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<br /> Mashpee Economic Development Industrial Corporation (EDIC) <br />Special Meeting <br />Minutes – March 24, 2022 <br />6:30 PM <br />Mashpee Library <br /> <br />Present: Carol Sherman, Pamela McCarthy, Robyn Simmons, Glenn Thompson, Patrice <br />Pimental <br /> <br />Guests: Evan Lehrer, Town Planner; Ashley Sweet and Caroline Wells; Weston and <br />Sampson <br /> <br />Absent: Denise Duston <br /> <br />1. Call Meeting to Order <br /> <br />Carol Sherman opened the meeting at 6:34 p.m. <br /> <br />2. Local Comprehensive Plan Discussion <br /> <br />Ashley Sweet and Caroline Wells of Weston and Sampson came to talk about the Local <br />Comprehensive Plan and the EDIC’s thoughts. They said that the 2020 census indicated the <br />town’s population was shifting to older adults; Millennials and younger people were leaving. <br />The question that every committee and every group they meet with is being asked is Where do <br />we want to be in 10 years? <br />They asked the EDIC what changes Mashpee needs to make economic development more <br />viable. <br /> Carol brought up Evergreen and the flexible overly district (with Cape Cod Coffee <br />Roasters on Route 130). Th retail-wholesale-manufacturing combination was <br />successful. <br /> One challenge businesses have is in finding space to operate. Wildfire Pizza lost their <br />place on Route 151 and we almost lost that business. They found a new location near <br />Town Hall but many businesses simply don’t have space to operate in Mashpee. <br /> Another challenge was affordable housing. Many people who work here are not making <br />the salaries to afford market rate rents. The problem has been exacerbated by COVID; <br />many people who could work remotely decided to buy property further away from cities. <br />Investors are buying homes on the Cape and it has driven the price of housing past <br />what most people can afford (not to mention the property taxes). While the EDIC and <br />the Affordable Housing Committee recently partnered to start on a project to create <br />more affordable/workforce housing on Commercial Street, the committee agreed the <br />town needs more affordable housing. <br /> Businesses are also hurt by the lack of affordable housing; if people cannot afford to live <br />here, they will go elsewhere and work elsewhere. <br /> <br />