Canton, Massachusetts · Saved source text
Canton MPSC_Minutes_10.11.18
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Canton Master Plan Update Steering Committee Meeting October 11, 2018, 7-9 pm Canton Public Library 786 Washington St MINUTES Present: Horsley Witten Group: Nate Kelly, Krista Moravec Master Plan Steering Committee: David McCarthy, Gerald Carmichael, Meredith McLoughlin, John McSweeny, Tonja Mettlach and Sonja Grauds; Emilio Mauro, and Michael McMahon Staff: Laura Smead, Town Planner Not present: Tom Theodore Discussion/Homework 1. Welcome/Late Arrivals 7:00-7:05 2. Acceptance of Meeting Minutes 7:05-7:10 3. Baseline Report Topic: Housing & Households 7:10-8:00 Discussion of housing types highlights the multi-unit development that has and continues to happen in Canton. Group also notes that vacancy rate should be explored further – what are implications when it is too high or low and how is affordability impacts? How Canton compared to other towns on vacancy rate statistic? Discussion of household and family income section focuses on need to use a region-specific indicator or threshold for poverty- FPL may not be best since Canton housing cost is so high. Suggestion to use AMI. Canton is second-most cost burdened by housing amongst neighboring towns (37.2%). In light of this, Housing Production Plan section text should consider that some affordable units will expire in 2030 and this will impact 40B. Ideally town will maintain 10% affordability through new development and not fee n lie of development. Discussion of this impact ad how it may add to the affordability challenges for housing in Canton should be added to appropriate areas of report- maybe a challenge/goals section. 4. Baseline Report Topic: Public Health 8:00 -8:40 This report references AMI when discussing median income; this is preferable to FPL. Discussion around food access and accompanying map, which group agrees is nice feature. Need to put more focus on food access in text, specifically around grocery stores and healthy food availability and how this impacts low-income residents. Break out grocery stores into own dots on map to make this distribution more obvious. Also need more detail on access to public assistance (can probably source this data from MA DTA website) and which providers accept MassHealth on the medical facilities map.
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5. Public Outreach & Communication 8:40-8:50 Discussion of Canton Citizen op-eds- Tonja will write next to be provided by early November. Most will serve as “Citizen Spotlights” and focus on why committee membership is interesting/important. Will be published to Citizen and on MP website. Also discuss the upcoming public kickoff event on 10/25. Some group members will serve as notetakers for discussion at event and will have phone call with HW to prep prior to meeting. Citizen will provide publicity. Group members will also post to their networks and consider posting flyers around town and in municipal buildings. 6. Housekeeping 8:50-9:00 Future meeting dates set: 11/8, 12/13 (moved from 12/12), 1/17