Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness

The Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness grant program (MVP) provides support for cities and towns in Massachusetts to begin the process of planning for climate change resiliency and implementing priority projects.

In 2019, Maynard applied for a Planning Grant under the MVP program and was selected by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to complete the Community Resilience Building (CRB) Workshop to assess potential climate change impacts, vulnerabilities, and to prioritize actions for enhanced short and long term community sustainability and resilience.

The MVP program leverages the CRB framework to support communities in assessing potential impacts from climate change, identifying communities' vulnerabilities to those impacts, and prioritizing resiliency actions. Under this framework, a community-driven process is designed to foster engagement and collaboration among a diverse group of community stakeholders. For Maynard, the Department of Public Works ("DPW") led the MVP planning efforts and hosted two stakeholder workshops, in partnership with consulting firm VHB ("the Consultant"), a State-certified MVP provider.

Two half-day stakeholder workshops were held on January 28 and February 4, 2020.

The objectives of the workshops were to:

• Introduce the MVP Program and its processes;
• Define and prioritize local climate-related hazards of concern;
• Identify existing and future vulnerabilities and strengths;
• Develop and prioritize actions to enhance Maynard's future resilience to the top climate-related hazards of concern; and
• Identify short-term opportunities for Maynard to advance priority actions, including through leveraging MVP Action Grants.

Following the stakeholder workshops, and acceptance of this Summary of Findings by the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, the town plans to broaden the conversation with the larger community, secure additional data and information from existing and new partners where necessary, and integrate the contents of the summary report (see Resources, below) and follow-on efforts into its existing and future planning and project activities.

Evidence of the latter is already present in the town's most recent Master Plan Update; for example, the Master Plan calls for several similar recommended actions such as "investigate creating a municipal storm drain utility and enhance relevant bylaws" and "incorporate the implications of climate change into the long-term planning of the town's capital assets and infrastructure through a resiliency checklist." Additionally, Maynard plans to pursue MVP Action Grant funding, as well as other available funding mechanisms, to advance the implementation of high-priority actions identified through this MVP planning process.