Slow Growth Initiative
 

Our town Master Plan reads:

"Under Chelmsford's policy preference for maintaining the present residential and semi-rural character of the town, maximizing open space, and minimizing development, the demand or need for new public facilities, based on growth, will be minimal."

Where have we gone wrong? Clearly, these preferences have been abandoned for other goals. The population of Chelmsford has barely grown since 1990, yet by 2000 the number of households in town surpassed the "full-build out" scenario predicted in the Master Plan. Seven years have passed since the last census, only time will tell how far we have strayed from the "vision of our community."

Why the Master Plan is important:

Chelmsford, having grown rapidly for over forty years, would benefit from a planned approach to sustainability. A slow growth strategy will help provide fiscal stability and relief from rapidly rising taxes, while contributing to a better quality of life and improved delivery of services to residents. With such a plan, the town can focus on improving existing services (such as delivering sewer service to current taxpayers), and increasing affordable housing through sensible approaches such as redevelopment rather than new development. Currently, despite Chelmsford having a Master Plan, town boards continue to make important policy decisions on a case by case basis. We feel strongly that the Master Plan should be the guiding framework that provides context for all policy decisions. This would enforce a standard of making measured decisions that contribute to long-term sustainability for the town for decades to come.

The contributors that tend to force unnecessary growth on townspeople are:

  • developers of high-profit Chapter 40B projects who build high-density subdivisions with low percentages of affordable units
  • commercial enterprises who want to avoid paying for the impact of their construction
  • businesses who financially benefit from high growth.
We recognize, however, that the biggest contributor to growth may simply be misunderstandings about the true impacts of growth (click here to see “myths of growth”). Well meaning officials who try to keep taxes down by welcoming new growth to increase tax revenues are being misled by these myths. The actual costs of the growth aren’t included in proposals, the emphasis is on new tax revenue, and this forced development results in rising costs and accompanying tax hikes. The greatest cost is, undoubtedly, the destruction of the town’s quality of life due to pressure on town services such as water and sewer, increased traffic & noise and environmental degradation.

Chelmsford’s current Master Plan is a forward-looking document that lays out important standards which have not been upheld. The result is that the town has already grown not only beyond the optimal number of housing units, but beyond the maximum housing level projected by the Master Plan despite losing the young professionals, families and recent graduates that communities like Chelmsford need. It’s time to put the brakes on. Instead of "zoning-creep" a term used to describe the case by case practice of making zoning policy decisions, the town should be using the standards of the Master Plan to inform their decisions.

Sustainability issues relating to housing units, amount of commercial property, water, sewer capacity, traffic and student populations are all critical and require long-term planning. Chelmsford would benefit from planning now to avoid major policy changes later with regard to our limited resources.

The Slow Growth Initiative Action Plan is intended to achieve the goal of preserving the best of our town while improving sustainability. We encourage citizen input and will work to propose policies to the Town Manager, Board of Selectmen and Town Meeting that reflect our commitments.

Read the full text of the Chelmsford Master Plan here