First meeting of the Townwide Master Planning Committee took place last night. Impressive and talented group of residents volunteered, and will try to produce a master plan within the next year (if possible). The emails below are from Town Planner, Sarah Raposa, who ran the meeting, and both explained how to launch a new town committee and how to do master planning.
Photo by Kristine Trierweiler
Hi – thank you all for completing the doodle poll. It took a little while because the committee is so big but we were able to get a quorum for the first two meeting dates. Please mark you calendars for the following:
The first meeting is scheduled for: Tuesday, February 26th at 7 pm at the Town Garage Training Room (55 North Meadows Road). Please park and enter on the Dale Street side of the building, not the salt shed side.
Agenda:
-
- Introductions
- Committee Charter
- Process/Expectations
- Schedule (bring your calendars!)
- Draft RFP (Jay reviewing draft now, will send out soon)
- CPTC Training
The second meeting is scheduled for: Tuesday, March 12th at 7 pm at the Town Garage Training Room (55 North Meadows Road).
Unfortunately not everyone will be able to attend every meeting so I urge folks to get in touch with me or a co-committee member for a debrief after a missed meeting.
In general meeting agendas will be emailed out in advance of the meetings but they may also be viewed HERE when they are posted with the town clerk (minutes are posted there as well.
A collection of recent master plans may be viewed HERE.
MAPC’s Community Engagement Guide HERE
Various Medfield Plans & Studies HERE (please take a look and if you think anything is missing, please let me know)
A MASTER PLAN:
- Documents and illustrates what a community looks like today and what direction it has decided it wants to go for the future; it includes assessments of existing resources and issues, projections of future conditions and needs, and consideration of collective goals and desires.
- Is a policy guide and provides a framework for future land use decision-making and the physical development of the municipality. It will not only address buildings and infrastructure, it will also include the important social, natural resource and economic values of the community. The Master Plan is a method of translating the community’s values into specific actions.
- Covers an approximate time frame of 20 years; it is assumed that shorter-term reviews will keep it current with the changing needs of the community.
- Is closely integrated with other municipal documents and initiatives.
The Master Plan is NOT a zoning ordinance, a subdivision regulation, a budget, a capital improvement program or other regulatory document. It is meant to provide the framework for the development of these implementation tools.
Section 81D. A planning board established in any city or town under section eighty-one A shall make a master plan of such city or town or such part or parts thereof as said board may deem advisable and from time to time may extend or perfect such plan.
Such plan shall be a statement, through text, maps, illustrations or other forms of communication, that is designed to provide a basis for decision making regarding the long-term physical development of the municipality. The comprehensive plan shall be internally consistent in its policies, forecasts and standards, and shall include the following elements:
(1) Goals and policies statement which identifies the goals and policies of the municipality for its future growth and development. Each community shall conduct an interactive public process, to determine community values, goals and to identify patterns of development that will be consistent with these goals.
(2) Land use plan element which identifies present land use and designates the proposed distribution, location and inter-relationship of public and private land uses. This element shall relate the proposed standards of population density and building intensity to the capacity of land available or planned facilities and services. A land use plan map illustrating the land use policies of the municipality shall be included.
(3) Housing element which identifies and analyzes existing and forecasted housing needs and objectives including programs for the preservation, improvement and development of housing. This element shall identify policies and strategies to provide a balance of local housing opportunities for all citizens.
(4) Economic development element which identifies policies and strategies for the expansion or stabilization of the local economic base and the promotion of employment opportunities.
(5) Natural and cultural resources element which provides an inventory of the significant natural, cultural and historic resource areas of the municipality, and policies and strategies for the protection and management of such areas.
(6) Open space and recreation element which provides an inventory of recreational and resources and open space areas of the municipality, and policies and strategies for the management and protection of such resources and areas.
- Conditionally approved OSRP
(7) Services and facilities element which identifies and analyzes existing and forecasted needs for facilities and services used by the public.
(8) Circulation element which provides an inventory of existing and proposed circulation and transportation systems.
(9) Implementation program element which defines and schedules the specific municipal actions necessary to achieve the objectives of each element of the master or study plan. Scheduled expansion or replacement of public facilities or circulation system components and the anticipated costs and revenues associated with accomplishment of such activities shall be detailed in this element. This element shall specify the process by which the municipality’s regulatory structures shall be amended so as to be consistent with the master plan.
Such plan shall be made, and may be added to or changed from time to time, by a majority vote of such planning board and shall be public record. The planning board shall, upon completion of any plan or report, or any change or amendment to a plan or report produced under this section, furnish a copy of such plan or report or amendment thereto, to the department of housing and community development.
A city or town which has an established master or study plan under section eighty-one A and applies for a state grant from the commonwealth shall prepare and keep on file within such city or town an economic development supplement; provided, however, that such city or town shall not be required to prepare such supplement if such city or town has a supplement on file. Such supplement shall be at least one page in length and shall contain the goals of the city or town with respect to industrial or commercial development, affordable housing, and preservation of parks and open space.
Sarah Raposa, AICP
Town Planner
459 Main Street
Medfield, MA 02052
(508) 906-3027
sraposa@medfield.net
www.town.medfield.net
On Wed, Feb 13, 2019 at 10:28 AM Sarah Raposa <sraposa@medfield.net> wrote:
Hi all – Thank you for agreeing to participate in the Townwide Master Planning Committee!
By now, you should have received your appointment slips from the Selectmen’s office. If not, please let me or Evelyn know. Carol Mayer, Town Clerk, will swear you in at your convenience – always best to phone ahead – and give you the appropriate forms to fill out (more about this at the end of the email).
HERE is the link to your committee webpage with current list of members and charter.
On behalf of chair pro tem, Jay Duncan, I wanted to get the first couple of meetings scheduled. The first meeting will be primarily introductory but we also want to schedule a master plan “training” for you. The training is sponsored by the Citizen Planner Training Collaborative (an extension of UMass Amherst) and it is geared towards folks like yourselves who serve on local planning boards, ZBA’s, master planning committees, etc. They will provide an experienced master planner to give a presentation and answer any questions that you may have.
Our initial hurdle is going to be aligning all of our schedules. Jay proposed the following dates on this Doodle Poll:
- 2/19 (this one will be hard to schedule given Open Meeting Law requirements)
- 2/25-28 (first meeting)
- 3/11-14 (CPTC training)
Please indicate your availability to meet and provide notes on other regular obligations that we should try to avoid. Choices are yes, no or ‘if-need-be’. I added a traditional 7-9 pm time slot but also added a 6-8 pm option because sometime folks may have a 7 pm obligation but could meet for the first part of the meeting. It might not work given work schedules but I’m throwing it out there.
I’ve started drafting an RFP which we will send out with some additional master planning info shortly.
Those of you who serve on other committees will probably have done the online ethics training in the past but we need to get everyone’s certificates updated by April 5th. If you can find some time, please take the online training (please see email below for computer settings suggestions): http://www.muniprog.eth.state.ma.us/
The entire online training takes approximately 60 minutes. If you’ve taken it before, you may be able to complete the quiz more quickly. Please print and submit your certificate to me via email or at an upcoming meeting.
Many thanks!
Sarah
Notice to All Municipalities Concerning the Conflict of Interest Law Education Requirements
Dear Municipal Clerks:
The annual conflict of interest law education and training requirements are again upon us. The current compliance period runs December 2018 through April 5, 2019, unless your municipality has adopted a different compliance schedule. For this compliance period, the following is required:
- The summary of the conflict of interest law for municipal employees should be distributed to all employees and written acknowledgments collected from the employees within 30 days; and
- All employees must again complete the online training program.
Summary of the conflict of interest law – Not attached; Carol will give you this info at your swearing in.
The summary of the conflict of interest law is attached to this notice. Note that it was revised in November 2016 to clarify that town meeting members and charter commission members are not municipal employees subject to the conflict of interest law. Summaries of the conflict of interest law are also available on the Commission’s website in Spanish and Portuguese translations Remember that you may distribute the summary and collect the acknowledgments via email or through some other electronic means.
Online training program for municipal employees
All municipal employees should complete the Online Training Program for Municipal Employees and provide a completion certificate to their municipal employer. The program can be found at http://www.muniprog.eth.state.ma.us/. Please remember to inform your employees to disable pop-up blockers in their web browser before completing the online program or they may have difficulty printing a completion certificate. Also, the program cannot be completed using a mobile device. We ask that you provide your employees with the attached Notice to Municipal Employees which explains this and other computer settings requirements so that employees can complete the program and print a completion certificate. The deadline to complete the online program is April 5, 2019.
If you have questions, please review the Education and Training Guidelines available on the Commission’s website, www.mass.gov/orgs/state-ethics-commission. The guidelines provide helpful information about who is required to comply with these statutory requirements, record-keeping requirements, and the process to exempt certain municipal positions from these requirements.
Please note: Charter schools are considered state agencies for the purposes of the conflict of interest law. Charter school employees should complete the state/county online training program and acknowledge receipt of the summary of the conflict of interest law for state employees.
Thank you for your time and attention to this important matter. If you have any questions, please call me at 617-371-9505 or email me at David.Giannotti@mass.gov.
Sincerely,
David
___________________________________________
David Giannotti
Public Education and Communications Division Chief
State Ethics Commission
One Ashburton Place, Room 619
Boston, MA 02108
617-371-9505
email: David.Giannotti@mass.gov
www.mass.gov/orgs/state-ethics-commission
Please note that my email address has changed to David.Giannotti@mass.gov.
Sarah Raposa, AICP
Town Planner
459 Main Street
Medfield, MA 02052
(508) 906-3027
sraposa@medfield.net
www.town.medfield.net
