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HomeMy WebLinkAboutDraft Minutes LCPC 02-08-24 1 Local Comprehensive Planning Committee Minutes Thursday, February 8, 2024 at 5:30 PM Call to Order Wendy Northcross opens the meeting at 5:30 p.m. with an introduction of Committee Members. Member Present Absent Wendy Northcross X Cheryl Powell X Mark Hansen X Amanda Converse X Sue Rohrbach X Meaghan Mort X Alyssa Chase X Asia Graves X Fran Parks X Katia DaCunha X Lindsey Counsell X Jennifer Williams X Bob Twiss X Avery Revere X Also in attendance are Planning & Development Staff James Kupfer, Assistant Director, Kate Maldonado, Senior Planner; Kyle Pedicini, Community & Economic Development Planner; Karen Pina, Principal Assistant, CALL TO ORDER NOTICE OF RECORDING The meeting will be televised live via Xfinity Channel 8 or high definition Channel 1072. It may also be accessed via the Government Access Channel live stream on the Town of Barnstable’s website: http://streaming85.townofbarnstable.us/CablecastPublicSite/watch/1?channel=1 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 None PUBLIC COMMENT Chuck Tuttle in attendance. Comments Vineyard Wind Project: Industrial onslaught being proposed. Contractors are jeopardizing. More appropriate landfall sites. Industrial invasion. Likely to deliver irreparable damage to our natural resources. Concerns with Aquifer and drinking water. Representing thousands of residents. Maybe a subcommittee should be implemented for water concerns. Allow experts to help and make a plan. Cliff Carroll in attendance. Handouts given to Committee, print out of presentation previously given. Sole Source Aquifer. Picture of Centerville crossover, 28 acres that will get clear cut. Subdivision here. Oak Street transformers. Knights Inn location on edge of Wequaquet Lake. Refers to page with red outline and black squares outlined. Barnstable Fire District planned to have a water tower. Across street Oak Street transformer, 20,000 gallons of oil 2 to 80,000 gallons of oil being proposed. Risking our well water. We are running short of supplies. Without water will not have housing or meet needs. Heather Swenson in attendance. Requesting officials to reconsider this wind project. Effects beaches and roadways. Clean power, this is a residential neighborhood. Preserve and protect these waters. Lives on Wequaquet Lake. Village should not be put in jeopardy. Concerns with catastrophic event. Waters may never be clean again. Concerns with health risks. Town’s duty to protect. Find an alternative area. Bob Shulte, Centerville resident. Mr. Gotlieb and ACCP have been good with efforts. Concerns with aquifer re large substation being proposed. Not designed to protect sole source aquifer. Citizens are concerned. Have EPA conduct a sole source aquifer exam. Request to schedule a session for discussion. Data segregated. Overwhelming choices for housing, Industrial Park. No need to eliminate single family housing in our town. Kate Gulliver, Hyannis, on Open Space Committee. Needs of the village of Hyannis are her concerns. Natural resource planning is critical, clean air, clean water. Hyannis has largest population. Section 7.2.4 of Open Recreation Park, including 725 West Main Street. Pocket park behind Stones Antiques. Natural Resource planning is critical for animals, plants and humans. Stewarts Creek concerns. Need more open space and restoration of critical resources. John Townes president of BARS, recreational shell fishing. Threatened by overdevelopment. Bays are polluted beyond belief. Dead zone for shell fish. Opposing docks, threaten native shell fish. Boats will kill the shell fish at low tides. No oxygen. Estuary concerns. Concerns with public water ways. Docks can go out for 20 to 30 ft. Part time residents can put in a full time dock. Speaking for shell fishers. Promote the environment and help clean up the waters. Andrew - Marstons Mills resident. Concerns with windfarm project. Don’t need it and we will not benefit from it. Is Connecticut benefiting and not us? TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION  Update regarding Housing Chapter survey question results NOTE put above text under here. Kate Maldonado– Natural Resources Chapter. Presentation. Review of Housing Chapter Survey Questions Results Proposed Natural Resources Survey Question Kyle Pedicini – surveys are a public engagement process. Housing Chapter Survey. 345 responses. Shows chart presentation. After names were required as information, then got 170 responses. Wendy Northcross are names published? Kyle Pedicini, yes. Public record. No address. Cheryl Powell, important areas and major concerns from people that make up these responses? Most important concerns? Results for? Tonight? Kyle Pedicini, did have other responses. Proposed natural resource chapter survey question. Presentation of items to be surveyed. Interjection: Audience suggestion, a ranking of importance? Kyle Pedicini, yes. Mark Hansen, ability to rank ? Kyle Pedicini, yes, shown on website. 3 Interjection: Audience comment/suggestion, question regarding land acquisition – maybe wording can be broader, possibly add windfarm to this? Doug Payson, Open Space Committee opportunity - add passive recreational opportunities. Kyle Pedicini, the next survey can go up asap.  Natural Resources presentation discussing current and anticipated regional needs and best practices by Andrew Gottlieb, Executive Director of the Association to Preserve Cape Cod (APCC) Andrew Gottlieb in attendance. Annually evaluate water quality. Estuary quality and fresh water ponds. 90% of 53 Estuaries have horrible water quality from residential septic systems. Also last year same ones failed. 5 years ago 68% failed. All but one on Buzzards Bay side and north side presented bad water quality. Largely residential activity. Excess hydrogen from septic systems, illegal and inadequate systems. Septic systems do nothing to eliminate the nitrogen. Change in use of existing properties. Used for either longer periods of time and increase intensity of use associated with short term rentals. Contributes to decline. Increase in number of stations. Water quality degrades first. Fewer and fewer stations closer to opening of estuaries have good water quality. Popponesset Bay none. Time lag for the projects. Only as and when people connect will we start to see improvement/better. Until and unless stopped will never get better. Estuary environment. Including Barnstable Harbor. Pond side. Not great data for most of these. Limited. Need 3 years of data. 39% of Ponds exhibit poor water quality, and which ponds change from year to year. More than 50% of ponds are marginal. Heavy rain storm events contribute to this as well, but not the same for each pond. Stormwater runoff also a problem. Increased temperature contributes also. Cyanobacteria will thrive in this. Doing some work with Cape Cod Commission (CCC) and satellite imagery. Callibrate from look and water sample. Cyano blooms and color. Doing sampling on about 35 ponds. State of the waters report. 21 public water suppliers. We have 5 in Barnstable. All provide water at entry that is either good or excellent. No public water supply systems - 10 of the 21 are below standard in the water. Six regulated. Airport, Joint Base Cape Cod PFAS, no containment plan to contain it from migrating off base. Nutrient management for both fresh and marine water issues. Cape Cod area wide water quality plan focus around estuaries. To reduce nitrogen load. There is no Town on Cape that has a good handle on the need for fresh water. Last year fresh water initiative to get data. What areas are in most need. Develop set of recommendations. Started last April. Natural Resource agencies. Right way to go with expansion of the sewer system. Way behind on wastewater management. Gross mark Cape Cod with Housing Assistance Corporation (HAC). What areas are high priority natural resource areas, higher density development when paired with wastewater infrastructure. Maps for each of the 15 Towns. Shouldn’t be fighting with areas that can sustain. Hanging in the Balance report with HAC – 14% of land mass underdeveloped. 60,000 acres. Single family attached dwellings, high prices for housing – existing patterns. Working with Land Trust Partners to be able to work with this 14%. Some in municipal hands/owns, publicly owned. How to move lands into the right category. Some excess between housing policy and wastewater, have to pair in tandem. How to repurpose and caption housing affordability of existing housing stock. Housing units. Have to reemphasize and repurpose. Wendy Northcross, deed restriction of existing to obtain affordability, how long? Andrew Gottlieb, been pushing as a priority, bigger problem is that it’s no one’s job to do this. Who’s responsibility is it to obtain the affordability? Colorado has an agency for housing to maintain long term affordability. We don’t have that on Cape Cod, we have inadequate tools and are not doing this. Mark Hansen, a transition from overburden private septic systems moving to areas where there can be density, would have to be significant, a lot of dwellings that have heavy loads. Andrew Gottlieb, impossible to regulate intensity of use. Enforcement is limited. Dense single family owner occupied. The denser or subsidized are going to have to be on infrastructure. 4 Mark Hansen, not on private level? Andrew Gottlieb, on single side, average south facing can handle 3 milligrams nitrogen, most systems get a credit down to 19. Isn’t anything that competes with municipal disposable of and treatment. Some need 100% removal. Mark Hansen, majority comes down to funding, or subsidized. Alternative funding sources, focus on the money to speed up? Andrew Gottlieb – generational time period requires a lot of money and conscious thought. Probably 20 different approaches. Tax base. Towns need to think through the financing over other things. Cape Cod Towns have several different means/ways to do this, need to prioritize how to do. Asia Graves, eliminate septic systems completely, can get private developers to take money and they pay for sewer in the neighborhood? Andrew Gottlieb, Cape could get away with some systems remaining and do greatest load areas. Some Towns have decided to sewer the whole town. Communities decide if they want it. More treatment is better than less. Standards. Number of different ways. Lyndsey Counsell, have you seen any cluster systems for pond water quality that would be successful in isolated areas? Andrew Gottlieb, something is better than nothing. Need to do the analysis to see if reducing enough load to make a difference. Internal recycling phosphorus. Understand what’s driving the quality. Stop fertilizing will help. Avery Revere, agree with no fertilizer. Windfarm information? Andrew Gottlieb, on our website information goes well above what’s in place for what exists on Cape Cod. Mitigation is appropriate.  Natural Resources presentation discussing the Town’s current status related to natural resources as well as current and anticipated needs by Nina Coleman, Amy Croteau, and Chris Nappi of the Town’s Natural Resources Division Nina Coleman in attendance. Chris Nappi in attendance. Amy Croteau in attendance. Presentation shown – Marine and Environment and Harbor Master and Natural Resources. 4 programs. And animal control. Shellfish, Sandy Neck, enforcement for environmental laws. Manage Herring Runs, hunting and fresh water fishing, wildlife issues and endangered species and animals. Open space management. Enforcement in these areas. Lakes and ponds management. Stormwater management and Ground water protection. Chris Nappi – Senior Natural Resource Officer. North side Barnstable harbor and the South side. Shows a presentation. Degrading water quality/conditions. Increase in algae blooms (fresh and salt water) impacting shellfish habitats. Less swimming and fishing, loss of recreational activities. Upland habitat protection. Critical upland habitats. Need to take a look at some spots that need protection. Increase of coastal storms, increase in rain, 9 inches in month of January. We need to do better. 5 Comprehensive evaluation of undeveloped municipal and private properties. Herring run restoration. Wetland and upland preservation and Bog restoration. Some are underutilized and not utilized. We have knowledge of these specific areas. Watershed and wildlife corridor protection must be implemented. Map shown of Herring Runs: Boat Cove Creek, WB, Red Lily/Lake Elizabeth, Centerville, Marstons Mills River, Santuit River. Osprey nestings. Amy Croteau, senior Natural Resource Officer and Shellfish Constable. Presentation shown. Shellfish Propagation. Recreational shell fishing. Since 2010 quahogs have increased. Oysters have increased. Habitat assessments. Three Bays since 2010. Propagated from seed. Can only plant in a few areas now because of habitat degradation – quahogs. Oysters; water quality issues. Increase of 310 moorings. Docks and piers have increased. Marinas will prohibit. Changes in water quality. Cotuit narrows is now subject to seasonal closure. Aquaculture. 72 sites. Tagging of gear and maintenance of. Protection should be of paramount importance. Eelgrass. Evaluation of moorings. Responsibility of property owners, docks, piers, septic, landscaping. Nina Coleman, Sandy Neck presentation shown. Invasive species removal program. Endangered species protection. Diamondback Terrapin program. Educational Outreach. Habitat conservation plan (HCP) Piping Plovers. Programs fund capital improvement projects. Infrastructure and beach erosion. Rare and endangered species. Increase in piping plovers and decrease in nesting habitats. Pressure from development. Next ten years: accomplish Sandy Neck Coastal resiliency project. Use natural solution to improve resiliency. Evaluate proactive planning and permitting. Maximize ecological health of town, herring runs, focus on protection and restoration. Town’s open space. Explore opportunities to increase aquaculture on the south side. Consider moratoriums on new docks and moorings. Evaluate mechanism for habitat protection. Avery Revere, where are eel grass beds? Amy Croteau, points out Kalmus and Nantucket Sound areas. Lyndsey Counsell, moorings study? Looking at why can’t some areas be used for seeding? Amy Croteau, increase in discharge from boats – become puddles, sludge after 4 ft., eel grass beds, mushroom anchors. Asia Graves, good presentation Susan Rohrback – good presentation. Falmouth done something about fertilizers? Amy Croteau, not familiar, lives in Falmouth. Whom enforces? Interjection from audience – there is regulation in Barnstable for fertilizer. Extremely challenging. Fran Parks, problem with the moorings, in Cotuit. Impossible to get around with all the moorings there. Wendy Northcross, noticed more flooding at Great Marsh. Nina Coleman, second largest marsh in Mass. Yes, has had some extreme flooding events, water going up into the dunes on Sandy Neck. Big concern. Huge change in 20 years. 6 Wendy Northcross, dumping on/in open space areas? Enforcement and surveillance in areas that we know are common dumping areas? Has there been a plan with the Transfer Station, possibility of doing free dump days so people can get rid of their items? Not just seasonal people - could have conversation with transfer station? Avery Revere, Phragmites, not eradicated from Barnstable Harbor. Nina Coleman, you have to remove all or it will come back. Sometimes can get a hold on it at beginning. Route 6A there are a lot of phragmites, a lot of herbicide would be the only way to get rid of. They do pull nitrogen out of the system. But some areas are too far gone. Cheryl Powell – prices are so high now to dump items. Asia Graves, lives near nature preserves, there’s a lot of dumped items on walking trail. Wendy Northcross, suggests to compile a wish list of properties would like to protect. Nina Coleman, can make a list such as that. Cheryl Powell, moratorium needed maybe get an impact review on this? Cathy Leduc – public comment. Implement fertilizer bans/pesticide bans to this. Implement all now. Fran Parks, important to protect shell fishing. Avery Revere, irrigation systems. Cheryl Powell, pesticides, need to be looked at more closely. Kate Maldonado, committee review goals and strategies. Can incorporate all. Any information missing after what was heard that could be incorporated. Survey questions will be on project website. Susan Rohrbach – maybe leave out land acquisition and ask what to focus on. Agreed by Cheryl Powell and Asia Graves. Wendy Northcross - difference between what is acquired Kate Maldonado – survey question has served its purpose. GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE NEXT MEETING  February 22, 2024 at 5:30 PM to be held in person at the Barnstable Town Hall James H. Crocker Jr. Hearing Room 367 Main Street, Hyannis, MA MATTERS NOT REASONABLY ANTICIPATED BY THE CHAIR ADJOURNMENT Wendy Northcross entertains a motion to adjourn, moved by Asia Graves, seconded by Susan Rohrbach, Vote: All aye 7 The meeting ended at 7:51 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Karen Pina Principal Assistant Planning & Development Dept. The list of matters are those reasonably anticipated, which may be discussed at the meeting. Not all items listed may be discussed and other items not listed may also be brought up for discussion to the extent permitted by law.