Thompson Street
When I was gathering signatures to pass the CPA, a met with a few different town boards and groups including the Citizens for the Preservation of Thompson Street. I also worked with Liz Gimson from the Taunton River Wathershed Alliance.
I see in his week’s Gazette that Ms. Gimson met with the Thompson Street group to discuss land preservation and other concerns.
It’s funny that people like the Thompson Street group have to take the lead on preserving land. I find the town to be lacking in planning and vision on this issue. I’ve been researching ways to use community owned land and have come across some interesting information. There are significant resources out there that we’ll never see unless we develop some local interest and resolve.
Themocracy
When you consider what other towns have done with cluster zoning and land use, Middleboro is still rather primitive.
It was disappointing when a certain group found it acceptable to proclaim that we had enough land preserved and concluded the discussion. They stopped listening at that point and closed their minds.
What is always interesting is the affluent towns that adopted CPA or land trusts and are aggressively working to preserve land. They do it because it’s important. Maybe Middleboro will figure it out before it’s gone.
I am on the open space planning committee and we need help. Anyone interested in this can come to our meeting on Tuesday evening at 7pm in the Bank building on the third floor. We are in the process of developing a comprehensive open space plan to help protect this priceless resource in Middleboro. We, as a town, are currently lacking an open space plan and therefore are unable to apply for grants and funds to help preserve our open space. With all of the possibilities of development both now and in the future it is incredibly important that we develop a smart growth plan for our future. This economic slump we are in now will not last forever and on the other side a development boom is lurking. With out some serious ‘smart growth’ planning we will definitely not fare as well as we should. The amount of endangered species that share Middleboro with us is both fascinating and astounding(the herring run for example). If we fail to protect there homes as well as our own we will never be able to share these treasures with our children and grand children.
We need to act now!
I think people are panicking as they worry that once secure jobs may not be such a sure thing. I even read in this morning’s Globe that people are putting off elective surgeries for fear that healthcare benefits may somehow suddenly vaporize.
Perhaps the current reluctance toward CPA will change when people start seeing signs of the economy improving. JMO
Reading Al’s comment got me wondering.
Why are we always talking about things we need to do as a Town, how important these things are, and yet we always seem to be in the development stage.
Why don’t we already have an open space plan? Why are we missing out on grants and funds that are available?
Don’t get me wrong, I know we have to start somewhere. My question is, why didn’t we start years ago? When is our Town going to stop being reactionary and start being proactive?
Being proactive buys you time to do the proper research, and impact studies, and allows you to make intelligent informed decisions.
Being reactionary tends to lead to hastey decision making without all the facts. The next thing you know, there’s a huge monstrosity of a casino in your backyard.