February 2016

This datalayer represents the boundaries of the 13 regional planning agencies (RPAs) in Massachusetts.

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This datalayer represents the boundaries of the 13 regional planning agencies (RPAs) in Massachusetts. Each RPA serves as a forum for state and local officials to address issues of regional importance, including the development of comprehensive plans and recommendations in areas of population and employment, transportation, economic development, regional growth and the environment. The layer was created in ARC/INFO based on the Towns layer and lists from each RPA of its member communities.

In ArcSDE the polygon layer is named RPAS_POLY. A line layer of the boundaries was created from the polygon features and is named RPAS_ARC. An ArcSDE annotation class, RPAS_ANNO_RPA, was created using an acronym of the RPA name.

Attributes

The polygon attribute table contains the fields RPA_ID (unique ID for each region), RPA_NAME (name of the RPA), and ACRONYM as follows:

RPA_ID	RPA_NAME	ACRONYM
1	BERKSHIRE REGIONAL PLANNING COMMISSION	BRPC
2	FRANKLIN REGIONAL COUNCIL OF GOVERNMENTS	FRCOG
3	PIONEER VALLEY PLANNING COMMISSION	PVPC
4	MONTACHUSETT REGIONAL PLANNING COMMISSION	MRPC
5	CENTRAL MASSACHUSETTS REGIONAL PLANNING COMMISSION	CMRPC
6	NORTHERN MIDDLESEX COUNCIL OF GOVERNMENTS	NMCOG
7	MERRIMACK VALLEY PLANNING COMMISSION	MVPC
8	METROPOLITAN AREA PLANNING COUNCIL	MAPC
9	OLD COLONY PLANNING COUNCIL	OCPC
10	SOUTHEAST REGIONAL PLANNING & ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT DISTRICT	SRPEDD
11	CAPE COD COMMISSION	CCC
12	MARTHA'S VINEYARD COMMISSION	MVC
13	NANTUCKET PLANNING & ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION	NPEDC
14	BELONGS BOTH TO MAPC & OCPC	MAPC/OCPC

Also included is the field WEBSITE, which stores the web address (URL) of each RPA.

The RPAS_ARC layer contains the OUTLINE field, coded as follows:

 1 = State boundary
 2 = Internal RPA boundaries
 4 = Coastline

Maintenance

MassGIS maintains this layer. The RPA_NAMEs of the Berkshire and Franklin RPAs were edited to reflect the correct names in December 2004. In December, 2007, the ACRONYM and WEBSITE attributes were added, and the features were edited to form multi-part polygons. In February 2016 the MAPC/OCPC region was edited to include Duxbury and Hanover, which have become members of both RPAs.

See https://www.apa-ma.org/resources/massachusetts-regional-planning-agencies and https://www.regionalbestpractices.org/resources/where-is-my-regional-planning-agency/regional-planning-agencies/ for contact information of all the RPAs.

Last Updated 2/25/2016