Planning Board Report for 1918 - Laserfiche WebLink

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PLANNING BOARD REPORT FOR 1918 The Planning Board organized on April 2, 1918, and be- tween this date and the close of the year held twelve meetings, eight of which were joint meetings with the Cemetery Committee. Numerous informal meetings of various members of the Board have been held. Upon a number of occasions members of the Board of Select- men, Board of Survey and Park Board have met with the Planning Board, and upon other occasions members of the Planning Board have met with other Boards. The principal work of the Planning Board has been in connection with the Cemetery Committee, serving as a joint board under vote of the Town to lay out the new cemetery. At the time the Planning Board was established, the Town assigned to it in co-operation with the Cemetery Committee the task of securing plans for the development of the new cemetery. Owing to the demands of this work, the Board has naturally given to the Cemetery project the major portion of its time. Meetings of the joint committee, conferences, interviews, visits to ceme- teries in this vicinity and elsewhere have been very nearly con- tinuous with the result that a report will soon be ready. Plans are nearing completion, and it is hoped that a full report with plan of the proposed lay -out and draft of rules and regulations for handling the matter may be in the hands of the citizens prior to the annual town meeting. It is expected that the plan of development will be at that time sufficiently complete to enable the Town, provided it accepts the same, to take definite action looking toward actual work of construction. Aside from the fact that the work upon the new cemetery has taken the major part of the Board's time and attention, it is to be remembered that the Planning Board is a new one with no traditional or well-defined lines laid down for its work. The inevitable result has been to require time to feel out the situation which confronts the Town, and to determine to what line or lines the Board could best devote its time and effort. The Board is without any real power in connection with any matter, and must content itself with recommendations and suggestions to be put into effect by the Town, and while numerous matters having to do with the welfare of the Town as the Board conceives it have been considered and gone into to considerable extent, it seems wise at the present time not to dwell upon matters that at present can only be considered as possibilities. At the very outset of its work, the Planning Board en- countered the necessity for an adequate map of the Town, and until such a map can be produced, very little of real value 0441 be accomplished in the intended line of activity of a planning