Workshops Help Launch Orleans Comprehensive Plan Update

ORLEANS – What will Orleans look like in 20 years?

It’s a big question, but local planning officials have begun the process of laying out a vision for the town that can hold up decades into the future.

The planning board has begun the process of updating the town’s local comprehensive plan, which was last updated in 2006. George Meservey, the town’s director of planning and community development, said Monday the goal is to craft a far-reaching plan that reflects the community in which Orleans residents want to live over the next 20 years.

“I think over time as the community changes, there’s a need to recalibrate and reassess community priorities, based on the residents who live in Orleans today,” he said. “I think the 2006 plan was a good, accurate reflection of residents’ priorities at the time. But things come along and issues change, and there are things that weren’t even on the radar 20 years ago that are priorities now.”

This will be Orleans’ third iteration of the comprehensive plan, which Meservey said was first completed in 1999. Last month, voters at the special town meeting authorized spending $120,000 to revise the plan, which in between updates is subject to annual review by the planning board.

Central to efforts to update the plan is public input. On Nov. 16, the planning board will host the first of two public visioning workshops from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Orleans Senior Center on Rock Harbor Road. The second session will be held Dec. 5 from 3 to 5 p.m. at the Orleans Police Station.

Alice Van Oot, who chairs the planning board, called the workshops “the first step in the process” of updating the plan.

“We just want to be sure folks realize their voice is important, their ideas are important, and we want to encourage people to come,” she said.

“I think that’s really kind of a blank slate for the community,” Meservey said of the workshops. “What would you like to see Orleans become in 20 years? Then we figure out how to get there. But let’s figure out the main values and vision for what the town wants.”

Room To Grow

An important part of updating the plan will be to lay out a vision for future development. On Nov. 1, Meservey presented a buildout analysis to the select board roughly outlining how much room the town has for additional development based on current zoning.

The analysis showed the potential for an additional 1,860 dwellings throughout town, which represents an increase of 35 percent from what exists today. Of that figure, 1,259 of those potential new dwellings could be situated downtown.

Mark Mathison of the select board stressed the importance of ensuring that local residents and families in need of housing are prioritized in the town’s plans for future growth. The analysis estimated that 90 permits for single family houses have been issued by the town in the last five years. But Mathison questioned how many of those homes are being occupied year round as opposed to being occupied or rented seasonally or flipped for profit.

Mathison said the town needs to “incentivize” the use of single family homes for families looking to continue living in Orleans.

“So that we don’t let ourselves become another Hamptons where if you’re not a multimillionaire, you’re not going to live here,” he said.

The analysis also hints at the potential for the town’s population to grow from 6,358 year round residents today to more than 8,500.

Mefford Runyon of the select board questioned if residents want to see that type of growth in population. He also questioned if the town was ready to make the necessary investments in infrastructure to accommodate such a spike.

“That’s a hard question, and it’s an expensive question,” he said. “But I think if you can’t do that, then growth is very painful and negative.”

Meservey emphasized that the numbers in the analysis aren’t set in stone, but rather “academic” in nature. But he said the analysis does provide a framework for the town to plan well into the future.

“Knowing the foundation of what the current bylaws would allow for growth and development is necessary before you start making plans for the future,” he said following last week’s meeting. “It was really interesting to see all five select board members engage and have intelligent questions on the build out.”

Wastwater, Economic Development And More

While the comprehensive plan places a high premium on development, the plan is designed to take into account a host of additional issues as well. With work underway on the second phase of sewering and planning in the works for the third, wastewater will factor heavily into the town’s future visioning. Meservey said the updated plan will also take into account plans for a new community center in town and a growing focus on recreation and economic development.

In 2022, the planning board finalized an economic development plan with recommendations on how to attract businesses and retailers to the downtown area and Town Cove. The plan also focused on how to improve multimodal transportation in the area to make it more accessible for bicyclists and pedestrians.

“We’re dealing with the retail trends of the internet and other challenges, but we really want to focus on making sure that we have a viable downtown so residents can get the goods and services they want without necessarily having to leave town if they need something,” Meservey said.

Next Steps

Meservey said feedback from the workshops will give the planning board and its consultant, Tighe and Bond, a strong foundation off of which to work moving forward. The planning board has reviewed the existing plan in full, Meservey said, and Tighe and Bond will go through the plan chapter by chapter in the months ahead.

All along the way, there will be opportunities for input from the community, Meservey said. That includes by way of a community survey, which he said residents will be notified of by mail in the coming weeks.

A full update of the plan is expected to take 18 months, Meservey said. The end goal is a plan that brings desired change while still adhering to the town’s community character.

“That is unique to Orleans, and we would hope that our growth and development adds vitality and economic growth, but does not lose that essential character of the town,” he said.

Email Ryan Bray at ryan@capecodchronicle.com