December 23, 2014 — The state’s Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs has given its approval to Gloucester’s new Harbor Plan, backing a plan aimed at giving the city and developers more flexibility along the waterfront, while also protecting the fishing industry and maintaining the rule under the state’s Designated Port Area.
In a letter to Mayor Carolyn Kirk dated Friday, Dec. 19, Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Maeve Vallely Bartlett also placed conditions on future uses around the harbor, requiring that the city continue to generally maintain its Designated Port Area as noted in the amended plan, and follow the DPA’s development guidelines.
“In my approval,” Barlett wrote, “I find that the final 2014 Plan … serves to promote and protect the core marine and water-dependent industrial composition of the DPA, while providing for the local goals of enhanced support of the commercial fishing industry, expansion of water-dependent industry, and continued allowances for flexibility in supporting DPA uses.
“On balance,” she said, “I am confident that it will function as a clear and effective framework for achieving the city’s goals in harmony with state policy governing stewardship of tidelands, including those located within a DPA.”
Bartlett and the agency granted the approvals with a series of conditions — including that the state’s Department of Environmental Protection “not license commercial DPA supporting uses within the Gloucester DPA … in the following areas: on the State Fish Pier; the U.S. Coast Guard (Station Gloucester); or within or on any DPA roadway or pile-supported pier.”
Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times