Cape May Forms Community Visioning Advisory Committee

To the Editor:
Everyone’s got a vision of what Cape May should be, and everyone cares enough about Cape May to share that vision with whoever will listen. Even in a town as small as Cape May this means a wide range of personal visions and opinions all competing and, sometimes, conflicting with each other as Cape May plans for its future. Are we a retirement community, a tourist destination, a national landmark, a source of livelihood and even wealth, a little traditional family town, an environmental treasure, a rainy day visit from some other seashore town, an investment, a second home vacation?
Everyone has their own vision, and because they do, Cape May cannot plan effectively without a clear statement of its collective vision to guide its planning efforts. On Thurs., May 12 a process called Community Visioning was launched to define that collective vision. This process is intended to strike a consensus on:
• A common vision of what we want our community to be,
• Where the social and economic trends seems to be taking us as a community, and
• What can and should we do to secure that common vision in and for our community.
Once adopted by our city council in late June, this Statement of our Community Vision will become the foundation for all planning efforts in Cape May for the next 20 years. This vision statement will be Cape May’s goal and target as it plans for sustainable growth, adjusts and recognizes fiscal resources and constraints, identifies housing needs, secures economic stability and growth, and protects the natural and historic resources.
Cape May has appointed a municipal Plan Endorsement Advisory Committee (PEAC) to facilitate the Community Visioning process through a series of interactive discussions with our residents and other community stakeholders. The PEAC will identify the community’s purpose, core values, and vision of the future; and then transform these elements into community goals and an action plan.
The PEAC needs to hear what residents have to say. The committee has reached out to some three dozen community organizations, interest groups and agencies in and around Cape May to solicit opinions. A survey has been developed and sent to all of these groups, urging each to reach out to their members in order to get a clear sense of what their visions are. The survey is also available at city hall and other locations around the city. Public Notices and advertisements have been published.
More can and must be done to spread the word about how important this process is to the future of the town. They need to hear from everyone who cares about Cape May, and urge residents to become both a crier for and a participant in this process.
Details of the Community Visioning Process, as well as the New Jersey State Planning Commission Plan Endorsement requirements are available on the Cape May City website www.capemaycity.com. The time and date for all public sessions are also on the city website. Agendas, minutes and draft statements will also be post on the city website in an effort to keep the community informed on the progress of this effort.
When council adopts the Statement of Community Vision in late June, hopes are that it acknowledges and reflects the vision of everyone who cares about Cape May. It will only include the visions of those who take the time to report what their vision is, either by the completion of the survey, written submissions, or by personal testimony at any of the three planned public sessions.
DENNIS CROWLEY
Cape May
(ED NOTE: Crowley is co-chairman of the Cape May Municipal Plan Endorsement Advisory Committee, PEAC)