Planning Services Group
The Planning Services Group Records
1956-1986
MS 335
10 boxes
(4.5 linear ft.)
Special Collections and University Archives, University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries
The Planning Services Group was an urban planning firm based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that assisted New England cities and towns with initiating and managing urban development projects. The firm was involved in two primary areas, urban renewal and comprehensive community planning, and many of their projects were supported from funds designated by the Federal Housing Act of 1949. The collection includes organizational histories, memoranda, correspondence, proposal guidelines, materials for citizen participation, job inventories and reports, brochures that document urban growth management and the problems of suburbanization in New England, background studies, planning reports, growth management policies, zoning bylaws and amendments, and the files of Katharine Kulmala.
English.
The Planning Services Group (TPSG), an urban planning firm based in Cambridge, Massachusetts from 1955 to 1975, assisted New England cities and towns with initiating and managing urban development projects. Morton Braun, who was educated in city planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and had worked at the Boston division of Slum Clearance and Urban Redevelopment in the Federal Housing and Home Finance Agency from 1951 to 1954, founded the Planning and Renewal Association in 1955 with two partners, Robert Rowland and Donald Graham. The Planning and Renewal Association was renamed The Planning Services Group in 1961, and changed from a partnership to a corporation. The firm was most active in the 1960s, employing over fifty-nine staff-members. Braun was a lecturer in the Department of Landscape Architecture and the Regional Planning program at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst from 1968 to 1976. In 1975, Braun sold the firm to Katherine Kulmala, who operated a reduced consulting service out of her home in Carlisle, Massachusetts until 1982 when she closed the firm.
TPSG had two main types of contracts--urban renewal and comprehensive community planning. Projects in the 1950s and 1960s were initiated and supported primarily with federal funds designated by the Federal Housing Act of 1949, which sought to institute a national housing policy of "a decent home and a suitable living environment for every American family."
TPSG held planning contracts at the local and state level in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Maine and New York, and established long-term relationships with Durham, NH (1969-1980), Portsmouth, NH (1963-1973), Lancaster, MA (1966-1977), and Sanford, ME (1959-1973). Projects carried out at the town level included the production of: self-help planning manuals for citizens; comprehensive town plans; open space, recreation and zoning studies and revisions; plans for central business districts; plans to recycle historic buildings; and environmental and community impact studies. At the regional level, projects included planning and design criteria for new housing developments and the production of technical manuals for other planning agencies.
Organizational histories, memoranda, correspondence, proposal guidelines, materials for citizen participation, job inventories and reports, and brochures that document urban growth management and the problems of suburbanization in New England, primarily in communities in eastern Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine and Connecticut, and New York (Long Island) from the mid-1950s through the mid-1980s. Reports, which comprise the bulk of the collection, include: background studies; planning reports (some in draft or with notations); comprehensive plans (for population, economic base, land use, circulation, private development, and community facilities); growth management policies; zoning bylaws and amendments; capital improvement programs; concept plans for tracts of land; revitalization plans for small town central business districts; open space and recreation plans; environmental impact statements; community impact studies; self-help planning guides; and technical guides. The collection also contains the files of Katherine Kulmala documenting work done independent of The Planning Services Group, including 1953 zoning policies for Boston; open space and recreation studies for Carlisle, Massachusetts, undertaken when Kulmala was a member of the Carlisle Planning Board; articles on lakeside development and recycling of buildings; and a manuscript (typescript) comparing contemporary urban development in the United States to 16th century development of new towns in Mexico (then New Spain).
This collection is organized into three series:
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[Series 1. Administration, 1956-1982](bf1)
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[Series 2. TPSG Reports and Publications, 1957-1985](bf2)
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[Series 3. Katherine Kulmala Files, 1953-1986](bf3)
The collection is open for research.
Cite as: Planning Services Group Records (MS 335). Special Collections and University Archives, University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries.
Acquired from Katharine A. Kulmala via Stanley Moss, 1990.
Agriculture
Landscape and gardening
Massachusetts (East)
Social change
Processed by Linda Seidman, 1990.
Kulmala, Katherine.
Planning Services Group.
City planning--Maine.
City planning--Massachusetts.
City planning--New Hampshire.
Land Use, Urban--Maine.
Land Use, Urban--Massachusetts.
Land Use, Urban--New Hampshire.
Arlington (Mass.)--City planning.
Boston (Mass.)--City planning.
Carlisle (Mass.)--City planning.
Series 1. Administration1956-1982
1
1
History of TPSG
1
2
Correspondence
1956-1982
1
3
Brochures
1
4
Revised brochure
1981
1
5
Planning Board Clerk's kit advertisement
1980-1981
Series 2. TPSG Reports and Publications1957-1985
1
6
Lists of reports
1
7
Guide for Evaluating Development Proposals
1975
1
8
Protection of Wetlands and Floodplains
1977
1
9
Wetlands/Floodplains/Zoning manual materials
1976-1977
2
10-16
Cluster Zoning in Massachusetts
1970
Massachusetts Cities and Towns
3
17
Amesbury zoning bylaw
3
18
Amesbury Roy Farm, Land Vest
3
19
Andover general plan
1957
3
20
Andover zoning bylaw
3
21
Arlington comprehensive plan
1962
3
22
Arlington center commercial development plan
1964
3
23
Arlington capital improvement program
1963
3
24
Auburn plan for development
1960
3
25
Auburn zoning
1960
3
26
Bedford general plan
1959
3
27
Boston Pier 2 proposal for residential development
1966
3
28
Cambridge rezoning C-1 to C-3
1966
3
29
Carlisle target plan
1979
3
30
Carlisle zoning, etc.
1984-1985
3
31
Chelsea comprehensive plan fiscal analysis
1970
3
32-32A
Danvers industrial park proposal Dartmouth master plan,
1957, 1977-1978
4
33
Hopkinton zoning bylaw changes
1977-1978
4
34
Interstate 495 Area wide Approach to Growth
1978
4
35
Lancaster zoning regulations
1977-1980
4
36
various reports
1966-1967
4
37
background studies
1967
4
38
protection of N. Lancaster pond area
1973
4
39
Lexington memos, proposals, etc.
1975
5
40
Marlborough downtown development plan and program review and update
1981
5
41
Marlborough downtown development plan and program review and update
1981
5
42
Marshfield memo
1970
5
43
Melrose summary report
1962
5
44
Methuen various reports
1971
5
45
Millbury re: restoring vitality to small town central business districts
1975
5
46
Millbury re: restoring vitality to small town central business districts
5
47
North Reading general plan
5
48
Peabody's Essex Village community impact
1974
5
49
Pepperell interview and meeting notes
1980
5
49AA
SOS
5
49A
growth management, zoning bylaws
1973-1982
5
49B
comprehensive plan
1971
6
50
Seekonk
6
51
Sharon correspondence
1971-1976
6
52
Sharon Center
1967
6
53
Stoughton environmental impact statement, Copperwood town homes
1973
6
54
Stow memos, reports
1974-1976
6
55
Weymouth open space and recreation
1974
6
56
Wilmington general plan
1957
New Hampshire Cities and Towns
6
57
Derry comprehensive plan
1965
7
58
Durham: The Center
1968
7
59
Durham comprehensive plan
1968
7
60
Durham comprehensive plan
1969
7
61
growth and its impact
1968
7
62
open space
1967
7
63
physical determinants of planning policy
1967
7
64
proposed zoning ordinance
1968
7
65
comprehensive plan
1978
7
66
coastal resources
1979
7
67
neighborhood advisory group
1979
7
68
drafts of reports
8
69
planning notebook
1979-1981
8
70
planning notebook
8
71
trail guide
1976
8
72
subdivision regulations
8
73
Growth Management Options drafts
8
74
Growth Management Options drafts
8
75
memos
1979
8
76
zoning ordinance
8
77
summary update of comprehensive plan
1980
8
78
administrative records
1979
8
79
Hanover various reports and correspondence
1974-1975
8
80
administrative records
1974
8
81
Laconia criteria for exterior treatment of Busiel Belknap mills
8
82
New Hampshire
1975
8
83
North Country Council
1976
8
84
Portsmouth Farragut School
1971
8
85
Portsmouth Seacrest Village
1971
Other Cities and Towns
8
86
Bristol , Connecticut comprehensive plan
1964
8
87
Sanford, Maine correspondence
1971-1974
8
88-89
Sanford, Maine comprehensive plans
1957, 1973
8
89A
Long Island, New York community impact study of bridges
1971
Series 3. Katherine Kulmala Files1953-1986
10
90
Proposals, applications, resumes
10
91
Boston Herald American column
1977
10
92
Tutolo Siete: New Town in New Spain, sources and criticisms
10
93
Tutolo Siete: New Town in New Spain, typescript
1972
10
94
Boston, Mass. zoning policies
1953
10
95
Carlisle, Mass. open space and recreation report
1986