The task seems downright Herculean: Get representatives and residents from 37 MetroWest municipalities to agree on the area’s highest priority development and preservation projects, potentially placing the good of the region over the wants of its towns and cities.

But that’s the effort undertaken by the 495/MetroWest Partnership, along with the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC), the state Office of Housing and Economic Development and other public and private entities.

They call it the 495/MetroWest Development Compact. Much of the compact’s efforts have been focused on identifying areas where transportation and utility infrastructure already exist. That way, local agencies and planning boards can help push forward projects or development sites that don’t require millions of dollars the state doesn’t have just to lay the groundwork.

“This should create a road map of development locations that municipal government is on board with, what are thought to be regional priorities, and that the state is on board with … and will encourage,” said Paul Matthews, 495/MetroWest Partnership executive director.

The group started with a list of several hundred priority sites for development and preservation across the 37 municipalities, stretching from Worcester and Westford to Plainville and Natick. They have winnowed that list to 91 sites, evaluating them on criteria including whether they have access to municipal water sources and the fragility of their environments, said George Preble, a principal with Beals and Thomas, an environmental and engineering consulting firm with offices in Southborough and Plymouth.

“For the first time, we’ve really developed an understanding of what the priorities for development and preservation need to look at for the entire [Interstate] 495 region,” Preble told Banker & Tradesman.

One priority in particular is job growth. The Partnership performed a critical analysis of the region and identified “a very strong band of job growth” between Worcester and Natick around the Route 9 corridor that could prove to be a focus for potential development. Preserving historically important commercial sites is also a priority, including the Pullman Street Industrial Park in Worcester, the Golden Triangle retail district in Framingham, and the former HP and Fidelity properties in Marlborough.

“If a municipality has clear priorities and has done studies, they will be very well positioned to get help from the state to get things started,” Matthews said. “I would guess that the former Fidelity and HP campuses … are in the top echelon for locations ready to go for new tenants.”

Now, the group is working on modeling to see how feasible sites are from a transportation standpoint. They want to answer questions like, “if certain locations were developed, what are the implications for the region’s transportation network?” The compact will then present its findings to state planning agencies, which are developing their own list of priority sites in the region, Matthews said.

Creating Homes

“This is not some sort of state blueprint that’s being slapped down over the region,” he continued. “It’s more of a roadmap … to show the interrelationship of land use and development and the issues before them, issues of land preservation, transportation, aquifer recharge, active use of sewers and wells.”

With the anticipation of job growth in the region, a consideration of particular importance is workforce housing, said Kevin McLaughlin, a partner with Arlington-based Oxbow Partners, a developer of mostly affordable or mixed-income housing. Since the firm does not currently have any projects underway in the area, McLaughlin said he is positioned to help decide what types of housing are most appropriate for a given area, like larger apartment buildings versus a town square or village feel.

While areas along the Mass Pike and I-495 are ideal for their proximity to transportation and major highways, there are farther flung areas – like Maynard, for example – that have existing septic and other infrastructure needed for large-scale housing that help drive down the costs of new development.

“But when you identify an area like that, you have the challenge of things like transportation to and from Maynard Center,” which is a couple towns away from major highways, McLaughlin said.