BarnstableWatch Buzz - Stuff You Need To Know

This episode let's you know public body meetings of note coming up in the first week of January 2022. It's about housing and planning this week! 

This episode reports on the status of the Barnstable Town staff's recommendation to the Town Council on the 2021 Local Comprehensive Plan Committee, and its composition. It also brings visibility to the public's comments on the Town staff's recommendation as the Town has not posted the public comments submitted in mid-November. Transparency into public comment helps inform our thinking and enables assessment of whether and how responsive the Town is to it.  Sunlight! 

This episode shares information about an apparent breach of U.S. Postal Service boxes in Barnstable and subsequent check fraud.  Check your statements. Call your bank. Alert family and friends. This is unofficial word based on experience and community conversations pending word from public officials who are presumably on this matter for you. 

This episode poses questions about the use of property as a warehouse in zones that permit residential and retail use. Lots of questions. If you care about your Village as a place to live, work and play, you gotta care about zoning. 

The Housing Committee will meet on December 1, 2021 at 5:00 p.m.  This episode shares what the Housing Committee will discuss that was to be guided by Town Council direction. 

This episode spotlights some Town meetings during the week starting November 22, 2021. Town business is your business. Find out more about town committee agenda items at the Town of Barnstable website under 'Official Agendas'. 

Town Council meetings are long and not always covered by local media. This is a quick (6 minutes and 30 seconds!) summary of some highlights from the November 18, 2021 meeting. Go watch the full meeting on Channel 18 through the Town of Barnstable website for more on the punchlines we give and matters we didn't cover. 

A quick look ahead at Town and other meetings of interest this coming week. Town business is your business so tune in. 

The Town staff has set out its preferred way to approach the 2021 Local Comprehensive Planning process. That's a plan that will determine what your street, your neighborhood, your village and your community looks like a decade from now. The process affects the plan's content and the end product, so it has to be right. This episode explains what the Town staff wants and what changes to that would help to get it right, right from the start. 

What's up with a podcast by BarnstableWatch?  Listen here to find out what 'Stuff You Need To Know' is all about and why it makes sense to check in and give it a listen on a regular basis.As always, thanks to resident volunteers who listen hard to what's up at Town Hall and help us  share! 

The Barnstable Planning Department has been working on a huge zoning change for Hyannis with commercial interests for years. It's point? Drive density. In fact, leave density up to real estate developers. And stop caring about how properties are used. And if you listen close, you'll hear staff say it's plan has always been to duplicate it elsewhere. It's called Form Based Zoning. This episode gives you the basics. 

We're in a housing crisis, nationally.  Yet Barnstable's Housing Committee has been somewhat inactive over the last few years.  In the fall of 2021, it got back to business. In this episode, we'll explain what issues are on deck, what housing issues Town staff told the Housing Committee not to work on, and what to expect next.