I have observed firsthand the changes wrought by development since the Route 44 corridor between Plymouth and Middleborough was completed. The connection to Rt 495 is both a blessing and a curse. Development and sand-mining to feed development has destroyed many acres of land already. As cranberry farming diminishes, developers seek permits and ways to develop the bogs.
Between Rt 495 and Taunton is already a heavily traveled roadbed, featuring strip malls, car dealerships, fast food franchises, etc. As malls fail and big box stores decline, the industrial warehousing grows to feed the online shipping businesses. On the surface this brings more trucks and traffic congestion, but also contributes huge amounts of packaging waste and other forms of pollution to the environment. The degradation of the environment is not visible until the development project is approved and underway, and then it’s too late. The below-the-surface degradation is never visible but emerges in water quality issues down the road.
Some people don’t care about the loss of native habitat and wetlands until it hits them in their wallets or their property values, but by then it’s too late. Being proactive beats being reactive every time.
Thank you, Pam! I agree with everything you say, and am preparing my own comments for MEPA. I particularly agree on the tragically short-sighted and partial (in the sense of favoring one interest) quality of planning and development decisions in the region over recent decades (not always -- sometimes there are positive counter-examples). I do think we have a fairly stark decision: we can either have our governments run by development interests, or in the public interest.
It's not easy, but I do think people are beginning to realize that, contrary to the blandishments and representations of development interests -- who, let's be clear, are overwhelmingly _not_ building the kinds of actually-affordable housing around which we face a real crisis; who are operating on principles of private profit rather than the public good -- development is not a law of nature, it is not gravity, something which we simply must accept.
Rather, these are economic, political, social, and environmental _choices_, made by humans, and they can be governed by humans, as well. Our Towns are not merely the vehicles for the private profit of the developer-industrial complex.
I signed the letter.
I have observed firsthand the changes wrought by development since the Route 44 corridor between Plymouth and Middleborough was completed. The connection to Rt 495 is both a blessing and a curse. Development and sand-mining to feed development has destroyed many acres of land already. As cranberry farming diminishes, developers seek permits and ways to develop the bogs.
Between Rt 495 and Taunton is already a heavily traveled roadbed, featuring strip malls, car dealerships, fast food franchises, etc. As malls fail and big box stores decline, the industrial warehousing grows to feed the online shipping businesses. On the surface this brings more trucks and traffic congestion, but also contributes huge amounts of packaging waste and other forms of pollution to the environment. The degradation of the environment is not visible until the development project is approved and underway, and then it’s too late. The below-the-surface degradation is never visible but emerges in water quality issues down the road.
Some people don’t care about the loss of native habitat and wetlands until it hits them in their wallets or their property values, but by then it’s too late. Being proactive beats being reactive every time.
Thank you, Pam! I agree with everything you say, and am preparing my own comments for MEPA. I particularly agree on the tragically short-sighted and partial (in the sense of favoring one interest) quality of planning and development decisions in the region over recent decades (not always -- sometimes there are positive counter-examples). I do think we have a fairly stark decision: we can either have our governments run by development interests, or in the public interest.
It's not easy, but I do think people are beginning to realize that, contrary to the blandishments and representations of development interests -- who, let's be clear, are overwhelmingly _not_ building the kinds of actually-affordable housing around which we face a real crisis; who are operating on principles of private profit rather than the public good -- development is not a law of nature, it is not gravity, something which we simply must accept.
Rather, these are economic, political, social, and environmental _choices_, made by humans, and they can be governed by humans, as well. Our Towns are not merely the vehicles for the private profit of the developer-industrial complex.