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The Massachusetts Integrated Land Use Strategy (MILUS)

A collaborative approach for balancing multiple objectives when prioritizing land use projects.

Massachusetts has ambitious goals for housing, clean energy, economic development, land conservation, and climate resilience. While all these goals are important to achieve, land use decisions focused on one set of goals could inadvertently conflict with other priorities. State planners, program managers, and policymakers, in addition to developers and local decision-makers, would benefit from a way to consider and balance multiple objectives when prioritizing land use projects.

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What is MILUS?

State agencies are working together to align priorities and develop MILUS as a suite of products and tools that include:

  • A strategy and map, which will depict agreement among state agencies on preferred future land uses from the Commonwealth perspective and a means for achieving them; and
  • An interactive web-based land use planning tool that state agencies, planners, project developers, and cities and towns can use to investigate potential locations for development, infrastructure, and conservation, and evaluate them for consistency with the strategy.

MILUS is nota regulatory mandate, nor is it a replacement for local or regional planning efforts. It will be designed to guide planning efforts and investment decisions and offer tools to support decision-making. The project team’s goal is to publish the strategy, map, and interactive tool in late summer or early fall 2026.

Why is MILUS important?

The initiative aims to promote future growth that advances livability, environmental sustainability, and economic vitality. It will do so by:

  • Identifying optimal, location-efficient uses of land across Massachusetts while addressing potential land use conflicts and identifying co-location opportunities;
  • Developing geospatial tools needed to evaluate and implement the consensus land use priorities—and the infrastructure that enables them—through state actions, policies, and programs;
  • Guiding policy, permitting, and funding decisions; and
  • Fostering collaboration and consistent land use decision-making among state agencies and across different levels of government—aligning statewide, regional, and municipal planning priorities.

Who is involved?

The Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs is coordinating the MILUS effort in collaboration with the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities, the Department of Transportation, the Executive Office of Economic Development, the Executive Office of Technology Services and Security, and the Office of Climate Innovation and Resilience, among others. The MILUS project includes a Project Management Team, a Steering Committee, five working groups (energy infrastructure, housing, economic development, land conservation, and technical tool development), and contractor support. While it is predominantly a state effort, the MILUS project will engage partners to ensure the strategy and tool meet the needs of the full range of potential users. Contact milus@mass.gov for specific questions.

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