Smart About Growth
Amesbury News Editorial
June 21, 2001

Sprawling growth is a blight on many North Shore communities. Large subdivisions do nothing to enhance the landscape of these historic communities and are most often built at the expense of local character and fragile woodlands. All too often we’ve seen residents and officials in these communities stymied in their efforts to stop such construction because they didn’t have the foresight to address such building in their zoning bylaws.

Town Planner Nick Cracknell doesn’t want to see that happen Amesbury. For eight months, with the support of councilors such as Tom Iacobucci, Cracknell has been hammering out a so-called Smart Growth bylaw, which would give the community the power to protect itself from suburban sprawl, at the same time addressing the need for more housing.

The Municipal Council, which did not pass the ordinance the first time around, has the opportunity to set that right this Thursday. We urge the council to vote yes and give the town the means to control the kind of growth other communities wish they could have prevented.