Community Vision Public Forum was held on Thursday, May 13, 2004. Click to see the PowerPoint presentation. Also presented at the forum were the results of the 2004 Community Visioning Survey. See the draft report., Click here for the survey instrument. Updating the Community Vision Statement Read more.

Community Development Working Group next meets Thursday, June 3rd at 2:30 p.m. Join us at the next meeting of the Community Development Working Group on Thursday, June 3, 2004 from 2:30 to 4:00 p.m. at Town Hall. .

The Working Group has met on June 17th, October 30th, and December 4th, 2003; and January 14th, February 12th, March 18th, and April 29th, 2004. The Community Development Working Group is open to anyone who would like to actively participate on a regular basis in the Visioning Process. The working group would be comprised of representatives from the LCP/IC, Town staff, and other Town boards, community organizations, and the community at large. The purpose of the visioning phase, EO 418 says, "is to identify the points on which residents agree and disagree, and to build a common framework through listening and dialogue." .

Community Vision: What's yours for Provincetown? We'd like to hear from you or your group. For more information, contact Director of Community Development Jon Gilmore.

The Community Vision process calls for public forums in mid-June and October/November, with activities in between for a broad-based Community Development Working Group.

Activities to be undertaken from June to September. For more information, contact Director of Community Development Jon Gilmore.

1. Identify and contact community groups to learn when they are available to meet and when they have regularly scheduled meetings that can serve as a forum for soliciting their ideas and views for the visioning process. This effort should include not only more formal organized groups but also informal groups, such as the employees at the Cape End Manor.

2. Go meet with those groups who want to meet during the summer to a) describe the process to them and b) encourage them to contribute their ideas and views. Meet with other groups when they are available after Labor Day.

3. Look for informal opportunities to talk to individuals and groups about the Community Visioning process, such as at the Supermarket or the Post Office.

4. Initiate a broad based community outreach program, to include use of the Town's web-site with links to "Provincetown.com"; the Banner, local magazines, PTV, and WOMR; and, maps and suggestion boxes in several locations around town.

5. Develop a town-wide survey questionnaire to be mailed to all postal patrons, with a similar survey questionnaire to be published in the Banner so as to reach others, such as seasonal workers and renters. Efforts should be made to include all non-residential property owners in the survey. The survey should include an update of the questions in the survey conducted in the 1990's.

6. Participate in the meetings that the LCP Implementation Committee has with Town boards to solicit their ideas and inputs for the visioning process.

7. Continue the on-going work of the Affordable Housing Task Force and the Open Space Committee to identify a) housing initiatives that can move forward in the near future, b) non-developed land that should be preserved for natural resource protection or passive uses, and c) non-developed land that is particularly suitable for development including affordable housing.

Meetings of the Community Development Working Group-

• July 29th, 4:30 to 6:30 PM
• Late September.

Next Public Forum-

• Late October or in November before Thanksgiving.

Discussion comments-

• What kind of a community do we want to be?
• Are we a year-round community?
• How do we define "year-round community"?
• How can we support the arts as an "indigenous community"?
• Are there other economies that we can have besides tourism?
• There should be greater reliance on year-round employment and less on seasonal employment.
• We are a tourism community.
• We need to invest in our community.
• We need to provide jobs and incentives for those who live here.
• We need to cultivate the workforce that we need: traditionally, it has been our own children, then college students, and now Jamaicans and Eastern Europeans.
• Use economic development zones to reduce the cost of commercial space.
• We need to adjust to the needs of an aging population.
• Many retirees are working part-time.
• There are lots of seasonal requests for second jobs to make ends meet.
• You need a $57,000 income to afford to live on the Lower Cape.
• There is an inter-relationship between economic development, housing, and transportation.
• The December 1993 statement of community values reads: "We value the strength of Provincetown's community family and care-giving nature and are committed to the principle of shared rights and responsibilities in providing for each individual's fundamental needs. Preserving the environment of the community - its natural beauty and its cultural environment, arts, and history - is a primary responsibility of the community as a whole: accepting the responsibility of stewardiship is a basic community value. The town is proud of its living history as the representation of self-detemination, creativity, opportunity of expression and values its heritage, history, arts and beauty."

First Public Forum. The first Public Forum was held on Monday, June 16, 2003 at Provincetown Town Hall to kick off the process for developing a Community Vision statement to guide the Town of Provincetown's efforts to address affordable housing, open space/resource protection, transportation, and economic development. The process will be led by Facilitator John Goodrich, with whom the Town has worked in crafting our unique wastewater solution. Read invitation. Go to maps. See the PowerPoint presentation.

The 2000 Local Comprehensive Plan (LCP) Town Vision describes the important "characteristics" of Provincetown to be managed, preserved or improved, including its urban character, affordable housing, natural resources, and a sustainable year-round economy. This statement is a good starting point for the Visioning Process - it can be reviewed, reaffirmed, and refined as appropriate to reflect today's circumstances.

Should the Visioning Process also strive for consensus on a statement of the overall community "values" that ought to be preserved, nurtured, and celebrated? Why has each of us "invested" in Provincetown as the place where we want to be? As the recent Provincetown Banner editorial suggested, such a statement might articulate the "specialness of this magical place". This could include some articulation of how people think of such concepts as "community", "year-round sustainable community", or the "soul" of a community that encourages one's active participation in community life. Any expression of important community values can also benefit from the "sense of place" portrayed by Provincetown's artists and poets over the years.

Implementation of the goals stated in the LCP will most likely require some thoughtful balancing between potentially competing objectives because resources such as land, housing and services are very limited. Sometimes working to meet one objective may have inadvertent negative consequences for another objective. A clear statement of the overall Community Values, together with the characteristics of Provincetown described in the 2000 LCP Vision Statement, can provide important guidance to the process of ensuring balance, setting priorities, and building consensus for their implementation.

The Visioning Process will explore each of these areas through open dialogue in the two planned public forums in June and September, as well as through the meetings of the Community Development Working Group, with the goal of developing a Community Vision Statement by the end of September. The Vision Statement is the first step in the town's Community Development Planning Process which is focusing on four of the elements in the LCP - housing, open space and resource protection, transportation, and economic development.

In the June 16th public forum, we will review the 2000 LCP Vision Statement, the objectives and schedule for the Visioning Process, and the up-to-date information for the four elements of the LCP. Then, we will begin the open discussion of reviewing, reaffirming, and refining the Vision Statement, including exploring what overall community values ought to be preserved, nurtured, and celebrated. Throughout the public meetings, we will use the affordable housing element as a "case study" for our discussions, since there are many housing issues to be addressed and there is already a good on-going process for developing information and encouraging new ideas.

The Community Development Working Group-- which will include representation from all public and private Provincetown boards and groups that would like to be actively involved in the planning activities-- will provide on-going oversight and guidance to the process. At the first meeting of the Working Group on June 17th we will engage in further discussion of the Vision Statement, community values, and the available information with a focus on how the participants can work with their own community groups to encourage additional ideas and insights from them.

Funding for the visioning process comes from a $30,000 EO 418 planning grant from the Department of Housing & Community Development, which the Board of Selectmen accepted in January. The scope of services for the Community Development Plan has been reviewed by the Cape Cod Commission, which conducted an "equivalency analysis" comparing the LCP as adopted Community Development Plan.

See the Commonwealth's baseline information for Provincetown.

Go to Affordable Housing Go to Community Development