Comprehensive Planning

Your Involvement Needed Now More Than Ever

 

Thank you for all your inputs.  At the beginning of this process we said the entire Comprehensive Plan has to be a reflection of our residents values and goals and what you want Charlton to be in 15 years.  Since last January, hundreds of you have participated in a Visioning Workshop, Focus Groups, a Community Image Survey, a Town-Wide Written Survey, and our planning consultant has also interviewed many of you.

Throughout this effort, our focus has been on determining what residents like and don’t like, what they fear or are concerned about or found threatening, and what they want Charlton to be in the future.  Your Comprehensive Planning Steering Committee is now working on a Vision Statement and a set of Goals that captures and accurately portrays what you have told us. The Vision Statement should describe Charlton in 15 years.

Although our committee is still fine-tuning the language of the Vision Statement, major themes are abundantly clear.  Charlton residents want

-          a very high quality of life.

-          managed growth to retain the town’s essential rural and historic character, open spaces and rural vistas, a quality environment, and active agriculture.

-          a strong sense of civic pride, a high sense of community and places and activities that enable you to meet and interact.

-          historic buildings and landscapes and our unique environment protected.

-          a opportunity to walk and bike safely, and other recreational opportunities.

-          an open and responsive town government that provides quality services and infrastructure within our means and our desire to maintain our essential character.

-          other services readily available that enhance your quality of life, but do not detract from the town’s historic, rural and small town character.

After we have a Vision Statement that accurately portrays your views, the next step, and biggest challenge in this entire process, is to establish an approach for reaching that vision.  The approach should be one which offers the best chance of success, and also one we all can unite behind, and support.  Unless we work together and find the means and methods that can effectively achieve your vision, the likelihood of Charlton being the town you want it to be in the future will substantially diminish.

Our town is facing increasing developmental pressure.  Surrounding areas are being built-out.  There has been a significant increase in subdivision applications to our Town Planning Board.  With the approval of Luther Forest, increased pressure is even more likely.

Our Steering Committee recently tasked our consultant; Community Planning and Environmental Associates, to do a Build Out Analysis in order to help us understand what Charlton might look like if Charlton were fully built out, or said another way, if all build able land were developed.  This type analysis is a proven planning tool that has been extensively used by other towns.  It takes environmental and man-made policy constraints into account.  Although it cannot be 100% accurate, it can help us understand what factors effect development, what the likely affects of our own, current regulations might be, and, of great importance, the ability to see if the potential end-results match our vision.  The greatest benefit offered by this tool is to see what it tells you and if you do not like it, the ability to take steps to prevent it before you are overrun by events. The entire build out analysis is posted on the Town Website under Comprehensive Planning Project.  Please check it out.

So what are its findings?  First, it is important to note that the population and household figures are based on the 2000 census.  It is also important to note that our consultant used the best methods available today to derive these figures.  They have no agenda, but to present us the best, most accurate product possible.  They also note in explaining their methodology that they took a very conservative approach.  The findings:

-          Current (2000) town population – 3,954

-          Current (2000) number of households – 1,443

-          Average (2000) household size – 2.75

-          School age population (2000) – 863

Statistics from the Build Out:

-          Potential new homes – 3,662 (5,105 including year 2000 households)

-          Potential additional population – 10,034 (13,988 including year 2000 population)

-          Potential additional school age population – 2,190

-          Assuming class sizes of 20 students – 101 new teachers

When you go to the website and look at the Build Out Analysis, please look at the last map, called “Build Out – Potential New Residential Uses.”  What you will see is classic sprawl.  Even though two acre zoning, and two hundred feet frontages are employed, you will see a picture of residences spread throughout and covering most of our town.  It is not likely that our goals for rural character, open space, small town character, or protection of farms and farmlands could be met under that condition.

We need to take a very close look at whether our zoning standards will result in the type of community we want in the future.  We also need to consider a range of tools and techniques that could be put in place to ensure that future development is consistent with what we want Charlton to be.

There are hundreds of towns that wish they had taken appropriate action sooner.  For all too many towns, they had to have a crisis occur before they could muster a united political will to act.  Towns that have instituted moratoriums have failed to plan and take action when they should, and have already lost much of what their citizens’ value.

What can you do as a citizen to help ensure Charlton achieves a vision you want?  You need to get engaged in this process.  Please

-          read what is on the town website about comprehensive planning.

-          attend open meetings, and certainly public hearings on the topic.

-          learn as much as you can about planning and implementing tools that are available to preserve open space, farmland and historic places.

-          keep an open mind and look beyond just using the Zoning Law to obtain the Charlton you want in the future.

-          Help us consider all available tools that we can us to help realize our vision and help us tailor them to our unique community.

-          recognize that there is a need for all of us as Charlton-citizens to balance our individual interests, with community needs and interests.

-          take a leadership role or support leaders, at all levels, in supporting a balanced approach for achieving our townspeople’s vision.

We will be holding a public hearing in several months.  Please look for an announcement in the local papers, on posters and on the town website.