East Falmouth Slow Growth Initiative
 


The mission of the East Falmouth Initiative is to assert local control over growth and confront the challenges of 40B. 40B's forced-growth is a detriment to our community. By helping to repeal 40B and working to stop 40B abuses in our town, we can preserve our future and quality of life which provides affordable housing in ways that make sense for our town. The financial benefits we can enjoy as a result of fighting 40B abuses include reduced costs for town services and substantial reduction in the need for capital expenditures for new infrastructure to support growth. Non-financial benefits include less traffic; preservation of open space; stabilization of school; lower noise levels; and environmental protection.

What is needed:

Work to Repeal Chapter 40B

  • Join thousands of diverse citizens by signing-up at www.Repeal40B.com
  • Recognize that Chapter 40B has made little progress in providing affordable housing in its 38 year history (MA ranks 50th out of 50 in housing affordability!)
  • Chapter 40B wastes funds that could be more efficiently spent to provide many more affordable housing units, better integrated into the community through buy-downs and re-development
  • Show legislators that slow growth is good for sustainability and prosperity
  • Educate others who remain unaware of the negative effects of Chapter 40B on their locales
  • Help residents successfully block ill-conceived development by becoming active

East Falmouth, having grown rapidly, would benefit from a planned approach to stabilization, resource conservation, and economic sustainability. By limiting growth, we will enjoy greater fiscal stability and relief from rapidly rising taxes, while contributing to a better quality of life and improved delivery of services to residents.

The contributors that tend to force 40B's unnecessary growth on townspeople are: developers of high-profit Chapter 40B projects who build high-density subdivisions with low percentages of affordable units, commercial enterprises who want to avoid paying for the impact of their construction and businesses who financially benefit from high growth. The biggest contributor to growth may simply be misunderstandings about what growth means (click here to see “myths of growth”). Well meaning officials who try to keep taxes down by welcoming new growth to increase the tax base are being misled by these myths. The actual costs of the growth aren’t included in proposals, the emphasis is on new tax revenue, and this forced development results in rising costs and accompanying tax hikes. The greatest cost is, undoubtedly, the destruction of the town’s quality of life.

Is it possible for East Falmouth to fight off 40B developers? Yes! It turns out that communities around Massachusetts are realizing that their futures are at stake. Many have supported the efforts of the Walpole Board of Selectmen to support a moratorium on "unfriendly" 40B's.

The East Falmouth Initiative Action Plan is intended to organize East Falmouth residents to confront 40B abuses and to help the larger repeal effort. We encourage you to take action by raising awareness in East Falmouth about 40B's deleterious effects and in supporting the larger state-wide 40B repeal effort.
Click here to get on our activist e-mail list.