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Yarmouth planning board updates Select Board on draft local comprehensive plan, prioritizes wastewater funding and mixed-use study
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Summary
Planning Board Chair JoAnne Crowley and Town Planner Kathy Williams briefed the Select Board on the draft Yarmouth Local Comprehensive Plan (LCP). Key concerns raised were sustainable funding for future wastewater phases, managed growth along Route 28, coastal resiliency, and a mixed-use study to inform zoning updates and redevelopment.
The Yarmouth Planning Board on Tuesday presented a progress update to the Select Board on a draft Local Comprehensive Plan intended for certification by the Cape Cod Commission in 2026.
Planning Board Chair Joanne Crowley and Town Planner Kathy Williams reviewed the LCP’s scope — natural systems, built systems and community systems — and described the town’s outreach, which included stakeholder interviews, public meetings, a crowdsourcing map and coordination with the Cape Cod Commission. The presentation emphasized the plan’s purpose as a decision-making framework linking goals to targeted action items.
Why it matters: The LCP identifies water resources, wastewater funding, coastal resiliency, housing, transportation and Route 28 design as priorities. Several Select Board members pressed planners to elevate “sustainable funding mechanisms for future phases of the wastewater program” as an immediate priority; planning staff said funding for later phases remains an open challenge and that phase 1 funding had been resolved separately.
Planned studies and next steps: The planning team is completing a mixed-use analysis that will study redevelopment scenarios on example Route 28 sites, examine zoning impediments and produce visual renderings and a fiscal feasibility assessment. The mixed-use report is due in June (grant deadline June 30). The LCP draft will be distributed for public comment over the summer, with a formal public hearing anticipated in August and a goal of seeking town meeting approval in the fall of 2025. The Planning Board said it will submit the completed plan to the Cape Cod Commission for certification in 2026.
Key discussion points raised by the Select Board: members urged the plan to (1) prioritize financing options for subsequent wastewater phases; (2) clearly identify short- and long-term action leads and timelines so the LCP functions as a “living” implementation document; and (3) clarify whether recommended actions such as prescribed burns and invasive-species management should include operational conditions (for example, coordination with the fire department for any controlled burns).
What planners said they will do: The draft LCP will add implementation details — responsible parties, timelines and funding sources — for each action item. The Planning Board also said it will refine the natural-systems chapter, expand outreach, and return to the Select Board later in the summer for more targeted feedback before the formal public hearing.
