Guidelines and Performance Standards for Docks and Piers

 in Pleasant Bay

 

      The growing number of docks and piers in Pleasant Bay was one of the major impetuses to the ACEC designation and the subsequent development of a resource management plan.   The Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has had in place a categorical restriction on the issuance of Chapter 91 licenses for private docks and piers within the Pleasant Bay ACEC since 1990.  The plan recommends that the DEP categorical restriction remain in place until such time as each town enacted revisions necessary to bring their respective regulations into compliance with the approved plan. 

 

The Alliance, with input from local conservation commissions and planning boards, as well as representatives of the DEP, the Massachusetts Coastal Zone Management Program and the Department of Environmental Management’s ACEC Program, developed Guidelines and Performance Standards for Docks and Piers in Pleasant Bay. In developing the guidelines the Alliance looked at existing local regulations, state guidelines for docks and piers in ACEC’s, and regulations in place in other coastal communities.  Draft guidelines were presented and discussed in public meetings of conservation commissions, planning boards and boards of appeal in the Alliance communities.  Through that review process many helpful comments were integrated into the guidelines.  The Alliance adopted the guidelines in December 1999 and forwarded them to the local communities. 

 

The guidelines were relied upon by local conservation commissions and planning boards to develop specific regulatory or bylaw changes necessary to bring local regulations into compliance with the resource management plan.  Specific regulatory and bylaw changes include: 

 

·        The Orleans Conservation Commission adopted changes in regulations that include the delineation of resource-sensitive areas where structures are to be prohibited.  

 

·        Harwich Town Meeting adopted changes to the town’s wetland protection bylaw to conform to the guidelines.  The revised bylaw has been approved by the Attorney General of Massachusetts. 

 

·        Chatham Town Meeting adopted changes to the zoning bylaw governing special permits for private docks and piers.  The revised bylaw has been approved by the Attorney General of Massachusetts.  The Chatham Conservation Commission is considering revisions to wetland protection regulations that would mirror or expand on protections covered in the zoning bylaw.