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The 2025 Regional Policy Plan (RPP) serves as the foundation for local and regional planning and regulation across Cape Cod. Updated every five years, the RPP guides development and resource protection across the region, ensuring that Cape Cod’s natural, built, and community systems remain in balance. 

For the past year, the Commission has been engaged in a process to update this document, holding public hearings, stakeholder meetings, and focus groups, and conducting surveys to ensure it aligns with the region's needs. The Cape Cod Commission approved the updated RPP in October and it will soon be adoped as a Barnstable County ordinance.

The Cape Cod Commission has extended the comment period for the draft 2025 Regional Policy Plan. The public may submit comments through Wednesday, September 24, 2025.   

The Regional Policy Plan (RPP) is the Cape Cod Commission’s blueprint for balancing growth with stewardship of the region’s unique natural and community assets. Required under the Cape Cod Commission Act, the plan outlines a regional vision and growth policy, sets goals and objectives, and provides the framework that guides both local planning efforts and the Commission’s regulatory review.  

The Cape Cod Commission is in the process of updating the 2018 Regional Policy Plan (RPP), which provides regional planning which provides regional planning policies, goals, and objectives to guide development and protect the Cape’s unique natural, built, and community resources. As part of this planning process, the Commission partnered with the Donahue Institute at UMass Amherst to conduct a resident survey designed to better understand public perspectives on local and regional planning challenges. Survey results are now available.