Co-Chairman, Cape May Municipal Plan Endorsement Advisory Committee

Let’s begin with a practical assumption. 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?
We each have our own vision, and because we do, Cape May cannot plan effectively without a clear statement of its collective vision to guide its planning efforts.
Beginning on Thursday, May 12 at 7:00pm in the Cape May City Hall, Cape May will begin to define that collective vision through a process called Community Visioning.
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 twenty 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 our 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 our community’s purpose, core values, and vision of the future; and then transform these elements into community goals and an action plan.
We need you help. SIMPLY PUT, THE PEAC NEEDS TO HEAR WHAT YOU 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 opinion. 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 our town. We want to hear from everyone who cares about Cape May. We urge you 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 (http://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.
It is our hope that when the Statement of Community Vision is adopts by Council in late June, it
acknowledges and reflects the vision of EVERYONE who cares about Cape May.
But remember, it will in fact include only the visions of those who take the time to tell us what their vision is, either by the completion of the survey, written submissions, or by personal testimony in any of our three planned public sessions. We need to hear YOUR vision for the next 20 years of Cape May.
Hope to see you on May 12, at 7:00pm in City Hall.
Sincerely
Dennis Crowley, Co-Chairman
Cape May Municipal Plan Endorsement Advisory Committee (PEAC)