When Pepperell passed its first rate of Development Bylaw in 2000, no growth management study was established. The Bylaw’s focus was on capping market rate development for four years to put a temporary brake on development.

Today’s proposed Rate of Development bylaw provides a cap on market rate development with the intent of incentivizing affordable housing development. It also provides for creation of a growth management study to guide our growth going forward. Many towns use steering committees made up of Town department heads, Town Boards and committees, civic organizations, and town representatives at large to conduct studies and report their findings back to the community.

The steering committee would be responsible for developing a stakeholder engagement plan before the growth management study begins. Keeping the public informed during the one or two years it may take to research and write a growth management study is very challenging as we have no community paper and many people do not use social media nor are able to attend nighttime meetings. But it is imperative that stakeholder engagement is successfully accomplished. It is the reason why the Rate of Development bylaw exists for four years to allow the necessary time for analytically based planning to occur and community feedback and input to be accomplished.