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Town of Brewster Coastal Committee : Meeting Minutes
Monday, April 3, 2017 at 6 :OOPM, Brewster Town Hall Meeting Room B
Members present : Abigail Archer, Matt Cannon , Ruth Courtnell, James Goodrich, Pat Hughes, Rachel
Hutchinson, and Mary O' Neil
Members absent : None
Staff present : Chris Miller, Director, Natural Resources Department
Guests : None
Call to Order: 6 : 01 PM by Committee Chair Pat Hughes .
Item 1 : Meeting Minutes from March 6, 2017
MOTION to approve March 6, 2017 meeting minutes moved by Abigail, seconded by Rachel : Vote
taken : 7 in favor, none against, no abstention .
Item 2 : Review Coastal Adaptation Strategy document and prepare a list of comments
Review of 2 page handout of email input from Ruth . Began with review of comments from Rachel .
Chris Miller will look into the posting of the video mentioned on page 25 of the Strategy. Total
number of Target Audience was discussed . Delete the total number of 6,980 and leave the rest of
the summary information . Also change the Page B- 1 reference to West to East from East to West .
Mary will write up clarification of survey references and submit to Pat .
Pat read an email from Tonna - Marie regarding consistency in presenting the survey information .
Ruth mentioned the guidance presented on the Survey Monkey website to underline the
importance of consistency in presenting survey data . Pat suggested that we rewrite survey
references to make the answers more consistent . Mary offered to perform the initial rewrite and
send it to Pat .
Ruth walked us through her review of the Strategy with specific emphasis on the clarity of the
Executive Summary. As an example : there is a reference to the resident survey, but the survey
included visitors . Discussion of specific inclusion of sea level rise in the Executive Summary and map
representations with use of planning horizons of 20, 40, and 60 years with 1, 2, and 4400t sea level
rise respectively . Section 6 . 2 . 5 discussion about a declarative statement not supported in the body
of the Strategy . Suggestion to flip the clause in : "Continue ongoing beach nourishment and dune
protection projects (sand fencing, planting ), with periodic review of the management plans and
methods" . Start "With periodic review of the management plans and methods, continue ongoing
beach nourishment and dune protection projects ."
Page 9 of Strategy — Charge from Selectmen, should change since there was no legal charge . Change
the-wording to"the-goal" not"charge".-Revisited_the-question_of-8 vs 10 foot inundations used in
the representation and maps . Possibility of inserting notation of why the 10400t scenario was
included on maps 134 and page 23 . James will write explanation that those increments are digital
elevation models that are cumulative and can represent any combination of sea level rise, storm
surge, or tide variance . The 1, 2 , and 4400t sea level rises are the time component used for
planning .
Mary began discussion of the acknowledgement page with special reference to the role of the
BCAG . Abigail gave input on how to rewrite those credits . It was decided to credit BCAG with
development of Strategy and move the credit to the BCAG to the top of the list .
Proposed edits by Mary and James will be submitted to Pat within one week and they will be
brought to the next meeting . Abigail made point that before we make a presentation to the Board of
Selectmen, the corrections to the Strategy or an Errata sheet need to be posted online . Began
discussion of planning for meeting with the BOS . Ruth made point of order to clarify that we move
discussion into Item 3 .
Item 3 : Discuss presentation of Coastal Adaptation Strategy document to Board of Selectmen
Pat reviewed potential dates to meet with the BOS : May 22, or their first meeting in June . Ruth
asked Chris about realistic timelines to obtain revisions and input from the consultants . Ruth
suggested a professional presentation from the consultants . Abigail and Pat expanded on that
thought to have them create a presentation with guidance from our committee .
Pat passed out sheets highlighting some important elements of the consensus process . The
objective is to help advance the discussion that the Strategy is guidance to help the Coastal
Committee draft a management plan . These points are significant in the presentation to the BOS in
that conversation . Abigail expressed that it is a good idea and appropriate to have the consultants
present to the BOS . She also raised the point that the BOS may invite us back to further discuss the
change to our charge and other matters . We are still finishing the work of the BCAG .
Discussion of the points distributed by Pat highlighted that they are pulled from the Executive
Summary of the Strategy and are significant summary points that need to be presented to the BOS .
Pat recommended that we could place an action item on the BOS agenda to act on a change in our
charge . Recommendation from Chris to give BOS information packet, visualizations, etc . to shorten
the time to present .
Mary brought to our attention that there was a lot of information in the landing by landing points
that were not reached by consensus but that are important . Pat made the comment she would
hesitate to present information to the BOS that was not reached by consensus, but that the
information is important and the BOS need to know that there is a large body of work for us to draw
upon in our creating a management plan .
There was a conversation about future resources and coastal management board once the
management plan is finished by the Coastal Committee . There was a comparison of the information
on pages 39 and 49 which applies to possible future structure . Pat wrapped up the issues where
there was not consensus . We should be clear that there was a lot of important work done by the
BCAG where consensus was not reached but should be incorporated in our plan . Mary affirmed that
the Coastal-Resource Management-Plait is vu , Sval .
Rachel suggested handing Pats structure to the CBI for review and request they help us present to
BOS in late May or early June . Pat asked if committee was prepared to forward document and
direction to CBI and ask them to prepare for BOS meeting . Also, that they should not include details
where there was not consensus, but highlight that there is important material there as a resource .
Rachel said we should advise them that we will have additional corrections coming out of our next
meeting . We would like to see their presentation before our next meeting if available .
Item 4 : Discuss resources needed for Committee to carry out Charge
Ruth moved to table this item . Further discussion from Abigail and Matt about the depth of this
topic . Pat agreed that we move this . Abigail clarified that this does not need to be discussed at this
meeting .
Item 5 : Develop agenda for next meeting
Suggestions for next meeting ,
• Abigail : Discuss how to present the information from the meeting with the BOS to the town
and web resources .
• Ruth : Clarification that we in the Committee will review edits to Strategy in the next meeting .
• Mary : Role of Coastal Committee to ongoing projects that the town is already engaged in and
how will that relate to a management plan . What is the flow of information as the town goes
forward with a management plan . Ruth made point about reference at page 1 in the Executive
Summary and it should inform our future discussion of this topic .
• Pat : Start discussion of the Management Plan . Prioritization and that might lead to discussion
of the needs of the committee ,
Mary offered to email suggestions and guidelines for what constitutes a management plan . Ruth
offered to send a similar item to everyone and advised that if any of us do that we should just state
in the email " no opinions expressed" . Matthew said he will also send plan guidelines .
The Committee agreed that the agenda for the next meeting would be as follows :
1 . Meeting minutes
2 . How to present to the public .
3 . Review changes to the strategy .
4 . Review of role Coastal Committee to ongoing town projects .
5 . Begin discussion of the Management Plan .
Item 6 : Schedule future meetings
Pat recommended first and third Mondays are open or the second and fourth Tuesday since we may
need two meetings per month just for the short term . Pat recapped that BOS are meeting May 15
and 22 . They will have new chair after the election .
Our next meeting will be Tuesday, April 25, 2017 followed by another on Tuesday May 9, 2017 .
There could be a meeting with the BOS by May 22 . Chris recommended scheduling a BOS meeting
date in advance to secure a slot .
Item 7 : Public Comments : None
Item 8 : Other business that may legally come before the Committee and which the Chair did not
reasonable anticipate : None
Adjournment: Meeting adjourned at 8 : 20pm