HomeMy Public PortalAboutBCAG_Visioning_Workshop_SummaryBrewster Coastal Advisory Group –Public Visioning Workshop Summary – April 22, 2016 1
Brewster Coastal Advisory Group:
Developing a Coastal Adaptation Strategy For Brewster
Brewster Coastal Areas Public Visioning Workshop Summary
April 26, 2016 | 6:00 – 8:00 PM
Brewster Town Hall Rooms A&B | Brewster, MA
Overview
As it prepares for future coastal change, sea level rise, and shoreline erosion, and seeks
to meet coastal access needs of the community, the Town of Brewster is supporting a
public engagement process to develop a coastal adaptation strategy based on sound
coastal science and public values and interests. The strategy will guide future decision-
making in Brewster’s coastal areas. The Town of Brewster and its consultants, the
project team, will develop the strategy by reviewing relevant scientific data and
collecting input and guidance from the public and the Brewster Coastal Advisory Group.
The project team consists of a public engagement team led by the Consensus Building
Institute and a scientific and technical team led by Horsley Witten Group.
The objectives of the Public Visioning Workshop, which was convened by the Brewster
Coastal Advisory Group (the group) and broadcast live on public access television and
streamed live online, were to:
• Introduce the Brewster Coastal Advisory Group, their charge, and goal to create
the Brewster Coastal Adaptation Strategy
• Engage the public in discussion about Brewster’s changing coastline and
development of the coastal adaptation strategy to prepare for those changes
• Provide a forum for the public to share their hopes, concerns, and priorities for
the future of Brewster’s coastal areas.
Materials and presentations reviewed and discussed during the April 6th meeting
included: a meeting agenda, a presentation on the results of analysis completed on the
Brewster Beach Access Survey data, and a presentation on Brewster’s Coastal Risks.
Meeting materials, presentations, and a video of the meeting are available on the
project website: www.cbuilding.org/project/brewstercoast.
Members who were present included: Abigail Archer, Ryan Burch, Matt Cannon, Alex
Carlson, Ruth Courtnell, James Goodrich, Claire Gradone, Howard Hayes, Kyle Hinkle,
John Lamb, Mary O’Neil, David Peterson, Donald Poole, Chris Powicki, Jonathan Rice.
Advisory group liaisons who were present included: Pat Hughes, Eric Levy, Chris Miller,
and Elizabeth Taylor.
Brewster Coastal Advisory Group –Public Visioning Workshop Summary – April 22, 2016 2
Welcome & Overview of the Coastal Adaptation Strategy Development Process
Ms. Pat Hughes, Brewster Board of Selectmen liaison to the group, welcomed the
workshop participants, and provided an overview of the project. Her main points are
below.
Sound science and public values will be the basis of the Brewster Coastal Adaptation
Strategy. The strategy development process will identify the town’s coastal areas that
are most vulnerable to erosion, storm surge, and sea level rise and seek to understand
what residents value the most about the coastal areas. The high-level strategy will help
decision makers understand the options available for site-specific actions. The strategy
will then inform the development of the Brewster Coastal Resource Management Plan.
The strategy is needed because Brewster’s coastal areas already experience impacts
from erosion and storm surge events, and will be impacted by sea level rise in the
future. Public input is needed to help guide town planning and decision making on these
issues.
The effort to convene the Brewster Coastal Advisory Group is funded by a grant from
the Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management and Town funds that were voted
on at Town Meeting. Additional funds for the process will be proposed under Article 40
at the next Town Meeting.
After the workshop, the advisory group will review the public input and begin to
develop a preliminary set of management strategies for discussion and analysis. The
group will seek public input on the strategies during summer 2016, and will draft and
submit a final Brewster Coastal Adaptation Strategy to the Board of Selectmen in
September 2016.
Ms. Stacie Smith, facilitator from the Consensus Building Institute, reviewed the agenda.
How Brewster Uses its Public Beaches and Landings
Mr. Eric Roberts, facilitator from the Consensus Building Institute, led in-person and
online participants through a set of polling questions to illuminate who was participating
in the workshop. The polling questions identified participants’ demographics, where
they live in Brewster and how long they’ve been there, how they access the beaches,
etc. and asked a few questions about priorities regarding the coastal areas. Below are
some of the poll results; additional results from the polling questions are available on
the project website.
• 47% of the visioning session respondents were 65 years of age or older.
• 66% of the visioning session respondents were male.
• 72% of the visioning session respondents live in Brewster year-round
Brewster Coastal Advisory Group –Public Visioning Workshop Summary – April 22, 2016 3
Upon entering the workshop, participants also completed a mapping activity to indicate
which public beaches were their favorites and to identify the activities they completed
at those locations. The results of the activity are in Appendix A.
Ms. Mary O’Neil, advisory group member, presented preliminary findings from a public
survey focused on beach and landing use during the peak summer months conducted in
February and March of this year. The survey was designed to better understand
community member’s perspectives on the town’s coastal areas and access to them, and
was answered by over 2,000 Brewster residents. Findings were compiled directly from
the survey, and from analysis conducted by Tonna-Marie Surgeon-Rogers, the Coastal
Training Program Coordinator at the Waquoit Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve,
based on the BCAG’s recommendations. Key points from her presentation are
summarized below. Please see the presentation slides for additional detail.
• Most respondents rated Brewster’s coastal areas as either excellent or good. The
respondents visit the beaches daily or several times per week on both weekdays
and weekends, and they visit many different beaches. The most frequented
beaches, according to the respondents, were (in rank order from most to least)
Paine’s Creek, Crosby, and Breakwater.
• Ninety percent of the respondents occasionally drive to the beach. Seventy-six
percent of respondents usually drive to the beach. Of those who drove to the
beach, 52% frequently and 30% occasionally encountered a lack of parking. Of
those who responded to questions about a shuttle (85% of respondents),
approximately 45% of respondents said they would not be willing to take a
shuttle to travel to the beach; approximately 34% said they would take a shuttle
if travel time was 5-10 minutes, and another 21% would be willing to wait
longer.
• Approximately 67% and 62% of respondents identified erosion issues and storm
damage, respectively, as something that currently impacts or could impact
access to and use of Brewster’s beach areas. Only 34% of respondents
recognized sea level rise as something that could impact access to and use of the
beach area.
Participants were invited to write down, and then share, the thoughts or questions that
arose based on the presentation. Participants provided the following reflections:
• It is important to think outside of the box. Instead of just a shuttle to the beach,
we could consider routine bus services that would help people, and especially
the elderly, move throughout the town.
• The survey raises questions about what type of shuttle and who would pay for
it.
Brewster’s Coastline 101
Ms. Geraldine Camilli, Horsley Witten Group, presented information about historical
change along Brewster’s coastline and the difficulty in predicting future shoreline
Brewster Coastal Advisory Group –Public Visioning Workshop Summary – April 22, 2016 4
locations, historic storm surge, and coastal flooding scenarios. Key points from her
presentation are summarized below. For more detail, please see the slides on the
project website.
Shoreline Change Over Time – Ms. Camilli showed a series of maps illustrating shoreline
conditions at five times over approximately 100 years to explain that coastal change is
highly variable over time and space, which makes it difficult to predict future shoreline
locations. Variability in coastal change over time may show that a shoreline is accreting
in the short-term (e.g. if reviewing two data points taken 15 years apart); however, if
looking at 5 data points over 100 years, the data may show that, overall, the same area
is eroding over the long-term. Spatially, variability is also significant. For example, two
beach locations (e.g. Little Breakwater and Breakwater) separated by a distance of
approximately 650 feet may show opposite effects with one beach area accreting and
the other eroding over the same time period. The built environment also impacts
shoreline change rates.
Ms. Camilli responded to a question about the shoreline location at Paine’s Creek in
1934. She said she was not sure what contributed to the growth and reduction of the
shoreline and speculated that the Hurricane of 1938 could have caused the shoreline to
erode or that it is possible the 1934 data is bad.
Tidal Predictions and Historic Storm Surges – Tidal predictions provide a range in which
the tide is likely to fall. The tidal range near Brewster is, on average, approximately 10
feet between high tide and low tide. The Mean High Water (MHW) line is considered to
be the shoreline, and currently, 58% of the high tides in Brewster are above MHW each
year. At present, approximately 41 high tides per year (or approximately one of every 17
high tides) are two or more feet above MHW. Two feet above MHW is the equivalent of
two feet of sea level rise.
Storm surge is caused when a storm raises water levels over and above predicted
astronomical tide levels. It is important to consider for two reasons: First, it could
happen today, tomorrow, or next year; and second, it is added on top of high tides, sea
level rise, or other coastal change processes. Historic storms surges recorded on the
gauge in Boston Harbor range from approximately 3.7 feet to 4.9 feet. For purposes of
the coastal flooding scenarios, the technical team assumed a storm surge of 4 feet,
which falls within the historic range experienced along the Massachusetts coastline.
Coastal Flooding/Sea Level Rise Scenarios – Coastal flooding/sea level rise scenarios
were developed to show the daily sea level that is expected in 20, 40, and 60 years and
to illustrate how the town beaches and landings might be impacted. Daily sea level is
expected to be 1, 2, or 4 feet above today’s MHW in 20, 40, or 60 years, respectively.
Another way to think about these increases in sea level is to equate them to events that
already happen, or are likely to happen, today. For example, the 40-year flooding
scenario of 2 feet of SLR above MHW already happens approximately 41 times per year
Brewster Coastal Advisory Group –Public Visioning Workshop Summary – April 22, 2016 5
during high tides. The level of water produced by a Nor-Easter – which could happen
today, tomorrow, or next year – with a storm surge of 4 feet above MHW would be the
daily shoreline level in the 60-year flooding scenario of MHW plus four feet of storm
surge. Ms. Camilli presented maps of several town landings under the following coastal
flooding/sea level rise scenarios:
A. The current MHW – This map illustrated the current MHW conditions
experienced in Brewster’s coastal areas.
B. The current MHW plus two feet of SLR – This scenario, which is on a 40-year time
horizon, already occurs 41 times per year in Brewster and is expected to occur
more frequently in the next 20 years. Under this scenario, the sea level would be
two feet greater than the current MHW on a daily basis.
C. The current MHW plus four feet of SLR – This is the 60-year time horizon
scenario, but the water level in this scenario could occur as a singular Nor-Easter
storm event today, tomorrow, or next year. Under this scenario, the sea level
would be four feet greater than the current MHW line on a daily basis.
D. The current MHW plus four feet of SLR plus an additional 4 feet of storm surge –
This scenario represents potential conditions if the sea level were to rise four
feet above the current MHW and if a 4-foot storm surge also were to occur.
Ms. Camilli presented Table 1 (see below) that details the number of parking spaces at
each landing, and presents the scenarios at which the parking and/or the access to
parking is impacted.
Coastal Landing Parking Spaces
Scenarios with Impacts
Parking Access to Parking
Paines Creek 19 4 ft 8 ft
Mants 44 4 ft 4 ft
Saints 38 - -
Little Breakwater 6 - 4 ft
Breakwater 62 8 ft 8 ft
Point of Rocks 3+8 - -
Ellis 19 8 ft -
Linnell 25 8 ft -
Crosby 60 4 ft 4 ft
Table 1: Table 1 shows the number of parking spaces per landing as well as the scenario under
which either the parking or access to parking areas is impacted. Note: 4 ft corresponds to either
a 4 feet storm surge or 4 ft of sea level rise. 8 ft corresponds to 4 ft of sea level rise plus 4 ft of
storm surge.
Brewster Coastal Advisory Group –Public Visioning Workshop Summary – April 22, 2016 6
Participants asked the following clarifying questions about the presentation. Responses
are italicized.
• Do snow fences or jetties impact the beach? Mark Borelli, technical team
member, said yes, all structures have an impact on beach changes. Sand fencing
captures wind blown sand. The more durable the sand fencing or structure placed
on the beach, the more the structure will reflect wave energy and cause erosion
and scour. Revetments cause erosion in front of them. Groins trap sediment on
one side of groin and cause sand to erode from the other side.
• At Crosby they opened up are for water to flow under Crosby landing. Is that
landing sound? Geraldine said she did not know.
• What is the timeframe for all of this? Geraldine said there is a lot of variability in
time and location for erosion and other processes that change the coastline. The
scenarios are 20, 40, and 60 years into the future and the uncertainty increases
farther into the future. We are focusing more on the 20 and 40 year horizons for
that reason. We may not know when exactly these scenarios will occur; they may
come faster or slower. But, we know we’ll see them at some time. The storm
surge will be an occasional nuisance, but the SLR will be the new normal.
Small Group Discussions
Workshop participants broke into small discussion groups of 5-8 participants, and
discussed the following three questions in the room, or on a conference call if
participating remotely:
• What do you value most about Brewster’s coastline and beaches? Imagine you
are explaining to a friend why you love Brewster’s beaches—what would you tell
them?
• What are you most concerned about or worried about happening in the town’s
beach areas or landings?
• What do you want the Coastal Adaptation Strategy to preserve, protect, or
enhance?
Groups were facilitated by members of the Advisory Group, who also documented the
conversations and summarized 2-3 key points from the discussions at the conclusion of
the session. The following points were made during the key point summaries. Tabulated
notes from the small groups are available in Appendix B.
• Protect the aquifer because of its link to the marshes and natural habitat. There
is concern the town may take short-term solutions that have long-term impacts
rather than pause to look at the bigger picture and develop a long-term
sustainable solution. There is a need for inland bike or walking trails for people
who live away from the beach but would like safe walking and biking routes to
access the beaches.
Brewster Coastal Advisory Group –Public Visioning Workshop Summary – April 22, 2016 7
• Look for innovative solutions and allow them to be used; in other words, don’t
regulate against them.
• People love and want to preserve the peace and quiet of Brewster’s beaches,
and being able to walk on the flats and being able to swim when the tide comes
in. People want to avoid commercialization; they don’t want to allow vehicles to
go on the beach. They want to keep it more for the community and residents
and not try to attract too many people. It is important to protect the whole
coastal system and natural environment, including inland areas away from the
beach. We cannot just look at the beach, but must preserve the whole coastal
system. Access should not be the focus; parking near the beach isn’t key, but we
do need smoother ways to get people there.
• We had similar ideas and conclusions as presented by the other groups.
Additionally, we talked about a longer-term view and whether or not we are
doing all we could to collect data to make the best possible decision, knowing a
hurricane tomorrow could have major impact.
• We need to think about abatement of existing development so that we do not
create adverse impacts as sea levels rise. For example, as sea levels rise, septic
systems could be exposed or could start to leach into the water system and
impact the coastline. Second, work with nature instead of fighting it. Don’t throw
money at the problem; we need a long-term view since we cannot stop the
ocean and must work with it. Third, halt overdevelopment of the coastline and
protect and preserve open space strategically. Find and invest in open space.
• We had a lot of the same topics. One thing different: be sure we consider
impacts on habitat and salt marshes as sea levels rise.
• Our conversation echoed much of what was said. One point that was not
mentioned: the necessity to keep this type of a process going with decision-
making going forward. The public needs to be engaged early and often in
decision making that is happening, not just in special grant funded processes but
in decision making processes that are executed on various town boards. We
need that feedback loop so that decisions can be changed along the way.
• We valued the quiet of Brewster’s beaches, the dramatic change between high
tide and low tide, and the residential, neighborhood feel. We were concerned
about human reaction to change. There have been many attempts, structural
solutions that have been implemented over the years as a reaction to change
and some of those actions have been more harmful than good. We also hoped
the strategy would protect the natural setting of the beach, the character and
feel of the beaches, and that public input be sought at all stages of the process.
And to keep in mind that not all people can walk to the beach; there are a lot of
people that have to drive to the beach and it is a revenue generator for the
town.
• As far as what people really liked: it is great for family and kids as opposed to
other beaches. Additionally, the type of people that come to Brewster’s beaches
have a different mind set than the types of people who go to Ft. Lauderdale.
Brewster Coastal Advisory Group –Public Visioning Workshop Summary – April 22, 2016 8
There were concerns about limiting occupancy, and the need to consider
available parking spaces or shuttle capacity compared to the capacity of the
beach. You cannot fit 200 people on a beach that will be crowded with 50
people. Lastly, whatever we do going forward it should be done fairly and not
based solely on economics.
• Eric Roberts summarized bullets from the conference call discussion with remote
participants: Group members were appreciative of the opportunity to participate
remotely. They most valued the natural beauty and the lack of development, and
want to preserve this and make sure actions are taken to keep this intact. They
also valued walking the flats. Concerns included pollution, which seems to
increase with increases in coastal flooding. Lack of access to viewing the beach,
especially for older people is a concern. Additionally, the traffic in the parking
lots during the summer changes the character of the landings. They hoped the
coastal adaptation strategy would include places for easy assess for disabled and
elderly (e.g. for people in wheelchairs, platforms or benches would be nice
where they can see they water). More passive access to the beach is needed
too—not just parking, but extension of the bike path and walking paths.
Appendix A
Information Gathered from the Favorite Beach Mapping Exercise
The following information was compiled from the visioning session welcome activity.
Participants were given a pink and a yellow sticky note to place next to their favorite
and second favorite beaches, respectively. On each sticky note, they wrote or drew how
the accessed the beach and the activities they do at that location.
Beach Name Favorite Beach Comments Second Favorite Beach Comments
Linnell Landing *Drive there -- sit on the beach
*Walk
*Drive there -- sunbathe, read, walk,
spend time with family
*Drive -- walk to the end of the beach
*Walk or park in lot
Crosby Landing *Favorite beach for 1/3 of a century
*Drive
*I get dropped off -- swim, visit with
friends
*Bike and drive
*Walk -- swim
*Drive or bike
Paine’s Creek *Walk, drive, bike -- fish, relax, swim,
and paddle
*Walk, bike, drive
*Taking visitors at low tide + sunsets,
talking about herring run upstream
*My second favorite beach
*Bike or drive
*Bike or drive
Mantis Landing *My favorite beach *Drive -- watch and sail
Ellis Landing *Walk/drive -- sit/walk/shellfish
Wing Island *Jog or kayak
*Walk there and walk around
Saint’s Landing *Clams!
*Take visitors at low tide and sunsets
Breakwater Landing *Drive or am dropped off -- I swim and
walk
*Walk/drive -- watch the bay
*Drive or get dropped off -- walk along
the shore, watch the sunset, and swim
Little Breakwater *Swimming
Brewster Park Beach *Walk
Sea Pines *Walk
Appendix B
Small Group Notes and Comment Cards/Evaluations
Question-Focused Discussion Groups
Small Group #1
1. What do you value most about Brewster’s coastline and beaches? Imagine you are
explaining to a friend why you love Brewster’s beaches – what would you tell them?
• Variability from high tide to low-tide (Brewster flats)
2. What are you most concerned about or worried about happening in the town’s
beach areas or landings?
• Losing the beaches and landings entirely
3. What do you want the Coastal Adaptation Strategy to preserve, protect, or enhance?
• For private property owners, there has to be town or state support for ways to
protect their properties.
• Look for innovated solutions and then allow them to be used – don’t regulate
against them.
• Work with FEMA about dredging options as in FL.
4. What do you value most about Brewster’s coastline and beaches? Imagine you are
explaining to a friend why you love Brewster’s beaches – what would you tell them?
1) Variability from high-to-low tide is the most valuable part of Brewster beaches
2) Most concerned about losing the beaches and landings
3) Look for innovative solutions and allow them to be used
Small Group #2
1. What do you value most about Brewster’s coastline and beaches? Imagine you are
explaining to a friend why you love Brewster’s beaches – what would you tell them?
• Bay beaches: special due to tide changes
• More walkable land and sunsets
• Flats
• Preserve access
• Tidal range
2. What are you most concerned about or worried about happening in the town’s
beach areas or landings?
• Don’t build parking lots – they will come.
• Make it more like a National Park – more bikeable
• Most people who responded to the survey (65%) are not within walkable
distance
• Development encroachment by the big hotels
• Small erosion by storm damage or developmental impact
• Stay on big picture
3. What do you want the Coastal Adaptation Strategy to preserve, protect, or enhance?
• Data collection – do more of it!
• Environmental planning to continue.
• Don’t lose more coast line.
4. Choose 2 or 3 key points to share
Small Group #3
1. What do you value most about Brewster’s coastline and beaches? Imagine you are
explaining to a friend why you love Brewster’s beaches – what would you tell them?
• Passive recreation/beauty/walking/good place to spend time
• Get away/spend time with nature
• What lives in the ocean/bay, valuing nature
• Beach is why we live on Cape – swim, sail, fish
• Huge tidal change/dynamic environment
• Cleanliness/condition/aesthetics/usability
2. What are you most concerned about or worried about happening in the town’s
beach areas or landings?
• Sea level rise – long term concern
• Parking – short term concern
• Erosion
• Human development/septic systems – pollution – need to plan for change and
avoid problems
• Accessibility – people who live/work in town need access, so do families,
shouldn’t be limited to the wealthy
• Fences/structures close/affect access, what’s installed at the beach in the
past/now will be exposed later
3. What do you want the Coastal Adaptation Strategy to preserve, protect, or enhance?
• Stop/slow coastal overdevelopment
• Abatement – plan for change to existing development
• Limiting future development/preserve open space
• Need more access, it’s going to be remote in future
• Preserve natural dune system, prevent further damage
4. Choose 2 or 3 key points to share:
• Laws/regulations need to be tight, we can’t let people skirt laws to adverse
impact on environment
• Focus on protecting landings that are easiest to protect and to add access
• Don’t waste resources protecting things that are at high risk (Paines)
• Preserve, protect, enhance natural environment and penalize/stop/prevent
purposeful violations
1) Abatement of existing development so that it doesn’t have adverse impacts once
sea level rises (e.g., septic systems)
2) Work with Nature rather than fight it – don’t throw money at the problem, need
long term view, can’t stop the ocean
3) Halt overdevelopment of coastline, protect/preserve open space strategically
Small Group #4
1. What do you value most about Brewster’s coastline and beaches? Imagine you are
explaining to a friend why you love Brewster’s beaches – what would you tell them?
• Beaches are quiet compared to other towns.
• Ever-changing
• Small, residential
• Tide range – range of walking opportunities
• Unspoiled (used to be)
• Quiet, neighborhood feel
• No two beaches alike at high tide, love low tide
2. What are you most concerned about or worried about happening in the town’s
beach areas or landings?
• Failure of groins and revetments
• Concerned by structures placed by town. Disconnected sand
• Overcrowding of public beaches
• Concerned about human reaction to chance, worried about futile actions
• Constant dumping of sand, futility, maybe more durable structures
• Concerned about some solutions not being appropriate to Brewster
• Town should get 2nd opinions on 3rd party engineered solutions and when asking
experts for science
3. What do you want the Coastal Adaptation Strategy to preserve, protect, or enhance?
• Protect the natural setting, the natural beach. Losses will happen, protect
character.
• Many people use beaches that cannot walk there. Must help coastal access for
economy, even if it is in retreat.
• Can acquire new lands
• Need to reduce summer traffic. Might focus on east end beaches & parking.
4. Choose 2 or 3 key points to share:
1) Beaches are quiet with a neighborhood feel
2) Concerned about human reaction to change and futile actions
3) Protect the natural setting and protect the character
Small Group #5
1. What do you value most about Brewster’s coastline and beaches? Imagine you are
explaining to a friend why you love Brewster’s beaches – what would you tell them?
• Walking
• Bay side more than ocean
• Access not as important
• Low tide, can walk a mile
• Fishing – boat and walk out
• Oyster farm
• Scuba dive – water pristine
• “conditions” – no sharks, riptides, etc.
• Flats good for kids
• Apart from everything – quiet tone
• Swimable at various times
2. What are you most concerned about or worried about happening in the town’s
beach areas or landings?
• Commercialization
• Erosion
• Big houses on the beach. Public beaches will diminish at benefit of houses.
• Unpredictable coastline – more people/not enough parking. Is there
measurement of increased public beach use?
• Oyster Farm
• Preserve small community feel – not “bulk” tourists like Dennis. Should buses
could encourage.
• No commercialization. Keep public peaches. Saving beach or bluff? What are we
saving?
• Money should last more than one storm. Need to plan ahead.
3. What do you want the Coastal Adaptation Strategy to preserve, protect, or enhance?
• Not commercial
• Flats
• Environment
• Wetland and marshlands
• Access by bike
• Different culture – need to preserve quiet, nature
• Erosion
• Swimming (swimming areas getting shallower)
• Marshes – wildlife and nature conservation, pollution
4. Choose 2 or 3 key points to share:
1) Flats
2) Commercialism/trolleys would increase this
3) Conservation, marshes, wetlands, wildlife
Small Group #6
1. What do you value most about Brewster’s coastline and beaches? Imagine you are
explaining to a friend why you love Brewster’s beaches – what would you tell them?
• Flats at low tide, incredible playground/expanse of view at low tide
• Whole system, dunes and beaches
• Easily accessible beaches / not expensive (stickers?)
• Beach walking – staking small children, educational opportunity
2. What are you most concerned about or worried about happening in the town’s
beach areas or landings?
• Losing summer access
• Destruction of natural habitat – re: retreat, redevelopment
• [Possibility of acquiring privately held coastal property ]
• Changing shoreline/SLR
• Town might take short-term solution that may ultimately impact our long-term
• Can’t bike or walk safely to beach from inland location, i.e RT 137
3. What do you want the Coastal Adaptation Strategy to preserve, protect, or enhance?
• Info from experiences of other communities on the coast – CCC assistance
• Enhance knowledge base to draw from
• Preserve access to beaches, but not necessarily current access
• Avoid pollution – what kind of pollution?
• Preserve integrity of marsh and shoreline
• Protect it from pollution sources [stormwater run off]
• Enhance access will protecting natural resources
4. Choose 2 or 3 key points to share:
1) Protect aquifer and natural habitats
2) Think long term, don’t take short term access that might have impact later
3) Improve bike/pedestrian access from inland to coast
Small Group #7
1. What do you value most about Brewster’s coastline and beaches? Imagine you are
explaining to a friend why you love Brewster’s beaches – what would you tell them?
• Spruce Hill access, broaden, augment?
• Easy access
• Tidal
• Great for kids
• Type of people that visit our beaches
2. What are you most concerned about or worried about happening in the town’s
beach areas or landings?
• Overcrowding
• Limiting “occupancy” relative to available spaces
• Erosion?
• Removing jetties – what would happen?
3. What do you want the Coastal Adaptation Strategy to preserve, protect, or enhance?
• Plan based on fairness, not necessarily based on economics
4. Choose 2 or 3 key points to share:
Small Group #8
1. What do you value most about Brewster’s coastline and beaches? Imagine you are
explaining to a friend why you love Brewster’s beaches – what would you tell them?
• A wide diversity of experiences on smaller, family friendly beaches.
• Flats
• Sunsets
• Fishing and clams
• Wild habitat
• Icebergs in winter
• Find your own space.
• No dangerous surf like the ocean beaches.
2. What are you most concerned about or worried about happening in the town’s
beach areas or landings?
• Pollution such as debris left by beach users, and flotsam and jetsam from boaters
• Residue of beach fires and danger of fires in the marshes
• Quality of marshes as wildlife habitats given long-term impact of SLR and storm
surge.
• Erosion on both public and private beaches.
3. What do you want the Coastal Adaptation Strategy to preserve, protect, or enhance?
• Increase parking to increase access to cultural, recreational and geological
attributes of coastal areas without destroying marsh areas and other natural
habitats.
• Recognize change will happen but don’ t know what to do about it.
• If existing mashes can’t be saved, can they be relocated?
4. Choose 2 or 3 key points to share:
Small Group #9 (Remote Participants)
1. What do you value most about Brewster’s coastline and beaches? Imagine you are
explaining to a friend why you love Brewster’s beaches – what would you tell them?
• So timelessly beautiful — peaceful place to be — not enhanced with snack bars,
it’s just a beach. It is what it is. Quiet and beautiful.
• Naturalness of it. Lack of development. Get to nature. Timelessly beautiful. It’s
missing development, thank goodness. The tidal flats especially — the low tide
flats, Brewster flats, the green. We moved to Brewster b/c of the green —
natural .
• Walking the tidal flats. You can walk for endless distances. Every day those flats
are different. The waves. It’s just continual discovery. When you’re out on the
flats and you’re looking back, it’s timeless. It looks very similar over the years —
been here 60 years and it hasn’t changed much.
• A safe recreational experience for all age groups.
2. What are you most concerned about or worried about happening in the town’s
beach areas or landings?
• Concerned about access — not much states will do to pump sand back on —
creating additional beaches, expanding parking, shuttles etc — people have to
spend so much money to buy access to parking that is so limited
• People complain about the porta-potties —but grateful they’re there. Wish they
were there longer — 6 months rather than just 3. People would get more use
out of the beaches.
• Pollution — widespread issue. I pick up trash.
• Also coastal flooding — I don’t know what you can do about it. The more
flooding there is the more pollution comes in off the ships — seen a lot of weird
things come off them. Coastal flooding means more pollution. Hard to deal with
it — it’s coming from across the ocean.
• Access for viewing the water year round — people don’t have mobility to get on
the beach as they get older.
• Concerned about safety in the parking lots — it can be hazardous, traffic, people
yelling at each other, amount of traffic has changed the dynamic of the
neighborhood in the summer. Also, Brewster opens up parking area at 3. At
same time as people leave you have people driving in from Orleans and Dennis
because their beach parking isn’t free until 5. We should align our parking times
with theirs
3. What do you want the Coastal Adaptation Strategy to preserve, protect, or enhance?
• I hope we can make sure to provide some means for people in wheelchairs to
have a place. Maybe benches on a raised area — people can get to them easily
— they can sit and look out at the water.
• I’d like to see more info given to people when they buy their beach passes about
conservation — do’s and don’ts and some of the problems the beaches are
facing and how they can make an impact (collecting trash, staying off dunes, if
you collect crabs putting them back) — a little pamphlet. It would be easy to do
this when people buy a beach pass.
• I’ve seen a dead gull on the shore because of a balloon strand. People should be
told do not use a balloon for a celebration
• We’re the only town that does not put out waste bags for the dogs — other
towns do that — even though people don’t usually use it, it should be there. A
good idea even if only 10% of people use them
• Keep it as natural as possible.
• Issue of Spruce Hill is big question mark — it has beach access and it’s owned by
the town. When the historical society moves there could be some parking there
— and there’s a walkway down to the beach. Ought to be some way to access
that.
• A theme needs to be more passive access to the beach — e.g. extension of bike
rail, and walking
4. Choose 2 or 3 key points to share:
What do you value most?
Natural beauty, lack of development — want to preserve this and make
sure whatever we do we keep this intact. Walking the flats.
Concerns
Pollution — seems to increase as you get more coastal flooding.
Lack of access to viewing the beach, especially for older people
Traffic in parking lots — changes the character in the summer
Coastal Adaptation Strategy
Places for easy access including for disabled and elderly — e.g. for people
on wheelchairs, benches
More passive access to the beach — not just parking but extension of the bike rail,
and walking
Comment Cards
• If shuttle access was implemented, do we still charge for beach stickers as well?
• How will $$ be generated to pay for the shuttle service?
• Are there any other towns on the Cape that do shuttle service for beach access?
• Two winters ago, a winter Noreaster covered Mantes Landing parking lot with 4 feet
of sand and it was protected during one of the worst winters in years while the year
before it was destroyed. Would this work to cover it with 4-5 feet of sand to protect
it?
• Why not open new access to the beach – at old historic house path and through
Nickerson north and perhaps other places?
• I don’t see how your projections of sea level rise could be meaningful because there
are so many variables
• Town and federal funds should be used to purchase and demolish private housing
close to the coast
• Brewster beaches are important to so many and beach erosion is a key concern along
the coast
• SLR impacts are all coastal decisions moving forward
• Private property owners will be expecting support to protect their coastal properties
• Large percentage have parking issues at their beaches
• Long-term effects to structures
• What are the pollution issues with the beaches?
• Existing conditions – how can we use these to improve beach retention?
• Reclaim sand from bay to replenish beaches
• Will people really be willing to use shuttle services if they were available?
• The public needs to hear more of the science involved in the coastline
• Think out of the box – bus service on 6A to Orleans. Helps the elderly! Need more
town awareness of the solutions/problems.
• Like to hear 25-year plan of obtaining more coastline by buying houses (National
Parks theme)
• Passive access – bike travel/sidewalks
• Preserve tax payer access 1st, tourists 2nd
• Insist on a concept of past because decisions are expanded or deleted for what a
majority of consensus desires.
• Majority of respondents over 1 mile from coastline.
• The broad range of times that people use the beach and the broad range of activities.
• The presentation suggested access efforts should take into account where beaches
are going to be in the future, not just where they are now.
• Rising sea level leads to erosion. We cannot fight that.
• Take away – learned nothing new, already aware of the issues. Town has a difficult
task. Transportation to beaches. Loss of personal property is an issue. Don't think
there is much storefront property to be developed. No new/upgrades should be
permitted.
• Erosion and storm damage widely recognized as threat to our beaches
• Shuttle not very popular
• Most people live/stay away from beach neighborhoods
• Beach roads/landings are narrow. Difficult to run a shuttle. Left turns in summer =
delay to shuttles.
• Was basic data gathering. Good start, but too narrow.
• People are concerned about erosion in the context of parking spaces as an issue…
• Who will the ultimate “winner” be – Mother Nature of the Town Hall?
• Erosion and its effects -> impossible to fix effectively
• Shuttle big or small, free or pay?
• Every beach different in terms of erosion
• Private beach owners can protect themselves but this may be detrimental to public
beaches
• 8 feet up is all over house. Government presence?
• Beach parking and how to access the beach is a priority especially for wheelchairs and
walkers
• Need to address the parking issues at Saints Landing, especially on clamming days
(Thursdays + Sundays) – need to re-line reconfigured the parking spots – move port-
a-potty to a safer location, as it is dangerous to walk children through the parking lot
• If Saints Landing’s parking and access are not impacted, are you going to enlarge or
reconfigure Saint’s Landing.
• If land becomes available next to or near public beaches, why not buy them to
enlarge or replace beaches?
• If people would shuttle to Paine’s Creek, BW, and Crosby, the first two of which are
smaller and crowded, why not direct shuttle service to the larger, underutilized
beaches like Crosby, Linnell and Spruce Hill?
• Why not build more durable/permanent revetment structures like big rock structures
rather than just dumping sand year after year?
• Lack of patience in waiting for bus
• Pollution, Tritown, stormwater runoff, or nitrogen load?
• Some access points cannot be protected into the future. Sacrifices will need to be
made.
• Graphing mean high water at Boston with tides and surges – showing frequency
possibilities would be helpful.
• People billing out survey were mostly retired, hardly any households with kids. I think
we need to reach out to people who have kids and who would not have received a
survey in a tax bill.
• The town needs to be proactive and plan for the worst SLR scenarios. Start buying
land uphill from the beaches
• Issues/concerns of beaches: pollution, access, parking, ever-changing, shuttle services
needed. Key takeaway, nature is ever-changing and we cannot control it.
• # of people not willing to shuttle. Could shuttle be made convenient with dropping
off stuff at the beach and then satellite parking?
• Goes Wing Is act as a barrier beach?
• Will sand continue to flow west to east?
• Would commercial shellfishermen still have access to beaches with satellite parking?
• Would shuttles go to all beaches or just top visited?
• Would it be possible for there to be beaches that shuttles wouldn’t be able to go to
limit traffic?
• Would it be possible to convert Crosby into a drive-on like Crow’s Pasture once the
water works its way around it?
• I think that planning for the future is important but more important to focus on the
next 20-30 years rather than the next 50+
• Hoping for more young people responding to the survey – so often they do not have
an opportunity to chime-in. The 18-45 demographic is key to making this plan. Please
make a creative effort to reach out.
• Discussion about “rise” in water level. Could water recede?
• Values: cleanliness, condition, population?
• Are other coastal communities developing strategies? Any best practices or success
stories available?
• What actions can be taken to prevent sand from eroding/getting into parking lots?
• There seems to be a clear connection between fence installation and erosion.
• Can we trust the government (eminent domain)?
• Coastal 101 – What about the impact of waves during storms? This wasn’t discussed.
What about larger surges like hurricanes?
• Survey data seems rich but lightly tapped – need more sophisticated analysis to tease
out useful findings and understand bias in answers.
• Off-site parking outside of the 8’ model is very important. For example, all of the
proposed parking lots at Crosby were safe when water rises. It might be useful to
locate property inland to purchase for future parking lots.
• Nothing was mentioned about creating additional parking in this meeting. I would like
to know what people said about parking – do they want more? Where? What were
the majority of the comments focused on?
• Useful to know what beaches are patronized
• How many people would be willing to take the shuttle?
• Multi-purpose shuttle would be a good idea
• Take into account “beach capacity” when considering future beach access
• Options for getting people to the beach important
• Brewster needs to have quality access and conditions at the beach. EROSION MUST
BE DEALT WITH.
• Survey: Concentrated use in a few landings, potential of shuttle but strong opinions
on both sides, potential for nearby parking and walking, potential for increased
access for mikes – renting business?, didn’t include info about more nearby parking
• We need to look at the coastline from a more environmental standpoint
• What type of shuttle? Who operates it? Who pays for it?
• Timeframe for beach or parking loss
• What are the long-term enhancements to protect the beaches?
• Gathering more info (2000+) from residents on their preferences on beaches
• Storm effects must be considered when choosing beaches to protect over access to
(if beach is quickly decreasing)
• Surprise that majority drive 2-3 miles. Going to shuttle parking area instead is logical.
• Future seems dismal for waterfront. When do you start reinforcing what’s there to
save tourist industry and year-round enjoyment?
• Make decisions that keep our Brewster beaches for our grandkids – 40-60 years
• All the pressure to add parking close to the beaches seems misguided, as the parking
might easily be lost to rising tides. Money better spent on remote parking and
shuttle.
• How would shuttles work?
• What beaches will be most affected by erosion?
• Need to seriously examine alternative access and parking at Brewster beaches?
• Most people do not want to add parking in the beach areas
• Many people are willing to consider a shuttle service from remote parking
• We can’t rely on structures near the coast. Better to use parking that is kept well back
and has a shuttle service option?
• What planned sanitary facilities at public access beaches?
• Should dune migration needs be considered as sea levels rise?
• Explore more about parking usage and different types of access – loved the
suggestion to have a shuttle service to serve MORE than the beaches
• As plan evolves, total shorelines needs to be studies – influence of poor jetties, etc.
• Could be too large of a number of people wanting to park “at” beach versus problems
related to that (ecology, erosion).
• Citizens need to understand why environmentalists say “extreme” protections (eg
concrete walls) are bad for the environment/ecology, same question with dredging
sand from the flats to replenish beaches
• Budget/cost to implement shuttles
• People don’t like to wait for shuttles
• Access is important
• What are options for preserving coastlines?
• Pollution responses seemed very high – what types of pollution are we monitoring?
Marsh die back. Effect on sole source aquifers?
• My feelings about SLR are enhanced after seeing the graphs. Also effect on the
aquifers.
• Many people are interested in this topic. Shuttles seem like an option to explore, but
who pays?
• Bus route is an interesting option
• Beach erosion is a major issue – I would like to know how other communities are
addressing this issue. What has been successful? What could be done now?
• I want to know how many people said “no” to the shuttle because they live close to
the beach.
• We need to hear more from families who have children.
• I think that we should plan retreating strategies that would cover us in the future
because we need to look beyond 10-20 years.
• Bus route/trolley route on a consistent schedule might work very well to improve
beach access.
• We cannot beat mother nature
• Opportunity to develop alternative access points (satellite parking) for biking/shuttle.
One end to another (Pairs – Crosby)
• Will need to set priorities for public access points to beaches – don’t think the towns
can take care of all of them without structured intervention
• Are we prepared to abandon when it is the most prudent thing to do?
• Very significant older skew in the respondents to the survey
Evaluation Sheets
Additional Information: Please share any additional points or considerations that you
weren’t able to share during the workshop.
• Too bad. Members of the Board of Selectman and Town offices should be
present at these meetings.
• Some of the points raised [?] the questions of whether the town can or may
exercise public domain in order to preserve public beaches (as opposed to a
more usual understanding that the shoreline belongs in their perpitit to whoever
buys it. This isn’t to argue against private property but to acknowledge that the
community has a natural reality as well as a real estate profile.
• How can we increase opportunities for more diverse peoples (racially,
economically, abilities…) to access beaches and still maintain their natural
beauty and “small feel?”
• Brewster is a wonderful little town and we don’t need more people or more
commercial expansion. P.S. – Don’t screw with nature!
Please give us any feedback below on how we can make this process and the
workshops better! What worked well and what didn’t? What would you like to see at
future workshops about the Brewster Coastal Adaptation Strategy?
• Great workshop. Good combo of information (about both public opinion [survey
results] and science [erosion scenarios]) and participation. Small groups worked
well but I also appreciated the Q&A on the scientific presentation. The
interactive, immediate-feedback polling was fun and a good reminder of
diversity of opinions. The call-in feature was good as evidenced by it being the
only group to mentioned disabled access – logical if you think about it. Well
done!
• Workshop was well organized and allowed input from everyone. Good job!
Loved using the feedback devices. Wonderful experience. Keep it up!
• Good open process – good leadership – good materials. In the future, more
discussion time may be needed.
• Very worthwhile.
• Well done. Timelines appreciated. Use of the technology for voting and for those
not present was appreciated. Keep up the good work!