Town's new land use planner to commute from Barnstable
BY PETER B. BRACE INDEPENDENT WRITER
On July 9, the Planning Board will welcome its new land use planner, Thomas A. Broadrick.

Thomas Broadrick

Although the land use planner position is typically considered an entry-level job for municipal planning departments, Planning Director Andrew Vorce said he hired Broadrick for his vast experience and willingness to commute to Nantucket from Barnstable.

"He has extensive Massachusetts experience," said Vorce. "He has directly related experience. His last job in Barnstable was for a growth management department over there. He has skills in zoning and was described as very innovative."

Broadrick's application and resume rose to the top of 15 to 20 other applications. Vorce said he interviewed four prospective candidates in person and two on the phone before hiring Broadrick.

Before taking the job on Nantucket, Broadrick was Director of Regulatory Review for the town of Barnstable's Growth Management Department. Prior to the creation of that progressive department and his last job, Broadrick was the Director of Planning, Zoning and Historic Preservation for the town of Barnstable from March 2002 to September 2005.

He earned a bachelor of science in biology and natural resources from Ball State University of Muncie, Ind. in 1978 and his master's degree in urban and regional planning from the University of Miami at Coral Gables, Fla. in May 1992. Although he is more than qualified for the job on Nantucket, he looks at it as a challenge that he needs in his life right now.

"Sometimes you get into those positions and you like the challenge and moving up the ladder and you then say, 'I'm not really doing any land use planning, I'm doing administration,'" said Broadrick.

He said he missed working with planning boards and the actual handson planning uses for land, and is excited to get back to why he got into planning in the first place.

"I think it would be a real challenge to be on Nantucket and it sounds like there's a lot of interesting planning issues on the island similar to my job here," said Broadrick. "And who wouldn't want to work on Nantucket?

"There are redevelopment pressures, encroachment on open space and encountering all the problems in communities that have less land available."

Broadrick will be commuting from the Cape to the island four days a week and working for the Nantucket Planning Department on the mainland the fifth day, doing work Vorce described as necessary off-island planning work. However, this will be something new for the Planning Board.

"We're going to try it," said Vorce with some hesitation. "Other employees are doing it successfully, so we're going to give it a try."

For Broadrick, who commuted to Duxbury for eight years during multiple road projects and no fly-over at the Sagamore Bridge Rotary, commuting to Nantucket works for him.

Vorce began looking to fill the position of land use planner two years ago when Senior Planner Leslie Woodson ascended to her new position. That initial search drew 30 applicants, but only two of these applicants impressed Vorce enough to hire one of them. However, both declined Vorce's job offering for other opportunities on the mainland.

In the fall of 2006, Vorce hired Shaun Logue who lasted just eight days on the job. Then Woodson took a medical leave of absence for about two months this winter to recover from surgery after seriously injuring her back.

During that period, Vorce and Transportation Planner Michael Burns were the only planning staff in the planning office (with the help of the town's engineer Ed Pesce of Pesce Engineering) to cover the land use planner's duties.

On Nantucket, the land use planner reviews all development applications for approval-not-required plans, subdivisions, cluster subdivisions, major residential and commercial developments and Zoning Board of Appeals applications, and is responsible for preparing and issuing oral and written reports and findings. This person must also possess data and statistics skills, perform specialized planning studies, preliminary analysis of impacts and regulatory compliance, write reports and create maps and related graphics.

The land use planner works in concert with the planning director, senior planner, other staff and works with other town board and community

groups as necessary. I