Editorials

My personal suggestions for moving forward
By Fred Marcks

I love Chelmsford. I am proud of what we have accomplished through years of difficult budget decisions and of our hard-working employees, volunteers, appointed or elected officials.  We all work to one end: creating a better community. I have yet to meet a resident who does not support promoting sustainability, fighting inappropriate 40B projects and creating policies that will preserve our quality of life. That includes hard-working elected officials who have worked to that end, but who get little credit. So I have been surprised recently at the tone of our town’s dialogue about these issues. We may all want to get from point A to point B, but clearly we are struggling with how to do that.

I was proud to have been asked to speak on behalf of the Slow Growth Initiative group when it presented the Board of Selectmen and Town Manager with resident petitions. I recognized it as an opportunity to speak on behalf of residents who also love Chelmsford and who are concerned about an uncertain future characterized by limited resources such as open-space, water, sewer capacity and money. The impetus for raising these concerns is legitimate. Residents who are concerned about negative impacts on their quality of life: 1) have the responsibility to speak up 2) deserve to be heard and 3) to be productive, should propose actions that could alleviate those concerns. The action plan of the Slow Growth group seems admirable as it proposes possible policy solutions to complex development-related concerns. To me, it did not appear to be a group trying to complain publicly while failing to offer a path to improvement.

The action plan of the group seems clear: promote and enforce the town Master Plan as the policy framework to guide all board policy decisions. Require major new developments to prepare community and financial impact reports. Implement policies that would restrict new development tie-ins to town sewers until existing taxpayers get the service they are paying for. Implement reasonable, related and justified impact fees for major new developments as other communities in the Commonwealth do. Require verifiable financial reports from developers of 40B projects before they break-ground. Support robust community-control over affordable housing production to provide alternatives to weak state programs. Support active community involvement in public policy. Codify standards such as prompt notification of abutters, in writing, before meetings; publicly posting projects that will be or are under consideration; and the timely posting of meeting agendas so that busy, but caring, residents can participate as much as possible.

When residents become activists and raise concerns, we should be grateful to have a community that even cares to participate in public discourse. Their concerns and suggestions should not suggest that current leaders are doing a bad job. Our town officials have a great deal on their plate. Those leaders should not feel the need to be defensive; rather they should thank residents for raising issues and work with them to understand what can and cannot, under current rules, be accomplished to move forward. The possible barrier to progress may simply be that we lack the venue, time or focus to work on such complex policies with our other responsibilities.

Under current operating procedures, I feel the Selectmen and other policy boards always seem to be reacting despite a genuine interest in being proactive. This is a structural problem. The town should empower certain boards to hold meetings exclusively for the purpose of long-range planning and coordination. Any good board of directors follows this same practice. I suggest that the town require the Selectmen to conduct two annual meetings: whether in addition to or replacing regular meetings, for the sole purpose of planning long-term strategic policies for the town. One meeting would focus singularly on strategic planning for the coming fiscal year. The remaining meeting would focus singularly on long-term strategic planning meant to guide Chelmsford in a sustainable policy manner for periods ranging from five to fifty years.

To that same end, I suggest requiring the Planning Board, Conservation Commission and Zoning Board of Appeals to convene at least one joint meeting of the three boards annually, whether in addition to or replacing regular meetings, for the purposes of coordinating town policy positions relating to planning, development, conservation and zoning for the town of Chelmsford. Such a meeting would focus singularly on coordination between the boards relating to shared policy interests for the coming fiscal year. Any additional joint meetings convened could then focus singularly on improving communication and coordination for following fiscal years and to reflect on or correct errors in coordination and communication between the boards in the previous year.

I want to contribute something that will make a lasting, positive impression on providing sustainability for Chelmsford. I define sustainability as: “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” In essence, we would be promoting our town motto: “Let the children guard what the sires have won.” I also believe that there are currently a large number of residents who wish to make the same impact. It will not be easy to move forward to confronting the issues raised by the Slow Growth group, but I have seen Chelmsford rise to the occasion before. I am confident that we can work together to prevent losing the town’s character piecemeal and to preserve the finest qualities of our town for future generations.

- Fred Marcks