Comprehensive Plan Implementation Committee Responsibilities

At the annual town meeting in March, 2006, the Planning Board was authorized to create a Comprehensive Long-Range Plan (CLRP) for the Town of Lincoln. After three and a half years of work by nearly eighty people plus the help of a consultant, the plan was accepted at a special town meeting on October 17, 2009.

As stated in the document, the success of any comprehensive plan depends on a town’s commitment to follow through with implementation. The Planning Board has adopted the recommendation to create a Comprehensive Plan Implementation Committee (CPIC) to help keep the implementation process on track, and whose charge is as follows:

Charge

• The CPIC will be responsible for providing overall guidance and coordination for implementing the recommendations of the CLRP, particularly when they involve multiple boards.
• The CPIC will develop timetables for various projects and activities recommended by the CLRP, taking into account the priorities initially indicated in the plan.
• The CPIC will provide support to the town boards, commissions and committees involved in the actual work to implement the recommendations, helping town officials with their roles and responsibilities in the process as needed. To be clear, however, the CPIC will not override or substitute for town boards, nor have responsibility for carrying out specific recommendations described in the Comprehensive Plan.
• The CPIC will periodically evaluate the continued relevance of the plan’s major recommendations, advising whether the town should consider revising them due to economic, demographic, or other changing conditions or circumstances over time.
• The CPIC will provide an annual status report to the town with respect to progress in implementing recommendations of the plan.
• The CPIC will periodically report to the Planning Board on the effectiveness of actions undertaken to determine if adjustments to subsequent or follow-on recommendations would be appropriate going forward.
• The CPIC will be the conduit through which any and all amendments to the CLRP will be vetted, with the responsibility for making actual recommendations to the Planning Board if and as appropriate.
• The CPIC will conduct a formal review and recommend an approach and work plan to update the Comprehensive Long-Range Plan in 2018.
• The CPIC will meet internally and communicate with all active boards and commissions with enough frequency to ensure that the Comprehensive Long-Range Plan remains a “living document.”