Special Fall Town Meeting 2004

Article 28 Background Material (see also mailing to Town Meeting members sent out Wed Oct 20, 2004)

Brief points --

Questions that have come up already:

Where is the money coming from? The 5-year Capital Plan, leftover from FY05 balance of $45,202 (there was money left over because we haven’t yet issued the borrowing on soccer fields and sidewalks, as was authorized at Annual Town Meeting 2004)

Why is it called a Master Plan instead of a Comprehensive Plan? Don’t we already have a Comprehensive Plan? We don’t have either a Comprehensive Plan or a Master Plan. We have lots of pieces that can be used in the Master Plan, including individual committee reports (Housing, Open Space, etc.) and Build-Out Analysis information. We are using the term Master Plan because that’s how it reads in Massachusetts General Law. Basically, the physical report itself is the Master Plan, and the work you do to get it, and update it, is Comprehensive Planning.

How will a Master Plan prevent sprawl? A plan doesn’t prevent sprawl; people make decisions in hopes of preventing sprawl. Having a plan based on the desires of the entire community helps various boards/committees as they wrestle with decisions that will affect our quality of life.

What does it mean that the Planning Board shall make a plan (MGL 41 81D) – does this put the Planning Board in charge of our future? The Planning Board, under the law, is responsible for the plan, and they have delegated the plan development to the CPC. Acceptance of the Master Plan does not mandate action on any aspects of the plan. Although the Planning Bd will accept the plan, nothing in the plan -- no actions -- can be taken without the usual Town Meeting (or other body) approvals. Having a Master Plan makes all the other boards and committees lives easier -- because they know what the townspeople are likely to want -- rather than tying their hands! Remember, the Planning Board can't legally stop land owners from using their property in legal ways, no matter how much the neighbors object. If the townspeople want to direct development, we need to start taking more pro-active steps, rather than remaining mainly reactive.

What are other surrounding communities doing? Amherst has a reputation of being a model of proactive, effective planning. Some of our neighboring communities have master plans, some don’t. Hadley is still working on theirs; Deerfield is done. We need our Master Plan in order to save our Phased Growth Bylaw.

How much have other communities spent on their Master Plan? Every community is different (population, economics, demographics, etc), and the range reflects that – from 10s of thousands to over $100K, but $250,000 is considerably more than Amherst needs to spend on a Master Plan. Past rough estimates have been in the region of $100,000-$150,000, based on Amherst's size and the experience of other similar communities. CPC’s very thorough public process will figure out what our community wants from a plan, and how much that will cost, and that cost information will be presented to Town Meeting a year from now. How much the Master Plan ends up costing is up to all of us. If we ignore the law and don't do the plan, the costs of loss of control over how the Town should develop are totally un-measurable. Getting "the best bang for our buck" is one of the highest priorities of the CPC.

What happened to the money from Article 36, Annual Town Meeting 2001? The Build-Out and Future Growth Analysis of 2002 is a key component of a Master Plan, and has already been used while looking at future sewer extensions and by the fire station committee. After Article 36 for $25,000 was approved by Annual Town Meeting 2001, we hired a consultant to create a Build-Out and Future Growth Analysis, published in 2002 and still available on the town website under Planning Dept, Special Projects. This report took advantage of the wealth of GIS data we have collected and projected what our town would look like at buildout based on current zoning regulations. People who came to public meetings associated with that project on May 11. 2002 and November 19, 2002 were not satisfied with the current trends scenario, and expressed strong desire to shape future growth and development in ways that support Amherst’s values. The concept of village centers was revisited, as it has been since at least the 1973 SCOG report of, and remaining money was used to hire Robert Ryan from UMass LARP to have his graduate seminar provide more details on what development concentrated in Village Centers might look like, and also some suggestions on preservation of view sheds and open space. Public meetings were held Oct 22, 2003, December 10, 2003, and May 1, 2004 to review the seminar’s work, with the theme of avoiding sprawl and improving livability by focusing growth where we want it.

What about the ‘visioning” thing? Who has time for six hour meetings?!? (Town Meeting approved $15,000 for a visioning process (Article 23, Annual Town Meeting 1997, which had large, long forums in January 1998, March 1998, and February 1999, and many smaller meetings.) Some people felt the final Amherst Visions document was not reflective of the wide range of ideas the public brought to the table. Some people felt the final document ended up too wide ranging to serve any practical purpose. Some of our current CPC members were witness to that process, and all of us are reviewing those materials and talking to townspeople to ensure we don’t make the same mistakes this time around.

Surely there isn’t room for 3400 more housing units, or over 8,000 additional people (pop. 35K-43K)? These figures are from the Build-out analysis published in 2002. Constraints on development (slopes, wetlands) were taken into account; as more mapping occurs, and our GIS database grows, we will probably find some more constraints on development, and this will be addressed during the development of the Master Plan. Continuation of open space protection at about the rate experienced over recent decades was assumed. The 3400 additional dwelling units found in the Build-Out analysis are units that could be built by right under current zoning, assuming some redevelopment, but not requiring special permits. Although a lot of development occurs in small bits here and there, what happens if one of the large private apartment complex owners decides to build some additional buildings? What about when Hampshire College begins their 150 unit learning community?

What does a Master Plan look like? Look at MGL Chapter 41 Section 81D for the required elements

Basically, a Master Plan does five things:

  1. Articulates the goals and objectives of the community (i.e., what the community wants for its future, what type of community it wants to be)
  2. Outlines the existing resources and conditions of a community (this is usually done through a review of existing data sources, collection of new data, and updates of inventory information)
  3. Evaluate and assess the existing resources and conditions with an eye towards identifying shortfalls and deficiencies
  4. Projects the current trends and conditions in the future in an effort to identify shortcomings that can be corrected through advanced planning, as well as the future needs of the community
  5. Sets forth a strategy for addressing the needs of the community and helping the community become what it wants to be

The material in many plans has been laid out as: Main Goals, Key Findings, Selected Recommendations

Why can't we just continue the way we have, without a Master Plan? Aside from losing our Phased Growth Bylaw as one tool to direct growth, and losing grant application points, there are other reasons: development pressures are continuing, and resources are finite. Continuing to depend on incremental changes to our Zoning Bylaws and continued revenue for APR and conservation purchases is both shortsighted and narrow focused. As more people continue to want to move here (particularly from expensive urban areas), and developable land becomes more scarce, prices are rising. Our town has repeatedly said it values diversity in housing choices. Those choices become more and more limited as development by right under our current bylaws continues. With fewer spaces available, and without a Master Plan to guide us, how can we understand the decisions we make regarding the balance of housing and open space? residential and business? housing for graduate students and housing for hidden tech telecommuters? office space and light industrial space?

ComprehensivePlanningCommitteeMaterials