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Community: Harbor itself the hub key to Harbor Plan (who thinks of these headlines???)

The community wants to diversify the harbor economically, adding recreational and commercial uses, making it a "hub of community activity," but not at the expense of the fishing industry, which "will always define Gloucester."

So say the nine members of the Listening Post, appointed by Mayor Carolyn Kirk to take in ideas, compressed into three-minute statements by citizens during five nights of elicitation earlier this month.

The group's members listened in absolute silence for over 10 hours to more than 100 different ideas from the group of more than 600 people who gathered at City Hall, in East Gloucester, Lanesville, Annisquam and Magnolia.

Last week, the panel briefed the Community Development Department, which drafted the text into five sections, a preamble and four detailed outline lists of related thoughts. After approval by the panel, these were published yesterday on the city's Web site and released to the Times.

Community Development Director Sarah Buck said she intended to give a week for public reaction, then fine tune and finalize the writing before proceeding to develop zoning changes and an amended Harbor Plan for public reaction in July.

The community values "are out for comment," Buck said.

In announcing the Listening Post process, Kirk said she was relying on the community to reveal its consensus values that would not only direct the formulation of the changes to the harbor rules but also show the state that the people of Gloucester have spoken in their own behalf.

The preamble begins with the thought that "Our community speaks of the need for change on the waterfront, of restoring the port as the center of activity for its citizens."

Then it reaffirms the preeminence of the fishing industry, which is struggling under tight regulations aimed at limiting pressure on stocks that have taken longer than expected to spring back from centuries of overfishing.

"There is a sense that while our fishing industry will always define Gloucester," the values statement said, adding, "a changing economy requires diversification and evolution of economic activity in the port." "Respect" for the "character and heritage of the city" is a companion value found later in the preamble.

Public access to the waterfront was a theme that ran through all five meetings.

"People overwhelmingly support public access along the waterfront," the document asserted, noting that much needs to be done to achieve the goal.

The next value in the preamble, "greater public use of the water itself, including the mixes of recreational and commercial boating," reflects the finding of a consensus behind the central tenet of the program developed last year by a group of waterfront property owners working with the Chamber of Commerce that also was adopted into a framework for the harbor introduced by the mayor.

She asked for the community's reaction to this idea: that investment in recreational dockage should be allowed as long as one in every four dollars spent be committed to expanding commercial dockage.

In part, the need for more commercial dockage traces to the consolidation of the Gulf of Maine fishery into Gloucester as boats from Maine and New Hampshire relocate here to shorten the trip to the fishing grounds that have not yet been closed.

For inspiration, the values document began with thoughts from Peter Anastas ("The working waterfront is what makes us real"), Melissa Hobbs ("Gloucester has fed the world"), Henry Ferrini ("Chart course with relationship to sea") and Mary Graven-Browne ("Walk the waterfront").

Overall, the values document reflected the sentiment that while tourism is not bad and should be encouraged, especially the form that sails or steams in, the city's stability should not be tied too tightly to the vacation economy.

Instead, the document emphasized finding new marine industrial uses and bringing research to the waterfront, linkages to educational institutions and the creative economy while specifying the value in getting the youth onto the water.

The nine members of the Listening Post team are: Fayette Severance, Tom Balf, Rosalyn Frontiera, Phil Cusumano, Robert Foley, David Marsh, Capt. Paul Frontierro, Doug Cook and Scott Memhard.

Richard Gaines can be reached at rgaines@gloucestertimes.com.