Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Amherst Master Plan Public Forum Postponed Till February

The Amherst Master Plan, which had been moving slowly but steadily through the bowels of Town government like a tapir through an anaconda, ran into a minor but unexpected obstruction this afternoon. Due to a clerical error—namely, the failure to post the full and proper public notice forty-eight hours in advance—the meeting at which the Planning Board had intended to present the final draft for public comment had to be postponed from tomorrow night till February 3.

The Plan has changed relatively little in its recent iterations, though language concerning village centers and infill has generated the predictable and repetitive rearguard complaints from the occasional resident and one outlier on the Board for the past year.

Because there was in fact such strong consensus in favor of the document, the Planning Board had voted in December to "accept" the draft language of the Plan, but at the urging of Planning Director Jonathan Tucker, decided to hold one final forum at which the public could receive an update and voice its reactions. Only the Board's "adoption" (to use the formal term) of the Plan, as such, will give it official status.

Read Amherst Bulletin reporter Scott Merzbach's summary of the Plan and its progress (published last week when the meeting was still expected to take place) here.

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