The Comprehensive Community Plan sets up a vision for the town of Portsmouth and a set of steps to create that vision.”

Gary Crosby, Portsmouth town planner

Portsmouth Comprehensive Community Plan Workshop

WHEN: 7-9:30 p.m. on Wednesday, April 3

WHERE: Portsmouth Middle School auditorium, 125 Jepson Lane

AGENDA: A brief presentation will be followed by a gallery session where residents can review and comment on draft goals/policies and speak with project team members.

MORE INFO: Town Planner Gary Crosby, 401/643-0332

PORTSMOUTH — A document that will outline the town’s vision of its future gets its first public airing on Wednesday, April 3.

Residents will be able to review and comment on draft goals and policies of the updated Portsmouth Comprehensive Community Plan (CCP) during the workshop, which will run from 7-9:30 p.m. in the auditorium at Portsmouth Middle School, 125 Jepson Lane.

The draft plan is the result of months of work by Town Planner Gary Crosby, the Planning Board, the Citizens Interested in the Comprehensive Community Planning Process Committee and other residents.

“The Comprehensive Community Plan sets up a vision for the town of Portsmouth and a set of steps to create that vision,” said Mr. Crosby.

Without such a vision, a community can develop without foresight, without purpose, without consideration of all of the aspects that are essential to maintaining a high quality of life for residents, he said. And, without a detailed road map for achieving that vision, local decision-makers may not know how to make progress toward the end state that the community desires, he added.

All municipalities in Rhode Island are required to have their CCPs updated every decade, but Portsmouth’s hasn’t been revised since 2002.

“It has not been updated since then, and in 2002 it wasn’t so much a revision as it was adding a couple of amendments. We are way past due,” Mr. Crosby said.

The plan was so old, in fact, that Mr. Crosby started “deconstructing” the document from top to bottom. “We basically had to start from scratch,” he said. “This is new.”

There are 12 different elements of the CCP, covering everything from land use to economic development to water supply and more. 

“They are up on the town’s website for anyone to see,” said Mr. Crosby. “There are some pieces that we still need to finish up and they’re highlighted in there, but we’re mostly there.”

The elements have also been put on poster boards and will be displayed during a 45-minute “gallery session” during the April 3 workshop. “We’re going to have 12 stations where people can walk around and review goals and policies for each station,” said Mr. Crosby, adding that the elements are currently on display in the lobby at Town Hall.

Although each element of the plan has been reviewed during monthly public meetings that began more than a year ago, the April 3 workshop will be the first time all the drafts will be presented together for public comment. “This workshop is going to be a stand-alone — the first opportunity for the wider public to see the draft of the plan,” Mr. Crosby said.

After that, the Planning Board will hold public hearings on the drafts in late May or early June. The April 3 workshop, he said, “is an opportunity for the public to get to speed and see the plan and possibly get motivated to comment on public hearings. The public comment period really starts now.”

Each element is basically constructed the same way: A front section contains an inventory of assets along with a discussion of the related issues for each. 

“The last section is the heart of the matter — goals, policies and implementation items for the plan going forward,” the planner said. While those sections have all been vetted by the Planning Board, the April 3 workshop will be dedicated to a wider public discussion of the policies. 

More review

After the workshop and subsequent Planning Board hearings, the CCP will go to Statewide Planning for more review. (The town has already been sending individual elements to the state for preliminary review, with no glaring issues reported, Mr. Crosby said.)

“Statewide Planning does a full-on review and shop it around to all their agencies and adjoining communities. Then it goes to the Town Council for public workshops before the plan is ultimately adopted,” Mr. Crosby said, adding that Statewide Planning may need to briefly review the plan again if the town makes any major changes.

If everything goes as planned, the revised CCP will be formally adopted later this year, he said. “I really want to get this off my desk,” Mr. Crosby said with a laugh.

‘No wholesale changes’

While the town’s demographics have shifted over the years, Mr. Crosby said “no wholesale changes” in current or future land use are being recommended in the draft CCP. “Things are fairly static,” he said, although some inconsistencies between current land use and the future land use map will need to be identified.

There are two new elements of the new CCP, both required by Statewide Planning. 

“One is regarding energy and the second is natural hazards and climate change. (That) piece of that plan shows its face in the land use element and other elements. It really is across the board,” said Mr. Crosby.

When asked how he thinks the overall CCP process has gone so far, Mr. Crosby said, “In reviewing all of the elements together, I was delighted in the end how they all came together and talked to each other.”

Mr. Crosby is hoping for a strong turnout to the April 3 CCP workshop.

“This is where the rubber meets the road — the beginning of the full-on public comment period. If I could have everyone in the town of Portsmouth sit in on this and comment, that would make me a happy man,” he said.