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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMaster Plan Council 12/04/1986Date of meeting: Members Present: TOWN OF MANSFIELD MASTER PLAN ADVISORY COUNCIL MINUTES OF MEETING December 4, 1986 Kelli Spedden Steven Chapman Robert Whitney Larry Harrington Ed Broderick William Madan Leigh Ann Foster The meeting was called to order at 7:35 p.m. Richard Callinan Ralph Seifert Stephen Calvin Allen Willis Carl Nelson George Wojtkiewicz Paul Folkman Ms. Spedden informed the Council of the resignation of Ronald Doucette due to an out-of-state transfer, and of the Planning Board's appointment of Douglas Annino to serve as Citizen -at -large in Mr. Doucette's place. Since Mr. Annino could not be present at this meeting, Marydee Flynn attended in his place. The minutes of the November 13 meeting and the November 19 meeting, having been mailed to all members for their review prior to this meeting, were not read. A motion was made by Mr. Seifert, seconded by Mr. Broderick, and passed by unanimous vote to accept them. Correspondence A letter was received from IEP, Inc., in regard to the publicity that followed the release of their draft report of Phases I and II at the November 13 meeting. They addressed three points in particular, the first being the question of the accuracy of the school enrollment figures. They stated that they had received the figures used from the Planning Director, who had received them from the school department, and had no reason to doubt their accuracy at that time; they will be updated in the next draft. Their second point was in regard to the land use maps prepared by the Henderson Planning Group. IEP had been in contact with Mr. Sempere about these, and the differences will be justified or corrected as each warrants. Their final point concerned the downtown area, and the publicity in regard to their evaluation of the situation there. It was not their intent to infer that the Downtown was currently suffering a "blight," but to point out the percentage of retail business in comparison to service business currently there. According to IEP, this trend towards service businesses will need to be addressed if the town wants to maintain a vital downtown area. Mr. Callinan advised the Council that he had met with Mr. Barbarisi, the Superintendent of Schools, in regard to the enrollment figures. Mr. Barbarisi was not aware that the figures used in the draft had come from the school department's business manager. After discussion of the growth trend figures set forth by NESDEC (New England School Development Council) in the Long Range Facilities Planning Committee's report, Mr. Barbarisi and Mr. Callinan decided these would be the most accurate figures for IEP to use in their next draft of their report. TOWN OF MANSFIELD MASTER PLAN ADVISORY COUNCIL MINUTES OF MEETING - 12/4/86 Old Business Update on Public Questionnaire - Mr. Callinan advised the Council that 3000 of the Master Plan Questionnaires had been distributed as an insert in the December 4 issue of the Mansfield News, and that 2000 additional questionnaires would be divided among the drop-off locations in town by Mr. Nelson. 2 Mr. Callinan also advised the Council of discussions he had had with IEP, Inc. in regard to the possibility of conducting a scientific survey with the questionnaires. This would involve mailing 300 copies to a randomly selected group of residents, and would require a 100% response. Any person in this group who did not respond would have to be contacted for their response, possibly by telephone. The Council discussed the possibility of the membership doing the tabulation of the informal survey (those questionnaires distributed in the paper and at drop-off points) if a scientific survey is done, since IEP, Inc., would be concentrating their efforts on the scientific study results. After some discussion the Council decided that the returned questionnaires would be kept separate according to the location of their return. It was felt that it might be of some value to see if the residents of different sections of town have answers different from the residents of other areas. Discussion of Regional Meeting on November 19 - Ms. Spedden summarized for the Council the regional meeting with Connery Associates. In discussing this meeting it was felt that it would be of great value to have Connery Associates meet with the Mansfield Council to review their slide presentation and report. Mr. Callinan assured the Council that Connery Associates was anxious to meet with the Council and possibly could use some of the same presentation. He advised the Council that he had received a copy of the draft of the second phase of the housing study for his review, and would be contacting Connery Associates to arrange a meeting, possibly on January 8. Discussion of Phases I and II draft report - The Council was informed that Mr. Callinan, Mr. Wilson, Town Manager, and Ms. Spedden had met with IEP, Inc. on December 2, 1986, to discuss their draft report, and had made clear to them their dissatisfaction with the bad publicity following it, their failure to bring copies for all members to the meeting, and its inaccuracies. IEP indicated that they were upset with the mistakes in the demographics, that these had been the responsibility of the Henderson Planning Group, and that they would convey to Henderson the Council's dissatisfaction. TOWN OF MANSFIELD MASTER PLAN ADVISORY COUNCIL MINUTES OF MEETING - 12/4/86 Old Business (cont Discussion of Phases I and II draft report (cont) - In order to avoid these problems it was decided that future drafts would be submitted to Mr. Callinan, who would review them and have the proper personnel verify their contents, and return them to IEP with his comments. A second draft would then be produced and distributed to the Council. 3 In discussion of this draft, Mr. Calvin pointed out that not only were the figures used for school enrollment wrong, there were also mistakes involving the totalling of columns and the placement of decimal points; that this seemed to indicate sloppy preparation and lack of proof reading. Mr. Callinan also indicated his dissatisfaction with the lack of analysis of the demographic information. It was felt that many of these problems were a result of trying to meet the deadline for this presentation, and that in the future, the quality of the draft must be more of a priority than its presentation date. Mr. Harrington informed the Council that the Selectmen felt that the importance of creating a viable Master Plan for the town was such that the Council should consider accuracy a greater priority than deadlines. The Selectmen, Planning Board, and the Council are all in agreement on the need for credibility. Ms. Spedden stated that it is the purpose of the Council to lend direction to the Planning Director and the consultants. IEP's draft report will be revised and returned to Mr. Callinan for his review, and that to accomplish this, member's comments on this draft should be related to its general direction and not to specific errors at this time. It was decided that each member would briefly outline their comments on the draft. Mr. Wojtkiewicz felt that the review of town government in the report was not detailed enough and did not point out weaknesses that may need to be addressed. He added that the land use section did not contain analysis of where the town is now, how it arrived at this point, and how to plan for the future. Ms. Foster commented briefly on the need for accuracy, and also a desire to see more information and comments that are specific to Mansfield. Mr. Willis stated his feeling that the Council, in order to lend direction, should have had more input before the draft was written. He also questioned whether the opinions of IEP belong in this draft, or if opinions, when they are included, should be based on the Council's input. TOWN OF MANSFIELD MASTER PLAN ADVISORY COUNCIL MINUTES OF MEETING - 12/4/86 Old Business (cont Discussion of Phases I and II draft report (cont) - n Mr. Calvin apologized to the Council for the publicity resulting from the School Committee's discussion in open meeting of the figures in the draft report. At that time it was the School Committee's belief that comments on the draft had to be forwarded to IEP, Inc., within a few days, and that meeting would have been the only opportunity to address the differences. He agreed that it would be wise in the future to have drafts reviewed by the appropriate personnel before being made available to open meetings. Mr. Harrington passed on specific comment at this time. Mr. Seifert reminded the Council of the accuracy of the Blair Report prepared in the 1950's and followed by the Industrial Developement Commission. He emphasised that well prepared plans can be of great use in the future. Mr. Broderick stated his desire to see some consideration of the efficiency of use of land in the developable lot study; lots which could not be used because of development constraints had not been addressed in the study. He added that probably about 2/3 of the lots were developable. Ms. Spedden passed on specific comment at this time. Mr. Chapman addressed two concerns; first, he felt that IEP should have obtained population growth trend figures from more sources and then made their own projection based on those figures. Secondly, he felt that comparisons of Mansfield to other towns in Bristol County might not be of as much use as comparisons of Mansfield to other towns of more similar background and location. Mr. Nelson stated his concern that the character of Mansfield be considered a factor in making plans; that all towns may not want to be made the same, to provide the same services, and follow the same growth provisions. He added that while maintaining the town's character it is also important to plan for a future in which it may be necessary to consider more stories to buildings in town. Mr. Folkman expressed his wish that the data be separated from the opinions within the draft, and that there be more narrative along with the data. He also felt that the government section needed expansion. Mr. Madan stated that he had no comment on the data in the draft at this time but expressed his wish that copies of the next draft to be presented to the Council also be distributed to Planning Board members for their review. TOWN OF MANSFIELD MASTER PLAN ADVISORY COUNCIL MINUTES OF MEETING - 12/4/86 OLD BUSINESS (CONT) Discussion of Phases I and II draft report (cont) - Mrs. Flynn, attending for Mr. Annino, chose not to comment on the draft as she had not been able to review it, but she did comment on the benefits to be gained from a well planned and organized Master Plan. She stated that the last two Master Plans were not presented to town meetings and had not been intended to be, and that they were rarely used, except by the Industrial Development Commission, who greatly profited by their use of the plans. 5 In general discussion of the draft the Council questioned whether school enrollment figures should cover more years, possibly to 1995. The Council also discussed the importance of educating the public and obtaining public input to the development of the Master Plan; public meetings will be held with the consultants to accomplish this. In other old business, Ms. Spedden asked that any members who had remaining corrections to the land use maps return them immediately to Mr. Callinan. NEW BUSINESS The Council was reminded that the next meeting would be held on Thursday, January 8, 1987. If possible Connery Associates would be present at that time. The Council was advised that the Aquifer Protection Committee had requested that one or two Master Plan Council members join their committee, as planning for future water needs will be an integral part of the Master Plan. Mr. Madan volunteered to serve on this committee. At 9:30 Mr. Seifert made a motion to adjourn the meeting, which was seconded by Mr. Harrington, and passed by unanimous vote. Respectfully submitted, Deborah Hillman, Secretary 6, )<". " of d