Planning & Sustainability

Mission: Identify and implement community vision for a sustainable and resilient future with a healthy and equitable economy and environment 

  • Planning: resilience | sustainability | visioning | comprehensive | strategic
  • Climate: resilience/adaptation | regeneration/mitigation
  • Environment: design with nature | open space | agriculture 
  • Mobility: car-less options | bicycles and pedestrians | transit
  • Equity: housing | community development | economic prosperity | accessibility
  • Placemaking: design | built environment | history | community preservation
  • Tools and techniques to implement this missionEmpty heading

Draft Hazard Mitigation Plan

Hazard Mitigation planning is a sustained action taken to reduce or eliminate long-term risk to people and property from natural hazards such as flooding, storms, high winds, hurricanes, wildfires, and earthquakes. Pre-disaster mitigation efforts help to minimize damages to buildings and infrastructure, such as water supplies, sewers, and utility transmission lines, as well as natural, cultural and historic resources. a Natural Hazards Mitigation Plan before a disaster occurs can save the community money and will facilitate post-disaster funding.   The Draft 2026 update to the 5-year Hazard Mitigation Plan is available for review.

Public Hearing Notices

Current year's public hearing notices for the Planning Board and the Zoning Board of Appeals are on the City of Northampton calendar. They are also available on the first floor of City Hall.

Pending Regulatory Changes

Zoning & Other Code Changes
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Newsletter and Board Agendas

  • Sign up HERE for our email newsletter.
  • To be notified of board agendas, visit our Notify Me.

Picture Main Street Design  

Project information, background, and design plans can be found HERE.

ValleyBike Share  

Project update, vendor information, and status can be found on the project website.

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Resilience Hub Updates

Please see Hub Page for updates and donation links

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On Northampton

"This small city offers more restaurants and shops, certainly more galleries, theaters, and performance venues than most urban centers dozens of times its size. Add two rivers, mountain views, landscaped parks, and meadow walks, and you begin to see why people call it paradise." -The Boston Globe

"Northampton combines the cultural breadth of a major metropolis... with the low-key sensibility of a small borough." - National Geographic Adventure

"A coffee-drinking, bike-riding oasis, it combines the charm of a village with big city culture" - CNN

Acknowledgments

We acknowledge that Northampton is built upon and benefited from the extensive contributions, assistance, and traditional land stewardship of Indigenous and First Peoples, including the Nipmuc and Pocumtuc Nations, who have inhabited this landscape since time immemorial. Our continued prosperity is dependent upon acknowledging and learning from its rich intertwined history, and we acknowledge the role of the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohican Indians in this work.

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Triple E Circle - Environment, Equity, Economy