Pier, Access & Shoreline Study (PASS) Committee
Minutes of 12/19/02 Meeting
Meeting came to order at 7:33 p.m. Bill Tenhoor, Ted Devnew, Shawn Dahlen, Heidi Pape Laird, Peter Roveto, and John Hagerty present.
Minutes were approved for the PASS meeting of 12/12/02.
The next PASS meetings were scheduled for January 9th ,23rd ,and 30th ,2003 , at 7:30 in the Duxbury Senior Center
We will meet with the Planning Board in mid-February with any zoning changes we would recommend.
We need to have the final draft for our warrant(s) by the end of January since they need to be published two weeks before the Planning Board meeting.
The Selectmen will invite us to one of their meetings. We do not need to attend another Conservation Commission meeting but they have told us they would like to hear what our recommendations will be since they need to act on them. To make zoning changes we need a 2/3-majority vote at Town Meeting. The Conservation Commission will accept recommendations, but they have to make the changes themselves.
The Urban Harbors Institute is working on our data and maps and plans to have them to us by about January 15, 2003. Shawn and Bill finished up some more detailed corrections to the pier data and forwarded it to them. Shawn wanted to make sure mooring field and channel data get to them as well.
The Vision Report will be published on Monday. Beth Jordan promised it by the end of the day. It will be published in the Clipper. Bill will get a copy.
The Coastal Zone Management committee Buzzards Bay Dock and Pier Focus Group will meet 1:00 pm on January 15, 2003 at the Multi-Use Center in Wareham, MA. We are welcome to attend.
John Hagerty volunteered to report on the status of our finances and what we will need for the rest of our term.
The rest of the meeting was taken up with a discussion of what we need to propose/recommend regarding piers.
Paul Brogna voiced his opinion through Bill. He felt that a Round Table group to go over each pier application was an excellent idea by Don Beers, the Harbor Master. That is because all of the issues will be presented on the table at once with the key decision making people.
We feel that our report will consist of three parts; the work plan, editorial or text comments and specific regulation recommendations.
Heidi Pape Laird presented her proposal of the creation of Scenic View areas as separate zones and added to the Town Landings and Ways to the Water for special regulation. She handed out maps of the areas of public roads where the water can be seen unhindered by all. She recommended that these areas have no new piers within 200 feet of the zone. All existing piers must be repaired as they are. Bill reported that Newburyport and Marblehead came out with Scenic Area text for regulations recently.
We discussed Shawn Dahlen’s regulation requiring the piers to end 2’ from the end of the marsh. The platform and the two pilings would only be 2’ into the waterways. This would address the safety of navigation issue. It would also limit the length of piers.
Peter Roveto presented his draft regulations. He proposed regulations to minimize pier heights and widths and to make the rails of metal pipe or cable maximum one inch in diameter. Piers would be restricted in length to one half the width of the property at the shoreline with a maximum of 200 feet. There would be a setback from the landings. Each landing might require a different setback, or one for all. Rebuilt piers would be diminished in size. Floats would be stored off of the salt marsh.
John Hagerty proposed no piers in the estuaries like Blue Fish River, Island Creek and Back Bay. They are sensitive and valuable assets that need to be investigated further. It was felt that the Bay Management Committee would be looking into those. There is not time in the weeks we have left to do a thorough investigation of the estuarine habitats for regulation.
Landings are a big issue. They have different dimensions, different purposes and different amounts of traffic. People use them for driving, walking, launching boats, parking, scenic viewing, sunbathing and swimming. Parking is very limited and some landings have none. Scenic access varies at each landing both in terms of amount of use for that purpose and value of the current scenery in the vicinity.
Ted Devnew prefers proposing a round table of key representatives from each commission and responsible authority to make decisions on each pier.
A proposal, which came from the Focus Group meeting, was to place a cap on new piers permitted each year.
Any changes to the regulations need to be proposed to the Conservation Commission for them to adopt.
The meeting was adjourned at 10(?) pm.
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