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HomeMy WebLinkAboutDRAFT LCPC Minutes 06-29-2022Local Comprehensive Planning CommitteeDRAFTMinutesWednesday, June 29, 20226:00 PMElizabeth Jenkins, Director of Planning & Development, provides an opening statement that Steven Costello, the Chair of the Planning Board shall preside over this meeting until the Local Comprehensive Planning Committee (LCPC) organizes. Organization (appointing Chair, Vice Chair, and Clerk) will be the first agenda item at the next meeting. She turns the meeting over to Steven.CALL TO ORDERPresiding member Steven Costello opensthe meeting.NOTICE OF RECORDING This meeting is being recorded and broadcast on Channel 18 and in accordance with Massachusetts General Law Chapter 30A Section 20, the Committee must inquire whether anyone is taping this meeting and to please make their presence known. No response.TOPICS FOR DISCUSSIONMemberPresentAbsentSteven CostelloXCheryl PowellXFelicia PennXWendy NorthcrossXMark Hansen XAmanda Converse XSue Rohrbach XMeaghan Mort XCarlos Barbosa XFran Parks XLindsey Counsell XTom Lee XJennifer Williams XBob Twiss XAvery Revere X (late)INTRODUCTIONS Each committee member introduces themselves and offers relevant information about themselves: Steven Costello is the current Chair of the Planning Board. He lives in Osterville and has lived in the Town of Barnstable for about 28 years full time. He has been on the Planning Board for 6 or 7 years. Cheryl Powellis a mental health practitioner andhas been a member of the Barnstable Historical Commissionfor 7 years, Chair of the Hyannis Main Street and Waterfront Historic District Commissionfor 5 years, the 1199 representative for clinicians of outpatient behavioral health for Cape Cod Healthcare, and is the Chair of Human Services. She has been on cape since 1998. Felicia Pennhas been on the cape since birth. She lives in Hyannis. She spent 9 years on the Planning Board, was amember of Cape Cod Economic Development Council (now Barnstable County Economic Development Council) for 21 years, and takes part in too many community activities to list. Wendy Northcrossis the retired CEO of the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce, where she served for 24 years.Prior to that, she was the Executive Director of the Hyannis Area Chamber of Commerce. She is the co-founder and Executive Director of the JFK Hyannis Museum. She’s a resident of West Barnstable and has spent most of her life on cape. Mark Hansen is originally from Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He has two twin girls who are 9. He’s involved mainly in the housing industry.He worked in sales for 15 years. He is currently in development and building—mainly workforce and family housing in the Hyannis downtown core. Amanda Converse wasborn and raised in Falmouth but now lives in Barnstable. She worked for the Hyannis Main Street Business Improvement District, and then opened her own small business in downtown Hyannis, which she ran for 9 years.During that time, she started an organization called Love Live Local, which communicates the importance of shopping local and supporting small businesses across Cape Cod. Shelives in Marstons Mills and serves on the board of the Hyannis Public Library and Amplify POC Cape Cod. Sue Rohrbach lives in Centerville and has been on cape since 1984. She served on the Planning Board and the first Town Council, and also on the Community Preservation Committee and the Charter Commission. She spent several years working on getting the land bank passed and saving the land on the Mass Military Reservation. She spent 14 years working for Senator Rob O’Leary and Senator Dan Wolf. She’s retired now, and is on the board of the Housing Assistance Corporation of Cape Cod and the Community Action Committee of Cape &Islands, Friends of Baybridge, and the Cape Women’s Coalition. Meaghan Mort was born and raised in Marstons Mills.She is a nurse on cape and serves on the BarnstableHousing Committee and the BarnstableHuman Services Committee. Carlos Barbosa isfrom Brazil but has lived here for 35 years. He is a resident of Hyannis. He’s the Vice Chair of the Community Action Committee of the Cape and Islands, he’s on the board of directors of National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Cape Cod and Health Ministry (which is an organization that supports all the immigrants on the cape), and is on the Barnstable Human Services Committee. He wants to be a representative for the immigrant community on the cape. Fran Parks grew up in Cotuit and is a 1965 graduate of Barnstable High School. She is a retired pediatric physician’s assistant after 40 years. She’s the Chair of the Prudential Committee of Cotuit Fire District andthe Town of BarnstableHistorical Commission, and is also on the Trust Fund Advisory Committee for the BarnstableTown Manager. Lindsey Counsell was born and raised on Cape Cod. He is retired, and is the Chairman of the Conservation Commission, is on the Land BankCommittee,and is the Chair of the Community Preservation Committee. Tom Leelives in Marstons Mills. He moved here from Canada 23 years ago. He’s been the Chair of the Conservation Commission for 7 years but has been on the commission for 16 years. He’s been on the Board of Health for 4 years and Community Preservation Committee for 8 years. Jennifer Williams is theDirector of the Osterville Historical Museum. She supports the OstervilleFarmers Market, lives in Osterville, serves on the Osterville Village Association Board, the Osterville Business & Professionals Association, the Cape and Islands Historical Association, and the Wellesley College Club of Cape Cod as President. Bob Twiss lives in Osterville. He is on the Planning Board and before that the Zoning Board of Appeals. The Planning & Development staff and the Barrett Planning Group (who are the Lead Project Consultant for the LCPC) introduce themselves: Elizabeth Jenkinsis the Director of Planning & Development. Jim Kupferis the Senior Planner. He has worked with the Town of Barnstable for about 7 months in a professional position. His wife was born and raised in Barnstable and they’ve been coming here for 12 years or so, so he is not new to the town in that sense. He is a professional planner, and has been supporting municipalities for 15 years. Kate Maldonado is the Assistant Director of Planning & Development. She has been with the town for about 1.5 years. Before that, she worked in Maryland.She grew up in Connecticut. Lead Consultant Judi Barrett of Barrett Planning Group has been in the field for 35 years. Barrett Planning Group does lots of planning work, housing work, economic development, and zoning work. They have worked extensively on the cape. Their firm has been working with the town but is excited to get started in this new context. Elizabeth Haneyis a Community Planner for Barrett Planning Group. She spent summers in Orleans and Brewster so has some familiarity. Her professional background is mainly in housing. Carly Venditti is a new addition to Barrett. She worked in Texas working for the state prior to this role. She is from Connecticut.Judi informs the committee that there will be other members of their team joining as the project goes forward. They also have Horsley Witten Group working on this project—they will be focusing on sustainability, water, and energy issues. Dodson & Flinker are also working on the project—they will be involved later in the process when it comes time for the visioning pieces.LOCAL COMPREHENSIVE PLAN 101 POWERPOINT, ICEBREAKER, AND LCPC WEBSITE OVERVIEWKate and Jim provide a PowerPoint Presentation for the committee: Local Comprehensive Plan (LCP) 101. This covers what a local comprehensive plan is, why it’s important, and starts a dialogue for what the contents of the plan will entail.After the presentation, Elizabeth Haney leads the committeein an icebreaker activity. The Committee conducts a facilitated mapping exercise and discussion of treasures, challenges, and unexplored areas.During this activity, member Avery Revere arrives.After the icebreaker, Kate Maldonado brings up the LCPC website to point out some features, and identifies past LCPs and their locations on the site for the committee to review at their leisure.In reference to the LCPC website, Steven Costello asks whether there is a way to gauge success or growth based on the older LCPs. Elizabeth Jenkins says that’s a process the staff is currently working on: engaging other departments and subject matter experts across the community to evaluate success. That information will form the basis for the next set of workshops this group will have—the committee will be breaking down where we are today from an existing conditions perspective (what was in our prior LCP? did we achieve it? is it still relevant?etc.).INTRODUCTION TO 2010 LOCAL COMPREHENSIVE PLAN AND ASSOCIATED PLANNING EFFORTSElizabeth Jenkins wants to touch upon two of the main plans associated with the LCP: the Housing Production Plan and the Comprehensive Wastewater Management Plan (CWMP). Having a plan for how to achieve the Town’s low- and moderate-income housing goal is a required element of local comprehensiveplanning, and it’s also a plan that is updated on a regular 5-year basis. That process has already begun, but this committee should be aware of and follow that same process because it will run parallel. In regards to the wastewater plan: Elizabeth Jenkins states that it is one of the main things that propelled the LCP effort forward. There is a need to respond to nutrient management challenges from a regulatory perspective. The Town adopted the current CWMP and is in the process of planning to sewer 12,000 parcels in Barnstable over the next 20-30 years. This has implications regarding how we potentially grow and change as a community—it necessitates knowing how we want to do that and what we want to preserve. Subject matter experts from DPW come in and break down the timeline and process. Those are just two plans that are in process and will impact the work of this committee.She wants to make sure the committee is using existing plans to inform their work.DISCUSSION OF CURRENT LCP UPDATE: TIMELINE AND NEXT STEPSJim hands out the draft of a Phase 1 schedule. The document outlines what staff has looked at in terms of needs for the minimum standard process, and laid it out as a monthly schedule. A homework assignment for the committee is to look at the schedule and help fill in some blanks. He asks them to come to the next meeting with topics they want to dive further into. One of the biggest charges for this phase is outreach. What groups are they missing? What groups should they be going out to? In order to get to the final deliverable of a vision statement, they need to hear from as many people as possible from the community. The committee discusses which days of the week and times work for them to meet. They are unable to come to a consensus, and Elizabeth Jenkins says staff will email out a survey and collate that with the boards, the availability of staff, and a room, and will send out preferred dates.Presiding Member Steven Costello clarifies that all meetings going forward will be in person, but will be recorded and available online.Elizabeth Jenkins reiterates thatthe outcome for Phase 1 of the project is to develop a community vision for our future. She wants to be sure to have a plan going into that to involve as many people into that process as possible. In preparation of the next meeting, staff will provide the committee with some ideas, concepts, and resources about how to engage the community, and will ask for feedback from the committee. She acknowledges that it may sound silly, but it’s important to get public input into our public engagement plan. PUBLIC COMMENT Presiding Member Steven Costello opens for public comment. No responseMATTERS NOT REASONABLY ANTICIPATED The committee has some final clarifying questions for staff, and Judi Barrett offers some background on their interview process and how to prepare for it: Avery Revere takes this moment to explain that she was late, but is here to represent the village of Barnstable. She wants to clarify whether people are on the committee to represent their village or to represent the town commissions/committees they’re affiliated with. Elizabeth Jenkins answers that there is no right or wrong way to represent the places or things you are passionate about or affiliated with, but overall, she wants the voices of the public to speak for themselves. The way staff is thinking about this committee is that all members are appointed as representatives of the town of Barnstable. She knows this town has 7 very unique villages with 7 very unique perspectives that need to come through in this process. One of the criteria that was important in forming this committee was to make sure it had at least one representative from each village, as well as subject matter experts from boards, committees, and commissions, from the business community, and so on—but ultimately the goal of the committee is to get more public outreach so it’s not just one person speaking for each village. Avery Revere asserts that she thinks it is important that a person puts on their “cap”to be aware of what they may be representing. She thinks it’s important to be clear when they’re speaking about their specific village, to make sure the committee maintains a balance and isfair to the process. Carlos Barbosaasks if there are there any tools to have comments or questions in different languages be translated to the committee,in order to have full participation from the community. Elizabeth Jenkins says that’s the exact kind of feedback needed—what tools and resources does the committee need to be successful? Yes, she will provide those resources for the committee, whether it’s translation or something else. It’s one thing to translate and it’s another to meet the community that needs those translation services where they are so they know the town is engaging and they trust us to engage. Judi Barrett wants to explain to the members that she tries to start this process by just talking to people. So it’s helpful for the members to think of who they are connected with—beyond just which village they’re affiliated with, but what organizations or people in town are they connected with? This will help the members to be ambassadors of the process—to know where there may be gaps in terms of community members who don’t have a voice on this committee and how to overcome those gaps. One of the great challenges of a committee with representatives of different groups is that sometimes the people who have particular needs in the community have a very different experience than those on the committee that’s meant to represent them. To be successful, they need to get beyond the people who are known enough to have ended up with a seat on this committee. In the next few weeks she will be organizing interviews through the Planning and Development office, so asks the members to reach beyond their circle of advocates and think about who the real stakeholders are. Felicia Penn inquires about how the interviews will be formatted: will they just be listening to people’s lives? Or asking them about economic challenges, housing challenges, educational challenges, language barriers, etc.? Because it will make a difference in who they pick to be interviewed.Judi Barrett responds that they have an initial script to start conversations, but are fully flexible to change that script or throw it out altogether if the situation supports that. She muses that in a process like this, you often start out with a set of questions you think are “important” but end up down a different path altogether. Every time they interview someone, they ask,“Who else should we be talking to?” After a while they get to someone who has a particular body of knowledge or experience that’s important. Amanda Converse asks if Barrett Consulting will be providing members with a “pitch” to interest people that isn’t all acronyms and town speak.In essence, how will the members convince people to give their time and understand why they should care? Judi Barrett responds that that is something they all should work on early on in this process—she will probably leave that task to the committee, but it’s a great question to consider how members, as ambassadors, are going to make people care. Mark Hansen asks the committee to consider that their natural instinct is to pay attention to the things that they have a personal identification with, but it’s important to remember that this plan is meant to eventually identify and provide the most benefit to the largest amount of people in our community. He asks that members keeptheir minds open to what they’re trying to achieve, and keep listening. Elizabeth Jenkins informs the committee that the next meeting will be a traditional nomination from the floor election for Chair, Vice Chair, and Clerk. ADJOURNMENT Steven Costello makes a motion to adjourn. Tom Lee seconds. All in favor. The meeting was adjourned. LIST OF DOCUMENTS USED AT THIS MEETING Introduction to LCP PowerPoint Presentation Cape Cod Commission Local Comprehensive Plan Guidance Cape Cod Commission Local Comprehensive Plan Regulations Mapping exercise maps (4) Draft LCP Phase I timeline