Local Comprehensive Plan Set For Town Meeting

ORLEANS – After three years of work and preparation, the planning board will put a new local comprehensive plan before voters to consider at the annual town meeting.

 Article 15 on the warrant for the May 11 town meeting asks voters to adopt the new plan, which was last updated in full in 2006. The 230-page plan similarly lays out a vision for the town out to 2050.

 “After 20 years, it is time to recast goals and objectives to ensure the town is prepared to meet the challenges of a changing world by incorporating the latest data and an updated analysis to ensure continued relevance and usefulness in our changing environment,” language in the warrant article reads.

 The planning board began the process of updating the comprehensive plan in early 2023. The updated document was put together with the help of public input generated through an online community survey and several public workshops and hearings. The board also consulted with a number of local boards and committees to get their input on the plan, said Director Of Planning and Community Development George Meservey.

 “The comp plan itself doesn’t create a new vision for the town,” he said. “It listens to the vision that residents and leadership were already expressing about a new and more active way forward. So it codifies that in a long range plan.”

 Meservey said the current 2006 plan was more protectionist in scope, focusing largely on managing growth, protecting town assets and preserving the town’s way of life at the time. But the new plan takes a more proactive track, seeking to address a number of current and future issues, among them the need for more diverse housing options for the town’s year-round population as well as a more sustainable year-round economy. The plan also prioritizes investment in infrastructure, clean energy and recreational, cultural and social opportunities.

 At the same time, the updated plan is also grounded in the need to continue to protect Orleans’ natural environment.

 “We have to do that while continuing to protect what is a fragile environment on a big sandbar that we all live on so we make sure we don’t impact that negatively in the long term,” Meservey said.

 Planning Board Chair John Ostman will give a short overview of the plan at town meeting, while Meservey will also be on hand to address any questions that might be raised on town meeting floor. Between the extensive public engagement through workshops and surveys and the plan’s availability online in recent months, Meservey said he’s hopeful that the updated document will get a warm reception on May 11.

 “I think the planning board has more than done its work to try and reach out to anyone who would give us input on any aspect of the town’s future,” he said of efforts to engage the public in the plan’s preparation.

 While considerable time and effort went into preparing the new comprehensive plan, Meservey noted that approval of the document at town meeting wouldn’t set it in stone. As a “living document” the plan will be subject to review at least every five years, and it can be amended and changed as needed.

 Annual town meeting is scheduled for May 11 at 6 p.m. in the gymnasium of Nauset Regional Middle School. A draft of the new comprehensive plan can be found online at https://www.town.orleans.ma.us/325/Orleans-Comprehensive-Plan.