1990-Annual Town Report - Laserfiche WebLink

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and left a tangle of legal and financial complications to Report of the be dealt with by the Town. We also continue work on Planning Department upgrading local regulations and zoning By-Laws, par- ticularly with regard to commercial development. In that area, proposed large extensions of the Mashpee Com- mons project occupy an increasing amount of time. To the Honorable Selectmen and the Citizens of the Town of Mashpee: The Planning Department continues to provide services as required by the Board of Selectmen and Executive I am very pleased to submit to the Board of Selectmen Secretary as well as assistance requested by other depart- and to the good people of Mashpee my seventh annual ments and boards. In 1990, a great deal of time was spent report as your Town Planner. Unfortunately, my report in the development of a master site plan and roadway cannot be one filled with optimism this year. The elimina- designs for the proposed Town Hall and municipal com- tion of half of the Assistant Planner's salary in the budget plex. The Town Planner also served on the Town Hall approved by May Town Meeting led to the resignation Building Committee, the ad hoc Municipal Complex of the Assistant, Lee Weller. We were later advised that Committee, the Rotary Bypass Committee, the Route 28 we would not be allowed to fill the half-time position. Corridor of Critical Concern Advisory Committee (to As a result, despite the excellent work of Nonie Nicker- Mass. DPW) and the Resource Protection Subcommit- son, our secretary for four years, in trying to fill the gap, tee of the Wacquoit Bay National Estuarine Research we fall even further behind on our assigned goals and pro- Reserve and participated with the Mashpee Cluster Health jects and the fastest growing Town in the Commonwealth Committee in the development of plans for a local continues to lose out in its effort to cope with the effects medical center. The Town Planner also supervised con- of past and continuing real estate development. sultant contracts for the Mashpee-Santuit Rivers study and engineering for the relocation of Sampson's Mill While development activity has certainly slowed down Road and serves as the Town's Local Water Resource when compared to recent boom years, the Town con- Management Official. tinues to grow. 104 new subdivison lots were approved by the Planning Board in 1990, while building permits If recently proposed further cuts in the Department's were issued for 158 new homes. To put the latter number budget are implemented,the effects on our ability to carry into perspective, the average number of building permits out our designated functions and assigned duties will be for new residences each year in Mashpee during the 1970's devastating.As the fastest growing town in the Common- was 159, while the 1970-1990 average was 239. During wealth, there has been a lot of talk about, and a great the 1983-88 boom permits averaged 400 per year. need for, planning in Mashpee over the last seven years. However, despite the talk,there has never been adequate While this change of pace in development is welcome staffing or funding to do the work required.At this point news in light of the Town's need to reduce the fiscal im- in time, as we are clearly seeing the fiscal impact of 'our pacts of excessive residential growth (most of which oc- past lack of planning, the Town must seriously consider curred in subdivisions approved prior to 1986), the whether it will continue on its present course to even more workload of this department has not decreased but rather serious problems, or undertake properly staffed and has shifted into other areas which were impossible to deal funded planning programs to help avoid them. Whatever with during the boom. One of those areas is long-range the circumstances, I will continue to give my fullest ef- planning. In December, the Coastal Resources Manage- fort to the people of Mashpee and sincerely appreciate ment Plan and Municipal Harbor Plans was completed your encouragement and support. after four years of on-and-off efforts by the department and various committees and has been submitted to the Respectfully submitted, Massachusetts Secretary of Environmental Affairs for review and approval. It is anticipated that the local and F. Thomas Fudala state review process and the development of more detailed Town Planner plans and implementing regulations will occupy much of our time during 1991. It is also hoped that the partially- completed Open Space Conservation and Recreation Plan,begun in 1985 and set aside due to the press of other needs, can be completed in 1991, and that work will be initiated on a Highway Master Plan for the Town.Under the provisions of the Cape Cod Commission Act, the Town will also begin development of a Local Comprehen- sive Plan coordinated with the Regional Policy Plan of the Commission,although the source of staffing and fun- ding for such an effort is unkown. Another item which occupies more of our time, and that of the Planning Board, is dealing with previously ap- proved development projects which are in the process of construction, seek to postpone completion or modify per- mits due to the slowdown in sales,or have been foreclosed 106