Throughout May and June, members of the Massachusetts Rural Policy Commission will hold public engagement feedback sessions to hear your thoughts regarding the 2026 Massachusetts Rural Policy Plan draft. The Plan chapters address Economic Development, Education, Housing, Land Use, Municipal Sustainability, Public Health, Technology, Transportation, and Water and Sewer.
The Massachusetts Healthy Aging Collaborative is supporting and promoting this effort while encouraging partners from rural communities in the state to attend any sessions of interest.
All meetings will be held remotely. The Commission will offer two sessions for each chapter, one in daytime hours, the other in evening hours. Please note that feedback will be taken from residents of small and rural communities. Instead, it uses different criteria depending on whether the definition is for health planning, state economic policy, or housing initiatives. Generally, municipalities are designated as rural if they have a population density of under 500 people per square mile, although there is not yet a defined designation.
Interested parties can register for as many sessions as they wish to attend. Each session is scheduled for no more than 90 minutes.
Register for any session by clicking on the linked date and time on this webpage. Upon registering for a session, registrants will receive meeting access credentials via email.
We will be populating the topics below with the brief videos and draft recommendations May 18-22. Registrants will receive notification via email when the materials relevant to their sessions are posted.
If you have questions or concerns, please contact Mark Maloni, FRCOG Communications Manager, mmaloni@frcog.org
The Commission’s convener is Franklin Regional Council of Governments (FRCOG), which encourages attendees to review materials here prior to the meetings:
- a brief video introducing the MA Rural Policy Commission’s 2026 Plan update relevant to all meetings;
- each chapter has a brief video providing context and an overview of the the recommendations;
- A pdf for each chapter that contains the full recommendations in written form.