Imagine having an interactive map that could show town officials, planners and developers where the best locations for building housing are on the Cape. That is what the Association for the Preservation of Cape Cod, and the Housing Assistance Corp. have put together after a two-year project.

Grow Smart Cape Cod's interactive map highlights priority natural resource areas and priority areas for year-round moderate-density housing in each of the Cape's 15 towns. The focus is not just on affordable housing, but housing that locals can afford, according to HAC Executive Director Alisa Magnotta.

At its core, the project emphasizes environmental protection, and seeks to efficiently use one dollar of investment in waste water infrastructure to solve an environmental problem as well as a public policy problem,  APCC Executive Director Andrew Gottlieb said.

"The traditional fight between the environmental community and the housing community hasn't gotten either side what they wanted," he said. "We have lousy water quality and they’ve got no affordability."

Magnotta said the mapping project started with identifying critical environmental areas considered off limits. 

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"We took everything off the map that must be protected for clean water and natural resources," she said. "Then we looked at what was needed to be good stewards of the land, then where we could build housing that’s beneficial as well."  

The interactive map includes layers of information that can be turned on and off. Those layers show priority areas for year-round housing, priority natural resource protection areas, wellhead protection areas, vernal pools, endangered species habitats, flood zones and more, according to David Quinn, director of Housing Development & Planning for HAC. 

Using the Cape Cod Commission's model for determining top-tier priorities for preservation, the map identifies drinking water supply areas, wetlands, and impaired watersheds that supply embayments and ponds.

Some of the information has been aggregated from state databases. The map enables viewers to zoom in and out, and it makes satellite images available. 

"There's a finite amount of natural resources on the Cape," APCC Assistant Director Don Keeran said. "We have to make sure people understand they needed protection."

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Gottlied said the map will be useful in highlighting areas where development and redevelopment should be encouraged for housing while also targeting areas for investment in municipal wastewater infrastructure.

"Essentially, this is an agnostic map that uses data to prioritize land at is highest and best-use value," Magnotta said.

The Grow Smart Cape Cod project generated six recommendations for towns to consider:

• Prioritize spending and available funding sources to leverage resources that will be beneficial for housing, wastewater infrastructure development and natural resource protection.

• Direct investments and local planning initiatives toward land identified in priority natural resource areas and priority housing areas by focusing efforts on acquisitions, regulatory requirements, and other land use policy decisions for this dual objective.

• Target housing production within identified housing areas and natural resource protection efforts in identified natural resource areas.

• Rezone land within identified priority natural resource areas to reduce development potential and sprawl.

• Rezone identified priority areas for housing to simplify and streamline the development of multi-family housing opportunities that are affordable and attainable for the Cape’s year-round population.

• Invest in wastewater infrastructure that improves the affordability of housing construction and significantly benefits protecting water quality.

Cape Housing Institute forums outlining how the maps were created and how to use them are scheduled for May 31, 4 p.m. and June 21, 10 a.m. Registration is available at www.haconcapecod.org.

Learn more about Grow Smart Cape Cod at GrowSmartCapeCod.org.

Contact Denise Coffey at dcoffey@capecodonline.com. Follow her on Twitter: @DeniseCoffeyCCT.