Proposed bylaw would require planning director to report to the town manager
Planning Board reviews 15 citizen and staff planning articles
BY PETER B. BRACE INDEPENDENT WRITER
Of the 10 planning and zoning citizen articles on this year's Town Meeting Warrant, Curtis Barnes' idea that the planning director should report to the town manager is stirring up the most controversy.

Barnes feels that since the planning director is the only department head who does not report directly to Town Manager Libby Gibson on a regular basis, voters should amend the town charter to require it. This would also require a special act of the state legislature to change the enabling legislation that created the Nantucket Planning & Economic Development Commission in 1973.

Barnes explained that these reports to the town manager would be more about the workings of the Nantucket Planning & Economic Development Commission than the daily grind of the Planning Board. Barnes conceded that he did not have any specific reasons for making the planning director accountable to the town manager, other than sparking a good discussion, hopefully on Town Meeting floor, on how to keep the town manager in the loop on long-range planning issues.

"My feeling is that the Planning Department is a major force in this community - it has a fairly good budget - and it would be to the benefit of the Planning Board and the town if the planning director would report to the town manager do all other departments," Barnes said.

Barnes also believes that the planning director should answer to the town manager because the town funds the salaries of the land use planner, administrative specialists, a temporary Zoning Board of Appeals administrator and 95 percent of the planning director's and the senior planner's salaries. (The other five percent of the planning director's and the senior planner's salary, and all of the transportation planner's salary is funded by state grants.)

Currently, Planning Director Andrew Vorce reports to the Planning Commission, but he said that he meets each Monday morning with Gibson and the rest of the town department heads to do just what Barnes wants the act to require.

"I communicate with her all the time," Vorce said. "There are several department heads that report directly to their boards and these are the airport manager and the water company, the town clerk doesn't report to the town manager. I participate with all the other department heads and the staff."

Vorce questioned Barnes' logic for submitting this article, asking why, if this is such a pressing matter, did the selectmen or the town manager not submit such an article in the past? In answer to Planning Board member John McLaughlin's comment that "if ain't broke, don't fix it" at the Jan. 7 Planning Board meeting, Barnes said that the growth of the island and the town's ever-increasing budget demands such a protocol change.

"I believe the efforts of the Planning Department can be better coordinated by having formal cooperation," said Barnes.

But Vorce, the board and the NP&EDC worry that town control of what is one of 13 regional state agencies - Nantucket's Planning Commission - could put it in jeopardy should the town decide the commission is no longer needed. Without the NP&EDC, Vorce said the Planning Department would lose funding for its transportation planner position.

The four present Planning Board members spoke against Barnes' proposal at the Jan. 7 meeting. At the Jan. 17 continuance of that public hearing, the board voted unanimously to send a letter to the Finance Committee recommending that it give Barnes' article a negative recommendation.

"If this discussion gets to the Town Meeting floor, it will become numbing because it is too confusing," said Planning Board member Nat Lowell. "All of that information makes that article even more premature because we have not even explored the ramifications of what changing this agency would do."

The Planning Board also reviewed 14 other articles at its Jan. 7 public hearing - five technical articles from the planning staff and nine planning and zoning articles submitted by citizens, continuing them to be dealt with at last week's meeting on Jan. 17. The fate of these articles is as follows:

• Amendment to the Multi-Family Overlay District Map to include 3A Sun Island Road - submitted by Paul Jensen: positive recommendation to the selectmen

• Amendment of Zoning Bylaw to change the end date of the temporary moratorium on docks, piers and wharves - submitted by Debbie Deeley-Culbertson: continued to Feb. 21

• Zoning map change from LUG-3 to LUG-1 for 15 and 28 Kelley Road - Patricia C. Myers: positive recommendation to the selectmen

• Amendment of Zoning Bylaw to include "Open Air Markets" as a land use in all commercial districts - Heather Leisher-Coffin: positive recommendation to the selectmen

• Amendment to the town charter to change the term of Planning Board members from five to three years - Joan Barnes: negative recommendation to the selectmen

• Amendment to the code of the Town of Nantucket to require paving projects, with some exceptions, to be approved by a Town Meeting vote - Grant Sanders: Selectman Michael Kopko asked the FinCom to give a negative recommendation to this article

• Establishment of an agricultural commission - Heather Leisher- Coffin: positive recommendation to the selectmen

• Amendment to the code of Town of Nantucket to modify regulations for street numbering - Frank Spriggs: positive recommendation to the selectmen

• Establishing town policies to encourage and enable the use of alternative, renewable energy systems - Karen Alence: positive recommendation to the selectmen

• Amendment to the Zoning Bylaw to change the name of the Residential Commercial Downtown district to Commercial Downtown district - Planning Board: positive recommendation to the selectmen

• Amendment to the Zoning Bylaw to make the Assisted Living Community, Our Island Home and Academy Hill districts all permitted uses instead of zoning districts - Planning Board: positive recommendation to the selectmen

• Amendment to the Zoning Bylaw to modify the definition of a structure - Planning Board: positive recommendation to the selectmen

• Amendment to the Zoning Bylaw to add a definition for transfer station - Planning Board: positive recommendation to the selectmen

• Amendment to the Zoning Bylaw sections 139-21F(5) to reference 139- 7E rather than 139-20A - Planning Board: positive recommendation to the selectmen.

The next Planning Board zoning article public hearing will deal with 41-81D Master Plan land use issues, including the creation of new commercial districts. That meeting is Feb. 21 at 7 p.m. in the garage at 2

Fairgrounds Road. I