Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Studio and Student Research and Creative Activity
Publication Date
Spring 3-2011
Abstract
This is one of five reports submitted for the LA497C Spring 2011 Senior Studio project.
Hatfield is located on the Connecticut River with interstate 91 cutting through the center of the town. Hatfield has an abundance of wetlands and floodplains, and the town’s relatively old-fashioned culture. As a community they have worked together to buffer the town from some of the more excessive development pressures other Pioneer Valley towns have been facing in the last ten years. At the same time, the town’s fertile soil and agricultural industry, along with easy commute distances to many large regional employers, including the University of Massachusetts, have left Hatfield with functioning farmland and a relatively well-educated and well-employed population. The local government has been successful at balancing revenue with expenditures. The town government has also been successful in attracting a healthy commercial and industrial base. An analysis done in the Hatfield Master Plan of community-specific trends in residential and commercial/industrial development offers a view of a possible future for the town. Projecting possible results of existing growth and development trends reveals a conflict between the vision of Hatfield articulated by community residents in 1999 and the development path the community is currently taking.
Included in
Environmental Design Commons, Geographic Information Sciences Commons, Landscape Architecture Commons, Urban, Community and Regional Planning Commons, Urban Studies and Planning Commons
Comments
LA 497C: Greenway Planning Studio - Undergraduate Program
Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning
University of Massachusetts Amherst
Senior Students guided by: Professors Robert L. Ryan, Peter A. Kumble and Teaching Assistant: Kate Tooke