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About Us

The Citizen Planner Training Collaborative or CPTC as it is commonly known was founded in 1995 as a collaboration between UMass, Department of Housing and Community Development, Mass Chapter of American Planning Association, Mass Association of Planning Directors, and Mass Federation of Planning Boards with a goal to empower local land use officials to make effective and judicious decisions.

CPTC began by offering Autumn Training in 1995. In 2001 the first Annual Conference was held. Subsequently On Demand Training was added and most recently we have begun to offer Online Training. Our training workshops offer a number of benefits including MIIA insurance credit, CPTC certificate credit and AICP credits but most importantly they offer knowledge of Massachusetts process and law for local planners.

As time has gone on we have added additional collaborators as well as local planners to the Board of Directors. Special thanks to all those who volunteered to make CPTC a success over the years.

CPTC Collaborators

Department of Housing and Community Development





UMass Amherst Center for Agriculture, Food and the Environment




CPTC Memorandum of Understanding