This page is a snapshot, cut 31 August 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.
Border case — could go STORMWATER or SHORELAND.Our definition of the class, 29 August 2026.
Snapshot taken 31 August 2026, based on 55 dated municipal records flagged as watershed protection overlay in Massachusetts, spanning 40 municipalities. The topic moves; a later cut supersedes this page.
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.
The record starts in Sandwich, 26 October 2009. Since then 40 Massachusetts towns have put the topic on a meeting record, the newest of them Gloucester on 25 June 2026.
The last 90 days put 6 meetings on the record, well down from 32 in the 90 days before.
It runs through the rooms where budgets and ordinances are made: Conservation Commission, Select Board and Town Council.
| Quarter | Meetings | Towns |
|---|---|---|
| Sep 2025 to Nov 2025 | 1 | 1 |
| Dec 2025 to Feb 2026 | 7 | 5 |
| Mar 2026 to May 2026 | 32 | 25 |
| Jun 2026 to Aug 2026 (current) | 6 | 5 |
a rolling 90-day total, so the right-hand point is that same 90-day count. The busiest stretch was Mar 2026 to May 2026, with 32 meetings.
And 25 more towns on the record, in an account view.
20 August 2026 · Auburn
the agenda, on the town's own site Agenda — 2026-08-20
25 June 2026 · Gloucester Clean Energy Commission -
the minutes, on the town's own site June 25, 2026
25 June 2026 · Cohasset
the agenda, on the town's own site AgendaCenter agenda
11 June 2026 · Acushnet Other Events
the agenda, on the town's own site Bylaw Review Committee
And 118 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.
Everything above is frozen at 31 August 2026; the topic is not. 85 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.
We track this topic continuously; this page is one cut of it, taken 31 August 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.
Also at this scope: Watershed protection overlay across the country. Counts and dates are computed from the documents on the record; the topic and its definition are ours. This page carries no subscriber content.
Towns on the record
40
Earliest
26 October 2009
Meetings, last 90 days
6 against 32 before
Snapshot cut
31 August 2026
A view that stays current