FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - April 4, 2006

For further information, contact:
Margo Fenn, Executive Director, Cape Cod Commission
John Lipman, Chief Planner/Deputy Director, Cape Cod Commission
(508) 362-3828
www.capecodcommission.org

The Cape Cod Commission today released the results of a survey of Cape Cod residents about land use, development, environmental protection, economic development, traffic, housing, and more. In September 2005, the Commission contracted with The Center for Survey Research at the University of Massachusetts Boston to conduct the mail survey through a statistically valid, scientific process to learn residents' views.

The results will help Barnstable County revise the Cape Cod Regional Policy Plan, its principle guide for regional planning policies, objectives for development, and protection of the region's resources. The Regional Policy Plan (RPP), updated every five years and undergoing its fourth review now, reflects and reinforces the goals and purposes of the Cape Cod Commission Act, which was enacted by the Massachusetts legislature in 1990.

"We conducted residents surveys for the very first RPP in 1991, and then again with The Center for Survey Research for the 1995 edition of the plan," explains Commission Executive Director Margo Fenn. "After 10 years of tremendous population growth and development on Cape Cod, we thought it essential to gauge public opinion through a scientific survey instrument for this, the fourth regional plan."

The Center for Survey Research (CSR) mailed a 11-page questionnaire to 1,004 randomly selected addresses on residents' lists provided by the town clerks of all 15 Cape Cod towns. Fifty percent of those mailed the questionnaires returned a completed one.

"The response rate is quite impressive for such a long survey sent to the general population," notes CSR Director Mary Ellen Colten, one of the principal investigators for the study. "We did follow up the initial mailing with reminder postcards and a second mailing of the questionnaire, but we did not follow up by telephone and we did not offer an incentive or prize for the return of completed questionnaires. The response rate achieved suggests a high degree of interest and civic involvement of Cape residents," Colten concludes.

Colten's colleague, Senior Research Fellow Karen Bogen, spent the last several months analyzing the results and preparing the final report for today's release.

"The survey response is certainly large enough and compelling enough to make policy decisions on the regional level," explains Bogen. She cautions, however, that the sample size is not large enough to compare differences between towns.

The study investigated why residents chose to live on Cape Cod, what they see as current problems in their towns and on the Cape as a whole, what they anticipate seeing as future problems, and what their views are on development, town projects, and the Cape Cod Commission.

William Doherty, chair of the Barnstable County Commissioners and the Commissioners' representative on the Commission, welcomed participants during the presentation of the findings. He emphasized the importance of the survey's regional focus: "I am gratified and impressed by the regional perspectives our residents so ably expressed through this survey."

Alan Platt, Cape Cod Commission chair and six-year representative from the Town of Wellfleet, observed: "The issues the Cape Cod Commission members and staff wrestle with every day are regional, long-range, and complicated. It turns out that Cape Cod residents, in their own ways, also wrestle with those issues every day and have strong opinions about the problems, their possible solutions, and the work we do for the entire region, not just in their own backyards. The Commission and Barnstable County are grateful for their thoughtful input and will be guided by these survey findings into the future."

Following the CSR presentation of the survey findings, Fenn outlined five findings that stood out:

1. The issues of highest concern for the future are traffic congestion, the availability of moderate- and lower-priced housing, the pollution of ponds or coastal waters, residential sprawl, and loss of open space. She noted that these have been and will continue to be primary issues of concern for the Cape Cod Commission. "Our planning and technical assistance programs are well positioned to help address these concerns," she said.
2. More than two thirds of respondents think that there is already too much development on Cape Cod. Only four percent think there is too little. "Barnstable County and Cape municipalities have in these results a pretty clear mandate not only to find solutions to development-related problems that residents say exist today but also to assist the towns in developing growth-management strategies for the future," Fenn suggested.
3. The purchase of open space continues to be a highly desired activity at the local level, with the protection of water supply indicated as the highest purpose.
4. Directing future growth to designated growth centers and away from sensitive natural resource areas has been a recent theme of planning work at state, regional, and local levels. Despite the complicated nature of the questions, respondents indicated support for regulations in favor of that concept on Cape Cod. Forty-five percent of respondents support it. "Surprising to us was the additional 42-percent response indicating support for using regulations to make development harder everywhere, not just outside of proposed growth centers."
5. The views expressed in the findings indicate that Cape residents strongly support regulations that apply to development. "Almost two thirds support 11 of the 12 regulations they were specifically asked about," Fenn said. "Our challenge is to provide effective planning and regulation in a fair and balanced way."

Copies of the "Findings of the 2005 Cape Cod Residents Survey" are available in print from the Cape Cod Commission. A digital version, in PDF format, is also available on the Commission's Web site: www.capecodcommission.org/survey

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