Local Comprehensive Plan Update

Local Comprehensive Plan

A Local Comprehensive Plan (LCP), often called a Master Plan, tells a community what it looks like today and where it wants to go in the future. It includes: assessments of existing resources and issues, projections of future conditions and needs, and consideration of collective goals and desires. We are updating the current plan, approved in 2000, and expect the new plan to be finalized by winter 2021.

The Local Comprehensive Planning (LCP) process begins with establishing our vision and goals for where we want Provincetown to be in the next 10 to 20 years.

The Local Comprehensive Plan Committee will take the lead in developing the LCP for Provincetown, placing the required elements within a sustainable framework. We welcome volunteers and input from the community. For more information, email Thaddeus Soule, Town Planner.

What is a Local Comprehensive Plan?

The LCP establishes guidelines and a vision for the future growth and the direction of the community; specifically, an LCP can provide the Town with a planning framework for development regulations, capital facilities and infrastructure necessary to address future growth and resource protection. Cape Cod Commission review and certification of an LCP aligns regional and local goals. The LCP expresses the community’s values as targeted actions. 

The Provincetown LCP will be developed using other municipal planning documents and initiatives. It is NOT a zoning by-law, a subdivision regulation, a budget, a capital improvement program, or other regulatory document. It IS meant to be the framework for the preparation or revision of these documents.

Elements of the Local Comprehensive Plan

The LCP must be consistent with the Regional Policy Plan. Progress has been delayed by Covid 19, but the Committee continues to meet remotely to draft the plan. The overarching goals of the plan are to:

  • Develop creative housing options for rental or purchase that will support a thriving and diverse community that includes: 1) year-round residents of all ages, backgrounds, and income levels; 2) seasonal workers; and 3) long-term and short-term visitors.
  • Encourage the creation and diversification of year-round employment opportunities through both the expansion of existing economic sectors and the growth of emerging sectors; expand transportation options and decrease the carbon footprint while expanding connections to Provincetown for those who seek to live, work and visit Provincetown.
  • Promote private development and public facilities that maintain the historic human and neighborhood scale, increases connectivity with the harbor and open lands, mitigates the effects of climate change all while developing increased housing options. 
  • Improve public health security for all residents by: 1) ensuring appropriate health and wellness services are available, including emergency care, mental health services, age-focused health services particularly for children and seniors, and providing diverse recreation options; 2) continuing to expand the municipal sewer to protect our residents, land, and coastal waters from the impacts of waste; and 3) emergency preparedness for all likely threats to life and property, including weather-related disasters and communicable diseases.

Building on Past Plans & Studies

The LCP is closely integrated with other municipal documents and initiatives and recently developed plans including: