2009 Harbor Plan - Approved December 11, 2009
Local Process to approval of Harbor Plan:
2009 Harbor Plan Presentation: To City Council, January 27, 2009.
Charette held by City Council Planning & Development committee:
Notes: Group A Group B Group C.
Planning Board Report and Fort Overlay Rezoning (12-15-08)
Original Fort Rezoning Proposal (July 8, 2008)
Presentation made to Planning Board and P&D (9/15/08)
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Community Values Document
(Developed from community process)
Community Process:
Beginning The Conversation (Harbor Scenarios Presentation)
Meeting Minutes June 2nd – Kyrouz Auditorium – City Hall
Meeting Minutes June 3rd – Harbor Room – East Gloucester
Meeting Minutes June 5th – Lanesville Community Center
Meeting Minutes June 9th – Annisquam Village Church
Meeting Minutes June 10th – Magnolia Library
Written Comments during process
Comments and Responses on draft Community Values
Purpose and history of The Harbor Plan: The Harbor Plan establishes the community’s objectives, standards, and policies for guiding public and private use of land and of water within both local and State jurisdiction.
The City’s 1999 Harbor Plan was chiefly focused on infrastructure improvements for both maritime and visitor-oriented industries along the waterfront as a central means of recharging the Harbor’s economic engine. Many of the improvements have been completed in the wake of this plan.
However, it largely ignored the confusing web of land use regulations that has since emerged as the central force stagnating much of the waterfront’s revitalization.
The first draft 2006 Gloucester Harbor Plan addressed the community’s regulatory concerns, intending to lay the foundation to stimulate investment and improve economic conditions along the waterfront. This draft was developed with the services of a consultant (Urban Harbors Institute), the guidance of the Gloucester Harbor Plan Committee and numerous public meetings and interviews. The draft was presented to the Gloucester City Council in July, 2006.
Serious concerns were raised by property owners that the draft plan would be inadequate to bring investment back into the Harbor. Property owners developed a consensus in their critique of the plan, and forwarded their conclusions to the Mayor. (The Cape Ann Chamber of Commerce - Waterfront Property Owners Position Piece)
In the fall of 2007, the Mayor’s Office incorporated some of these changes into a revised draft of Sections 4 and 5 of the Harbor Plan, sending these revisions to City Council for review.
Given the varying versions of the draft plan, the Mayor directed the Community Development Department to follow a fast-track consensus building strategy that will allow the City to submit a Harbor Plan with one, clear community voice for the essential approval from the state’s Executive Office of Environmental Affairs.
Also available here are two reports on commercial fishing infrastructure in Gloucester.
Gloucester's Commerical Fishing Infrastructure (October 2003) was prepared by the Gloucester Communiyt Panel as a cooperative research project into the shore-side businesses that support commercial fishing in Gloucester. The Panel is comprosed of fishing industry members and shore-side business owners, and the report was drafted and coordinated by anthropologist Sarah Robinson.
Gloucester Harbor, Now and in the Future (June 2005) supplements the first report and contains information and analyses related to harbor planning.
Additional resources of interest are included below:
REGULATIONS
This Plan was prepared by the City under the Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management regulations (301 CMR 23.00) and is implemented under Chapter 91 regulations (301 CMR 9.00). In addition, the Gloucester Harbor Plan serves as a Designated Port Area (DPA) Master Plan, whose purpose is to preserve land for water dependant industrial uses and to plan for compatibility of uses to ensure their continuation.
What began as an initiative to simply update the 1999 plan evolved into a complete rewrite of the document and the addition of a comprehensive Designated Port Area (DPA) Master Plan that, if accepted as consistent with state law, becomes a guiding document for state regulation.
upon taking office in January, 2008.
