Municipal Alpha · research snapshotReading depth
Research snapshot · Environmental · 13 September 2026

Watershed protection overlay across the country: 258 towns on the record, the pace easing

This page is a snapshot, cut 13 September 2026, of a topic that moves. Below is the shape of the movement, read from the towns' own meeting records, and the way to get a view of it that stays current.

Overlay districts restricting what can be built near a drinking-water supply or a sensitive watershed: setbacks, impervious-surface limits, septic and stormwater conditions, and aquifer protection rules.Our definition of the class.

Snapshot taken 13 September 2026, based on 454 dated municipal records flagged as watershed protection overlay, spanning 258 municipalities across 34 states. The topic moves; a later cut supersedes this page.

ScopeAcross the countryMaineNew HampshireMassachusettsConnecticutVermontIllinoisCaliforniaNew YorkUtahWashington

What this page is for one topic at state or national scope, told as a story: how it arrived, the shape of its movement, a dated snapshot of a moving record, and the door to a view of it that stays current. If it does not, write to us; that is what changes the next edition.

Source documents 3 of 4 on this page link straight to the town's own record. The rest are available on request. Ask for access.

The story so far

The record starts in Massachusetts, 26 October 2009. Since then 258 municipalities in 34 states have put the topic on a meeting record, at very different speeds: Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts hold 73% of the dated events between them.

The last 90 days put 28 meetings on the record, well down from 119 in the 90 days before. 1 more is already on posted agendas.

It runs through the rooms where budgets and ordinances are made: Planning Board, Conservation Commission and Town Council.

The shape of the movement

Dated meetings on the record at this scope, quarter by quarter, and the same 90-day count as a rolling line, whose right-hand point is that number. Counts of documents, never a reading of what they decided.
QuarterMeetingsTownsStates
Sep 2025 to Nov 2025221811
Dec 2025 to Feb 20261288819
Mar 2026 to May 20261269517
Jun 2026 to Sep 2026 (current)28227

a rolling 90-day total, so the right-hand point is that same 90-day count. The busiest stretch was Dec 2025 to Feb 2026, with 128 meetings.

Where it is moving34 states

The same topic at different speeds in different states. A state's name opens its own page where one exists.
StateTowns on the recordMeetings, 90 daysLatest
Maine5814 ▼ -12.5%2026-09-02
New Hampshire5732026-07-21
Massachusetts4252026-08-25
Connecticut1502026-06-04
Vermont1422026-07-16
Illinois702026-02-02
California61 ▼ -50.0%2026-08-26
New York502026-06-06
Utah502026-06-11
Washington52 ▲ +100.0%2026-07-16
Maryland502026-06-03
Idaho lighter read402026-03-18
Colorado lighter read302026-03-18
Arizona lighter read202023-03-21
Missouri lighter read202024-01-18

And 19 more states on the record, in an account view.

From the record

The most recent documents behind this page, one per town. Each link opens the town's own file.

2 September 2026 · Brunswick, Maine

the agenda, on the town's own site Agenda — 2026-09-02

1 September 2026 · Falmouth, Maine Planning Board

the agenda, on the town's own site 2026.09.01 Planning Board — Agenda

26 August 2026 · Nevada County, California

the agenda, on the town's own site Agenda — 2026-08-26

25 August 2026 · Brewster, Massachusetts Conservation Commission

the agenda, on the town's own site Conservation Commission Regular Meeting

Companies on this record1091 companies, 382 documents

Named in the same documents that carry this topic, read from the record itself: the firms designing, building and advising the work, each with where the record places them:
NHDESAlton, Andover, Bristol and 10 more
Maine DEPBrunswick, Eliot, Falmouth and 3 more
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)Boscawen, Danbury, Glocester and 3 more
GPCOGCumberland, Falmouth, Harrison and 1 more
EversourceBelmont, Danville, Marlborough and 2 more
NHACCBow, Chesterfield, Farmington and 2 more
Altus EngineeringDurham, Greenland
Danbury P LLCDanbury
JM Zell Partners LLCDanbury
Central Maine PowerEliot, North Yarmouth, Sanford and 1 more
Federal Emergency Management AgencyHarrison, Lackawanna, Liberty and 1 more
GMRIBath, Brunswick, Falmouth and 1 more
U.S. Environmental Protection AgencyGalveston, Shrewsbury, Spanish Lake and 1 more
Army Corps of EngineersBristol, Westfield, Winchester
Casco Bay Estuary PartnershipPhippsburg, Portland, Yarmouth
SELTHampton Falls, Kensington, Stratham
ComcastHinesburg, Jericho, Medford
Food and Drug Administration (FDA)American Falls, Dartmouth, Fitchburg
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)Belmont, Fitchburg, Shrewsbury
Maine Municipal Bond BankCamden, Harpswell
MMRGMilton, Ossipee
ScoutsDurham, Gilmanton
David and Karen Della PentaDurham
JennyAndover
JesseAndover
MirandaAndover
SoozeAndover
Véronique LudingtonDurham
Advance Auto Parts (AAP)Bristol, Wellesley
Advanced Drainage Systems (WMS)Bristol, Wellesley

And 1061 more companies.

The documents naming each, and the threads they sit in, are the account view. If one of these is you, those are your projects on the record. Ask and we will show you every one, and the towns around them, as they move.

A snapshot of a moving record

Everything above is frozen at 13 September 2026; the topic is not. 88 more events on this topic carry no usable date and are counted, never dated. The counts follow where we read most: a town or a state absent here was not read at depth, and absence is not evidence the topic is absent there. A lighter-read state is not a ceiling; where you care about a region, pointing the system there is the first thing an account changes. How coverage is built, and its known limits: municipalalpha.com/methodology.

How we can tell you about it ongoing

We track this topic continuously; this page is one cut of it, taken 13 September 2026. An account turns the snapshot into a working view: every town and every document behind these counts, the thread on each matter as it develops, word of new meetings as they land on the record, your own states and topics side by side, and the data itself when you want it in a table. The towns above are the taste; what each is actually deciding, funding or stalling is the read an account carries.

Tell us what you watchOne free lead from the recordOr take 30 minutesBook time with MattHow this is builtCoverage, freshness, known gaps

Each state's name above opens its own page. Counts and dates are computed from the documents on the record; the topic and its definition are ours. This page carries no subscriber content.

Watershed protection overlay, across the country

from the towns' own meeting records

Scope

Across the country

Area

Environmental

every topic in this area

Towns on the record

258

with a dated document on this topic

States on the record

34

counted from the record

Earliest

26 October 2009

the documents' dates

Meetings, last 90 days

28 against 119 before

dated documents

Snapshot cut

13 September 2026

this page's date

A view that stays current

ask for yours