To the Editor,
I am writing to thank Sue Brown for her eight years of service as our first Town Planner. She has been professional, knowledgeable, kind and a pleasure to work with. Sue was essential in helping to shepherd us through developing our master plan, advising the Planning Board about the upcoming bylaw revisions as well as obtaining numerous grants which provided needed information to the town and, in the end, saved us tax dollars. We will be hard pressed to find a competent replacement to help us in the future.
Sue came to our town optimistically because we wanted to develop a master plan to help us wisely plan for future growth. Over time it became quite clear there were a number of anti-growth-oriented people who have worked to resist all planning in town in general. This is unfortunate because they too love our town but do not realize the results of their efforts have actually worked against creating a healthy community.
There is now such a toxic atmosphere in parts of town government that volunteers have resigned as well as our first professional planner resigning. A sad day this is. The result of our towns long-standing anti-growth efforts have been to leave us defenseless against the recent 40B housing project as well as to create a town with a seriously decreasing school enrollment and a population that is soon to have 60 percent of the people being over 60 years old.
Our convoluted laws have done little to preserve our town’s character, due to many of them being poorly written or simply reactionary and patched together over the years. They have largely made it difficult for average citizens to do normal things on their own properties.
I have seen this time and again after over a decade on our Planning and Zoning Boards. Our lack of planning and focus on no-growth has not created housing options for young families, empty nesters or even for people like my own son who cannot even live in the town he grew up in.
If we have learned anything from the recent 40B project it should have been that we need to be pro-active and encourage all sorts of housing options at varied price ranges to encourage a healthy, younger, community and in a way that fits in with the historic built form of our charming town. Those who are opposing the changes to our zoning laws in the name of preserving the town’s character may not realize that their efforts actually have worked against preserving our towns character.
We are no longer the mixed age, mixed income community we used to be. We have far less children attending our schools and no new housing options have been created for our workers and children.
As a point of reference, housing in Rockport similarly has almost no housing options for average wage-earning young families. They are soon to be forced to merge their school system with Gloucester due to this.
Manchester’s “Just Say No” lobby has harassed many professional volunteers and employees in town government including our planner. Our Town Manager has been attacked and harassed. What professionals will replace them, particularly when word of a difficult atmosphere in our town spreads throughout the state?
Professional planners with decades of experience are few and far between. Many towns simply have no town managers and no town planners because no one applies for the job. Maintaining the “status quo” is actually destroying the “status quo”. We are turning into a community of old Baby Boomers, and many of them cannot afford to live here.
Like it or not, we need the benefits of wise, comprehensive, balanced land use planning to support the efforts to update our zoning laws and create a healthier community.
Please attend the November 14 town meeting and support the reasonable and professional voices advocating for simple improvements to our town bylaws.
There is much more work to be done.
Gary Gilbert
Manchester
