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Town planner briefs commission on grants, online permitting and master‑plan timeline
Summary
Town planner Victoria Alfaro told the Acushnet Planning Commission on Sept. 19 that staff are preparing grant materials (including an IT grant for online permitting), that an application for 211 Middle Road has been filed and that the master‑plan scope and committee membership will be defined in meetings next week.
Victoria Alfaro, the town planner, updated the Acushnet Planning Commission on Sept. 19 about several staff initiatives: she is preparing a memo for town staff and selectmen on grant opportunities, collecting quotes for an IT grant to support online permitting, and expects to include information on projects of interest in the next packet.
Alfaro said the town must consider ongoing maintenance fees for any online permitting software before applying for grants: "All the other permitting departments are on board with wanting some form of online permitting. But what the next step for that is to see if the town can keep up with the yearly maintenance fees before people apply for the grant. We wanna make sure we can sustain this." She said she is gathering quotes and will report back.
Alfaro also announced that an application for 211 Middle Road (Boyd's Farm) has been filed and will appear on an upcoming agenda. On the master plan, she said she intended to meet with the town accountant (Jamie) and a consultant (Jen from Capital Strategies) to define the scope, and noted that consultant Paul Sullivan will be involved. She recommended forming a master‑plan committee of about seven members with two planning‑board representatives, selectmen representation, conservation/open‑space, public safety and citizen members.
Board members asked that the Board of Selectmen be kept fully informed about grant activity; the chair instructed Alfaro to provide a memo so selectmen are aware of projects under consideration.
Next step: Alfaro will prepare the memo on grant applications, continue collecting IT grant quotes, and bring a draft master‑plan scope and timeline to the commission at a future meeting. The commission's next regular meeting is Oct. 3.
