What About Canton Makes You Proud, Sorrowful?

The prouds and the sorrys.

That is what is needed from residents, a consultant told members of a committee charged with updating the town’s Plan of Conservation and Development.

If asked how to plan Canton’s future, residents will likely feel that’s best left to the experts, Glenn Chalder, president of Planimetrics told the commission Thursday night.

However, if they’re asked what they’re proud of and what they regret about Canton, plenty will come to light, he added.

“If you say to people what makes you proud about Canton, it’s amazing what they unleash,” Chalder said.

The Plan of Conservation and Development, often called the POCD, is designed to guide the town’s boards and commissions in future planning, development, conservation, economic growth and other important decisions.

Chalder and Jason Vincent, vice president of the Avon company, met with the committee for the first time Thursday since being hired to help update the plan, which by state statute must be done every 10 years.

The company has been hired to help guide the committee through the process as well as get input from residents.

And to get that input, the committee needs to get those residents to participate in the process, a matter it has struggled with over the past several months.

Committee members said it’s even been a challenge to get input from those with a vested interest. Member Lans Perry said even many Planning Commission members, who will need to approve the document, have consistently missed meetings.

“If you don’t show up, we’re not utilizing your wisdom and the collective wisdom of the group, and it’s a tragedy,” he said.

But whether it’s the public at large or those with special interests, the Planimetrics representatives said facilitating and promoting events, such as a public “kick-off” workshop, was just one aspect of their services. They also discussed other potential avenues of promotion, such as using Facebook and Twitter to get feedback and link to the Web page already set up by the committee and publishing short newsletters after each meeting.

Many committee members and the consultants agreed that the input and some type of consensus at or near the beginning of the process is crucial, especially in a town where there are varying opinions on development, growth, conservation and other issues.

“We want to be able to get some resolution to those sources of friction in our community and get some guidance,” Town Planner Neil Pade said.

Planimetrics and committee members also discussed many aspects of developing the plan itself, collecting data, writing succinct chapters, adding relevant mapping, including neighborhood or “district” sensitivity, making a relevant, measurable, user-friendly document and being specific enough to provide clear direction without being too rigid or overwhelming.

“What we’d look at is a plan that is living and we can use,” committee member Julius Fialkiewicz said.  

The committee is still working on dates for its workshop but residents can go to http://cantonpocd.posterous.com/ to read more about its efforts and leave comments. 

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