(1)301 CMR 23.00 serves as the
primary agency of the Commonwealth for environmental planning, as set forth in
M.G.L. c. 21A, §§ 2 and 4; and to implement the Massachusetts Coastal
Zone Management Program (CZM Program), established by M.G.L. c. 21A, § 4A
for the purpose of securing for the inhabitants of the Commonwealth the
objectives and benefits of the Federal Coastal Zone Management Act,
16 USC
1451
et seq.
301 CMR 23.00 forms part of
the CZM Program and shall be interpreted and applied in a manner consistent
with
301 CMR 20.00:
Coastal Zone Management Program.
(2)
Purpose.
301 CMR 23.00 establishes a
voluntary procedure by which municipalities may obtain approval of Municipal
Harbor Plans (MHPs) from the Secretary, in order that such plans may serve to
inform and guide state agency actions affecting the implementation of waterway
management programs at the local level. Specifically, Approved MHPs will be of
direct assistance to the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) in making
regulatory decisions pursuant to M.G.L. c. 91 that are responsive to municipal
objectives and priorities, harbor-specific conditions, and other local and
regional circumstances. The additional purposes served by the regulations are
as follows:
(a) to promote long-term,
comprehensive, municipally based planning of harbors and other waterway areas
that fully incorporates state policies governing stewardship of trust lands, as
defined in
310 CMR 9.02:
Definitions, and that establishes, through early and
continuing consultation, an effective partnership between the Commonwealth and
its municipalities in such planning efforts;
(b) to carry out overall state environmental
policy by, among other things, providing for the management of water and land
resources to assure the protection and balanced utilization of such resources;
promoting the best usage of land and water by encouraging and providing for, in
cooperation with other appropriate state agencies, planned industrial,
commercial, recreational, and community development; encouraging the
restoration and reclamation of degraded or despoiled areas, including harbors
and coastal waters; and assisting other state agencies and regional planning
agencies in developing programs and policies relating to land-use planning and
regulation in the Commonwealth;
(c)
to comply with and implement national coastal policy as set forth in the
Federal Coastal Zone Management Act of 1972, as amended, by encouraging the
preparation of special area management plans that provide for increased
specificity in protecting significant natural resources, reasonable
coastal-dependent economic growth, improved protection of life and property in
hazardous areas, and improved predictability in governmental decision making
and by encouraging the participation and cooperation of the public, state,
local, regional, interstate, and federal governments in the preparation of such
plans;
(d) to foster the right of
the people to clean air and water, freedom from excessive and unnecessary
noise, and the natural, scenic, historic, and aesthetic qualities of their
environment under Article XCVII of the Massachusetts Constitution.
