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HomeMy WebLinkAboutDRAFT Meeting Minutes 10-27-2022Planning & Development Department 367 Main Street, Hyannis, MA 02601 – Phone: 508-862-4678 Local Comprehensive Planning Committee (LCPC) Minutes Thursday, October 27, 2022 at 6:00 PM CALL TO ORDER Chair Steven Costello calls the meeting to order at 6:03 PM and reads the following: this meeting is being held by remote participation at the following link: https://townofbarnstable-us.zoom.us/j/86525692513 with Meeting ID: 865 2569 2513 and US Toll-free 888 475 4499. Member Present Absent Steven Costello – Chair X Felicia Penn – Vice Chair X Wendy Northcross – Clerk X Cheryl Powell X Mark Hansen X Amanda Converse X Sue Rohrbach X Meaghan Mort X (late) Carlos Barbosa X Fran Parks X Lindsey Counsell X Jennifer Williams X Bob Twiss X Avery Revere X Also in attendance is Elizabeth Jenkins – Director of Planning and Development, Jim Kupfer – Senior Planner, Kate Maldonado – Assistant Director of Planning & Development, Genna Ziino – Administrative Assistant, Jill Slankas – Barrett Planning Group, and Carly Venditti – Barrett Planning Group 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. APPROVAL OF MINUTES September 22, 2022 – The Chairman moves this item to the next meeting. TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION Presentation and discussion of 2010 Local Comprehensive Plan (LCP) goals and strategies Jim Kupfer, Senior Planner, addresses the Committee to say that looking back at the 2010 LCP is the first step in visioning for the future. To help understand the progress that’s been made, Planning & Development staff gathered feedback from all departments and compiled it in a spreadsheet. Jim Kupfer shares a document with the Committee (“Strategic Planning Areas – Comprehensive Plan 2010”) that laid the groundwork for the land use strategy and goals for Barnstable in 2010. The document illustrates smart growth—the map directed new growth into certain areas while aligning that with public infrastructure and in turn trying to preserve some open space and upzone certain areas. He points out that there was a growth incentive zone in Hyannis to allow for growth with little to no oversight from the Cape Cod Commission. To offset that, a Resource Protection Overlay District was established, where protecting growth to limit the impact on traffic, air quality, and water quality was the priority, along with preserving natural resources and village centers. They also made efforts to make Barnstable and Hyannis a regional hub for commercial growth by raising the thresholds for development review to 20,000 square feet before it goes to the Cape Cod Commission and expanding land uses. He says now the task is understanding how those goals from 2010 fit into the town’s current goals and planning initiatives. He believes the main two issues are enhancing housing opportunities and at the same time preserving and attacking water quality concerns. He introduces Dan Santos, Director of Public Works, to talk about how land use growth will align with infrastructure. Department of Public Works (DPW) presentation Dan Santos, who has been the Director of DPW for about 10 years, provides further detail for the Committee. DPW is responsible for the town’s entire infrastructure and uses the 2010 LCP as a foundational document as they implement programs in town. He believes the most significant accomplishment in the last 10 years is the completion of the Comprehensive Wastewater Management Plan (CWMP), which is a 30-year, 3-phrase program to sewer 12,000 properties in town to meet water quality standards from the Clean Water Act. It’s a $1.4 billion project; after the new canal bridges, it’s the largest infrastructure project on Cape Cod. Many of the LCP goals are covered by the CWMP. There are many policy decisions still in the works that will be ironed out in the coming years. They have about $100 million in infrastructure projects for wastewater underway right now. He discusses other major programs the DPW is working on or has completed. Water quality and supply has been a huge issue in the last 5 or 6 years, especially PFAS, which were coming from the county fire training academy. In Hyannis they now have no PFAS as a result of water treatment. Unfortunately, it has caused water rates to go up, but they have sought and continue to seek grants to alleviate the cost. Climate change and sea level rise are also major factors in planning now, including addressing flooding problems and establishing means of egress for areas that become cut off from flooding. They have also made infrastructure changes in downtown Hyannis to accommodate the growth that’s resulted from the growth incentive zone. Steve Costello asks whether the sewer failure in Provincetown was mechanical, and if there was anything we learned that could benefit our own sewer system. Dan Santos answers that Provincetown has a vacuum sewer system, which suffered a mechanical failure. Part of Barnstable’s system is a vacuum system—his department is keeping an eye on it and plans to replace it in the next 10 years. Sue Rohrbach requests some kind of document with all the DPW’s many goals to compare against other departments to look for overlap. Dan Santos says he’ll provide a column to the existing spreadsheet of what they’re working on and suggests staff can help point out the overlap. Fran Parks asks if DPW has a plan for mitigating traffic in Hyannis, which she thinks will worsen with the condos being built on South Street. Mr. Santos says it is a multistep process and lets Elizabeth Jenkins, Director of Planning & Development answer. Elizabeth Jenkins explains that as part of the regulatory review process for any major development projects, there is an analysis of traffic in the area and the impacts new traffic will have. When a new development is accepted, there are measures taken to improve infrastructure so each development pays its own way to mitigate impact. Steve Costello notes that no projects have been permitted on South Street yet. Cheryl Powell adds that traffic is displaced as a result of street closures due to the sewer project, so that’s affecting traffic levels too. On that topic, Steve Costello wonders whether the police department should have officers directing traffic in critical areas or during busy times. Avery Revere asks whether Hurricane Ian has impacted their planning. Mr. Santos answers that they do annual hurricane preparedness exercises and are always prepping. Jim Kupfer adds that Planning & Development has worked closely with DPW on a Hazard Mitigation Plan, which has just been completed. It’s required by FEMA and MEMA, and looks at hazard concerns for the future. The plan was approved so the town is eligible for grant funding to go toward projects outlined in the last LCP. Other departments Jim Kupfer shows the Committee a spreadsheet of 2010 LCP goals, strategies, and status organized by department. He asks them to review when they have time over the next few months and if they have questions for a specific department, to let staff know now so they can bring that department before the Committee. Review and next steps on engagement: expanding outreach, community survey, large group event planning, generating online/social media content Kate Maldonado, Assistant Director of Planning & Development informs the Committee that staff has attended many meetings and events and continue to do more field outreach. She walks the Committee through the upcoming outreach listed on the LCP website. Jim Kupfer will continue sending out the engagement calendar weekly, and any ideas from members are welcome. Kate Maldonado provides an update on the quick introduction videos: members will have 30-minute interviews with 5 talking points with the Communications Team, who will also edit the interviews into short videos. She will send a follow-up email to members with interview times. Sue Rohrbach suggests outreach at the Love Live Local event on December 3. Kate Maldonado will coordinate with Amanda Converse on that after the meeting. Steve Costello asks if there’s been an update on messaging/collateral info from the members who agreed to take that on. Avery Revere says there has not been progress but they are hoping to make progress next week. In regards to the coffee hour flyer, the Committee agrees that the latest iteration is a big improvement. Kate Maldonado provides an update on the public comments received so far. A document with all comments compiled was shared with the Committee via email. That document is also on the LCP website, accessible to anyone. The public has been asked where they would bring a visitor, what their favorite roads are, one thing they would add to Barnstable, what are strengths/opportunities/weaknesses/challenges, and what’s one word to describe their ideal community. Non-specific comments or suggestions have also been welcomed. She asks the Committee to review the comments and look for patterns and trends as they work to develop a vision statement. Kate Maldonado reviews two online tools for outreach: a public comment tool on the LCP main page and a public comment option on the Map & Data Viewer page of the LCP website (they’re still finalizing the mobile version). The comment wall questions will also be placed in strategic areas around town (HYCC, Adult Community Center, BHS) and will include the URL to respond to the comment wall. Review engagement calendar and activities, review draft survey Elizabeth Jenkins takes a moment to let the Committee know that after events and meetings, comments are quickly cataloged and made available through the LCP website. She then provides background on the survey: its purpose is to collect high-level data from residents/stakeholders about how they experience Barnstable. It’s a tool to show trends and patterns across villages to understand Barnstable’s strengths and challenges. Credit goes to the Barrett Planning team for developing the survey. Carly Venditti of Barrett says the goal is for the survey to be comfortable to answer as a resident—she is open to any feedback. Elizabeth Jenkins runs through the survey with the Committee. There is a mix of demographic and substantive questions. It covers housing, transportation, infrastructure, services, overall satisfaction, income/expenses, land use, strengths and weaknesses, quality of life. She adds that it will also be translated to Spanish and Portuguese. Sue Rohrbach suggests adding an option of “I’m having trouble finding housing I can afford” to the own/rent question. Meaghan Mort agrees with adding a homeless/housing insecure option. She also suggests for question 26 about the top 3 priorities, an option should be attainable housing or just housing, because not all people that need housing are going to qualify for or even need “affordable housing.” Mark Hansen expresses interest in a question about where people are spending their money, to understand if it’s local at all and if so, where. Sue Rohrbach likes the idea of asking people where they’re shopping. She also suggests adding, “Do you think you’ll be living here in 5 years? Why or why not?” Other members agree. Fran Parks adds that she doesn’t shop on Main Street Hyannis because she feels it does not cater to year-round residents. Amanda Converse disagrees and offers a tour of Main Street shops that cater to year-round residents. Fran Parks suggests expanding medical questions to include accessing medical care, mental health care, and dental care. Meaghan Mort agrees with adding medical questions, and is concerned that the lack of pharmacy access in Hyannis is dire. Elizabeth Jenkins says they will look into that. She agrees that health and access to quality medical care is critical to quality of life, and the LCP does have a health & human services section. Avery Revere asks if people will be able to skip questions. Elizabeth Jenkins answers yes, none are required. Demographic questions will include a “prefer not to answer” option so people can actively opt out. They are not planning to limit the number of responses per IP address. Elizabeth Jenkins shares a survey flyer draft created by the Communications Team. They will be offering a raffle for a $100 Visa gift card for filling out the survey. They plan to email the survey to the list of emails collected from recent outreach events. She adds that the offer still stands to dedicate staff for any LAPC member who has a group interested in learning more. Steve Costello asks how each village will be represented in terms of feedback and the priorities that come from each outreach meeting. Elizabeth Jenkins responds that for the majority of feedback, they have collected what village the commenter is from. It’s one of the variables they correlate data on. Review a “Bringing it together” meeting Jill Slankas from Barrett Planning Group explains that the feedback from outreach and the existing conditions inventory is helping to clarify what they still need to know. The information gathering will culminate in a multi-day event/workshop where they will work to build consensus on the vision for the plan. Barrett has employed sub- consultants who are experts in consensus-building workshops, Dodson & Flinker, who are looking at January for the event. Timing and length are still to be determined. Elizabeth Jenkins adds that when they started this process, they planned for this “bringing it together” meeting to be in December. After starting to gather feedback, there was a repeated request to go deeper into the community to reach underrepresented groups, which is taking longer. They will work on narrowing down a January date. The Chairman supports that that initiative is more important than following any timeline. Update on Housing Needs Assessment (HNA) and Housing Production Plan: Community Housing Forum recap, housing survey, and next steps Elizabeth Jenkins says they are wrapping up the survey portion of the HNA. The Housing Committee meets November 9, and is moving from data collection to mapping out goals and strategies. On November 30 there will be a second community forum at Town Hall to present the preliminary goals and strategies for public comment. Potential budget request Elizabeth Jenkins explains that they have heard requests to send the surveys via mail, which was not included in their original budget plan. It is expensive but they believe it will reach a good cross section of people. If the Committee agrees that it’s a good idea, Elizabeth Jenkins suggests making a supplemental budget request to cover the cost. The cost is $15,000 to reach all parcel owners in Barnstable. They would use the addresses where property tax bills are mailed. That method has disadvantages too, and that’s why important to utilize other methods like flyers and outreach to ensure renters and employees in Barnstable are being heard as well. Meaghan Mort suggests reaching out to School Council to coordinate a handout or email for parents. Cheryl Powell agrees and suggests asking businesses or restaurants if they would offer surveys. Fran Parks thinks mailing is important to reach seasonal residents who are elsewhere. Amanda Converse adds that USPS EDDM is an option to reach renters, as it is delivered to every postal address. Mark Hansen asks if Committee members have authorization to speak off the cuff about the LCP (in interviews or on radio stations, for example). Steve Costello suggests banners on popular local websites/online newspapers. Amanda Converse thinks we should utilize radio to do a PSA once we have an event in order to push that information. Cheryl Powell says she has media contacts she can get in touch with if that’s acceptable. Elizabeth Jenkins says ultimately, it’s up to the Committee, but she doesn’t think there needs to be one person as the voice, and encourages members to refer back to their community engagement plan elevator pitch and have conversations as they see fit. Jill Slankas agrees. Sue Rohrbach says to be careful early on to speak with one voice as a Committee and to let it be informational and general, and if it’s necessary to be specific, be sure to clarify that you are speaking about your individual opinion and not that of the Committee. Meaghan Mort asks if anyone has contacted WCAI or WXTK radio stations to inform them. She also suggests getting small flyers on tables at restaurant for those waiting for food, if any restaurants would be willing. Amanda Converse thinks there would definitely be local businesses willing to do that. Cheryl Powell will see if she can get any interviews lined up for Steve Costello. Amanda Converse suggests waiting until we have the event nailed down to do media coverage so the media opportunity isn’t wasted. Elizabeth Jenkins suggests a vote for the budget. Steve Costello poses adding a few extra thousand dollars in case the USPS EDDM mailing is more expensive. Amanda Converse is appointed to connect with Elizabeth Jenkins to look into whether EDDM makes sense. Elizabeth Jenkins thinks adding an additional $2,000 to the budget is fine. Cheryl Powell makes a motion to ask for $19,000 budget as allocated. Fran Parks seconds. Vote: Aye: Steven Costello, Cheryl Powell, Mark Hansen, Amanda Converse, Sue Rohrbach, Meaghan Mort, Carlos Barbosa, Fran Parks, Jennifer Williams, Bob Twiss, Avery Revere Nay: None Next meeting date This item was taken out of order and was discussed after public comment. The Committee lands on December 8 at 5 p.m. in person. PUBLIC COMMENT Steve Costello opens for public comment. There are two members of the public in the meeting: Bob Schulte and Betty Ludtke. Neither has any comment. MATTERS NOT REASONABLY ANTICIPATED BY THE CHAIR ADJOURNMENT Cheryl Powell makes a motion to adjourn. Sue Rohrbach seconds. Vote: Aye: Steven Costello, Cheryl Powell, Mark Hansen, Amanda Converse, Sue Rohrbach, Meaghan Mort, Carlos Barbosa, Fran Parks, Jennifer Williams, Bob Twiss, Avery Revere Nay: None Respectfully submitted, Genna Ziino, Administrative Assistant Further detail may be obtained by viewing the video via Channel 18 on demand at http://www.town.barnstable.ma.us