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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMaster Plan Council 08/20/1986MINUTES OF AN INFORMAL MEETING OF THE MASTER PLAN ADVISORY COUNCIL WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 20, 1986 MAR 1 21987 A meeting of the Master Plan Advisory Council was held on Wednesday, August 20,- 1986, called by Richard Callinan, Planning Director. Rich, acting as temporary chairman, called the meeting to order at 7:35 PM; present from the Council were: Ron Doucette, Steve Chapman, Ed Broderick, Bill Madan, and Kelli Spedden. Also in attendance were: Jon Whitten and Brian Dolan of IEP, Inc.; and Rolf Goetz and John Connery of Connery Associates. As a quorum of members from the Council was not present, it was decided that the meeting would be held informally; no votes would be taken and no Chairman or Clerk would be elected until a later meeting. The meeting commenced with a brief presentation by IEP, outlining the various phases and tasks which will comprise the master plan update. For those members which had been in attendance at the joint meeting of the Selectmen and the Planning Board on July 2, 1986, this presentation was essentially the same information. IEP's presentation was followed by a brief presentation by Rolf Goetz of Connery Associates, who outlined the "affordable housing" study of Mansfield which Connery was undertaking, and he explained the purpose and the goals of the study, and the means by which Connery would.arrive at the end results. After the presentations by the consultants, there followed some discussion among the Council and the consultants of the first phase of the master plan update, and in particular, the questionnaires by which the project would kick off. It was agreed that two questionnaires would be necessary, one for municipal department heads and town board members, and one for distribution to the general public, and drafts of the municipal questionnaire were distributed. It was agreed that the questionnaire for the public would be essentially the same questionnaire but briefer. There then followed discussion as to how these questionnaires (approximately 150) would be distributed to the municipal employees and boards, and it was agreed by the five members of the Council present that each member would contact certain board chairmen and arrange with that chairman for the board members to fill out their questionnaires. It was agreed that Rich Callinan, with the help of Rande Wilson, would undertake getting the questionnaires to the various municipal department heads. Rich agreed to get to the members of the Council the names and telephone numbers of the board chairmen by Tuesday, August 26, and Jon Whitten of IEP agreed to have 150 questionnaires dropped off to Rich for this purpose by Monday, August 25. It was also noted by IEP that a crucial component of the questionnaire was a two - or three- paragraph cover letter, which was agreed to by the members of the Council. Jon Whitten of IEP offered to draft a cover letter and to get it to Rich along with the questionnaires by Monday, August 25. The issue of how the questionnaires would be distributed to the public was deferred until a later meeting of the Council; however, several ideas were thrown on the table as to how it could best be accomplished with a high return rate. Some of the ideas were: publishing in the local paper; inserts in the local paper; door-to-door or "on -the -street" interviews; help by local organizations such as the Jaycees; etc. U112m t4k- U41 . -I- 0 There followed some discussion regarding the actual membership of the Council, and Rich noted that several of the town boards and committees which he had contacted to designate a representative had not done so. It was agreed by the members of the Council that Rich would note those boards, and as the members contacted those chairmen for purpose of the questionnaire, they would also make a final appeal to those chairmen to have a representative appointed from that board. To commence the first phase of the update, a discussion ensued, led by Jon Whitten of IEP, regarding the most crucial issues facing the town of Mansfield today. The list was comprised of twelve items, as follows: 1. Water quality/quantity 2. Solid waste disposal 3. Population Growth 4. Economic Development 5. School Population/Capacity 6. Municipal Services 7. Traffic/Road Systems 0. Downtown Area/Parking 9. Aesthetics 10. Housing 11. Future Water Supply 12. Open Space Certain specifics of these general categories were discussed. It should be noted that these items were simply thrown out in a "brainstorming" session, and were not meant to designate any priority. It was agreed that all of the items related to one another equally in the broad view of town needs. There will be a corresponding list of assets and positive values of the town, which will be undertaken at a later meeting. General discussion then ensued; among the items discussed were: When meetings will be held. Rich Callinan noted that the consultants still needed approximately another month to complete certain fact-finding tasks, and suggested that the next meeting of the Council be held on Thursday, September 25. It was agreed between the members of the Council that some momentum would be lost by delaying the next meeting until then, and it was agreed that the next meeting of the Council (without the consultants present) would be held on Thursday, September 4 at 7:30 PM, and subsequent meetings of the Council would be held on the first Thursday of every month thereafter. The next joint meeting of the Council and the consultants will be held on Thursday, September 25 at 7:30, and subsequent joint meetings will be held on an "as -needed" basis. It was noted that as the master plan update process moved forward, it was likely that the meetings would increase in frequency to bi-weekly or even weekly if necessary. The necessity for public involvement. Some discussion ensued about the need for the.public to feel a proprietary interest in the master plan update process, particularly given the recent emphasis in town meetings to "special interest groups" and not voting anything major in "until we have a master plan". Therefore, it will be necessary to drum up public interest in the Master Plan Advisory Council, both from the resident's and the businessman's perspective, and several ideas were thrown on the table as to how this can be accomplished. It was -2- also discussed that the "new" residents of Mansfield wh' h ll is genera y comprise a Z, - more complacent segment of the town population, should be appealed to, from a 4 sense of "why did you move to Mansfield". It was discussed that one tool for motivating the public would be to somehow present a "worst-case scenario"; i.e., this is what the town will look like when it is fully developed, running out of water and waste disposal sites, etc. Some ideas as to how the public could be educated and notified were as follows: . The Press. It was agreed that the press should be notified and involved in a major way, i.e., the Mansfield News and the Sun Chronicle. Advertisements of public hearings should be prominent if possible. The possibility of putting flyers into the local papers was also discussed. Cable T.V. Bulletin advertisements can be placed on the local channels, advising the public of regular meetings, public hearings, etc. The feasibility of having all meetings televised on the local cable channels was also discussed. Handouts. The possibility of photocopying bulletins or local "tabloids" and leaving them with local merchants and handing them out on the streets was discussed. Local Organizations. It was agreed that the local chapters of the Jaycees, the Lions, the Rotary, Boy Scouts, etc. could all be invaluable, both for the contacts they would represent and the help they could offer in distributing information, etc. It was agreed that in order for this Council to accomplish its end goals successfully, the town would need to feel that it had been kept informed on a regular basis, and the "special interest" groups would need to feel included in the process. Package Plan. The need for the "package plan" approach was discussed, in that the town would need to feel that the Master Plan Advisory Council and the consultants were presenting a complete, comprehensive plan which addressed all the main concerns of the town. Several of the major articles of the past few town meetings which have been defeated (cluster development, "water protection article", the zoning amendments) were defeated because they were not presented as part of a whole, but by virtue of a piecemeal approach to solving a town problem. The Council is in complete agreement that a united front must appear, all must agree, and a cohesive package plan must be developed in order for the master plan update pr_eeess to be successful at Town Meeting. Tie M&6bthg was than adjourned.. -3-