Planning Board Readies New Comprehensive Plan

ORLEANS – An updated local comprehensive plan could be ready to go before voters at next year’s annual town meeting in May.

The planning board has spent the last two years gathering information and working with a consultant to update the plan, which was last updated in 2006. 

“Generally a town plan needs to be about 20 years in scope,” said George Meservey, the town’s director of planning and community development. “In Orleans, the overage tenure of ownership is 12 to 15 years. A lot of communities change in those 20 years.”

A draft of the plan will be presented at the board’s upcoming meeting on Dec. 10, while a final plan is on track to be presented to the select board in January, Meservey said. That will be followed by another public presentation in February ahead of preparation of the May town meeting warrant, he said.

The town has followed through on about 80 percent of the 190 actions identified in the existing comprehensive plan, Meservey said. The planning board, working alongside its consultant, Tighe and Bond, has held public workshops, administered a townwide survey and taken input from other town boards and committees over the past two years to help shape the new plan, which also requires review from the Cape Cod Commission.

The new plan, which Meservey said will align with the commission’s regional policy plan, is divided into three sections: natural systems, community systems and build systems.

“Orleans has been exemplary in protecting the natural environment, and we need to continue to do that,” he said.

The community systems portion focuses largely on housing and the local economy and how to forge ahead in growing both areas. Meservey said town meeting voters’ support last month for the creation of a new downtown housing overlay district, which provides incentives for the creation of year-round affordable and attainable housing along Route 6A from the Exit 89 onramp out to the Orleans Rotary, is a positive step in that direction.

“We’re really excited about the townspeople understanding and agreeing with some of the recommendations that are in the plan for where growth occurs and where it does not occur,” he said.

The draft plan also offers new recommendations and objectives in the area of build systems, including greater emphasis on energy, climate and resilience, Merservey said.

Attendees at the Dec. 10 planning board meeting will have the opportunity to provide additional input into the draft plan, Meservey said. The meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. in the Nauset Meeting Room. A copy of the plan is available on the town website.

“We want this to be truly reflective of what Orleans needs to deal with over the next 20 years to become the kind of community that residents want it to be,” Meservey said.