The Massachusetts Rural Policy Advisory Commission published the 2026 Rural Policy Plan in October of 2026. The full plan, along with an executive summary, is now available on the Commonwealth’s website.
Download the full 2026 Rural Policy Plan
The Appendices include a listing of each Massachusetts municipality defined as rural by the Rural Policy Advisory Commission enabling legislation; that same table indicates the designated Regional Planning Agency (RPA) for each municipality. BRPC is a great starting point for ongoing discussion about how our region can advocate for priority elements of this plan.
This effort was over a year in the making, with our colleagues at FRCOG taking the lead on behalf of the RPAC. The update process included conducting an analysis of every single 2019 Plan recommendation, drafting new content and recommendations based on that analysis, then holding 18 statewide feedback sessions and making further revisions based on that feedback, and finally, engaging every Massachusetts Secretariat to ensure there were no surprises.