2 thoughts on “Council Questions Staffing Level of Planning Department With All the Development in Town

  1. “A number of entities are interested in coming into the community to do economic development,” Magoon said. “Our job is to encourage that, and at the same time maintain the character of the community.”

    Urgent questions citizens would like to see answered before more staff are hired:

    1) Is “entities” shorthand for “real estate entrepreneurs”? Is “do economic development” shorthand for “make a huge profit developing real estate in Watertown”? If not, what do these terms mean?

    2) What “character of the community” is CD&P aiming to maintain? Anything to do with family-friendliness? Preservation of neighborhood community and scale? Protection of existing shade trees, greenscape, and wildlife corridors? I ask because none of these are supported by maximum-footprint, close-to-million-dollar condo renovations and massive 1- and 2-bedroom apartment complexes.

    • It would be very helpful if the DCDP would define what they see as the “character of the community” in Watertown. Also, a number of new developments in Watertown have not been built with respect to existing homes near them. These developments could certainly have been built with more consideration of the neighboring homes. Based on the amount of development and other projects handled by the DCDP, there should be an increase in staffing.

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