15 
Another key factor in determining the appropriate course of State 
action in the area of urban development is the relative intensity of 
metropolitan urban problems. For example, if the supply of metro- 
politan open space were being devoured too quickly, or if the trans- 
portation system were not meeting areawide needs for the distribution 
of people and goods, then the State might conclude that local govern- 
ment was responding too slowly, and that more direct State action 
was appropriate. In Massachusetts it may well be that the increased 
pressures of urban growth and development brought about by the 
recent development of Route 128, Route 495, Interstate 290, and the 
Massachusetts Turnpike may have become sufficiently severe to 
suggest that more direct State action is required than would otherwise 
be acceptable. State government, if it is to avoid permanently 
impairing local autonomy, must decide what the limits are beyond 
which it cannot go. At what point would State intervention be 
excessive? Under what circumstances can local governments be 
considered incapable of providing solutions to areawide problems? 
Each State, including Massachusetts, needs to adopt a set of 
development objectives which can unify the many supervisory and 
regulatory actions of the administrative agencies and the State 
legislature. Too often State agencies work at cross purposes to one 
another and to local governments. But the growimg number of States 
which have adopted comprehensive planning programs testifies to the 
heightened awareness of the need to provide some overall direction to 
the pattern of development in each State.1® Through the establishment 
of long-range development programs, the States can implement 
recommendations for orderly, coordinated growth. Policies thus 
established serve three purposes: local governments have a benchmark 
against which to chart the success of their own development programs, 
the work of many State agencies in development programing can be 
more effectively integrated; and Federal programs can be utilized to 
maximize the benefits of public investment through efficient and 
equitable use of land to meet State priorities. 
Inexercising leadership, the State must decide how aggressive it is going 
to be in intervening to redirect the development policies of public agencies 
and private institutions. This thesis will examine the implications of 
an extremely vigorous State policy which calls for direct State inter- 
vention in the urban development process. Specifically, criteria for 
State investment and guidelines for State involvement in the develop- 
ment of new communities will be discussed. 
"18 See “The Social and Economic Impact of Highways: Demographic Patterns in the Interstate Route 
495 Area’’ prepared by the Bureau of Socio-Economic Research, Inc., for the Massachusetts Department 
of Public Works, 1963. 
12 State responsibility, op. cit., p. 22. 
