Purpose

(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.