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