The Comprehensive Plan Project Management Team has been hard at work since Town Meeting approved funding for the project in November 2022. One of the priorities has been to assemble our Steering Committee, which will guide the comprehensive/strategic planning project for the next two years. This Steering Committee is comprised of representatives from boards and committees in town, plus one resident from each of the 6 voting precincts, as well as an Ashland High School student. Our goal was to create a diverse committee, representing expertise in many aspects covered in the Comprehensive Plan, as well as encourage new voices from the community to participate.  We were so fortunate to have over 50 applications from our community for the precinct representatives, and had the daunting task of having to choose only one per precinct. Thank you to everyone who applied to be a part of this project. There will be so many more opportunities to participate.

The following members of the Steering Committee were formally appointed at a joint meeting of the Select Board and Planning on May 11th and met as a group for the first time on May 18th: 

• Town Manager:
Michael Herbert

• Town Planner:
Peter Matchak

• Select Board:
Brandi Kinsman

• Select Board:
Yolanda Greaves

• Planning Board:
Catherine Jurczyk

• Planning Board:
Anna Tesmenitsky

• Library Trustee’s Representative: Claire Goss

• Open Space and Recreation Representative:
Roberta Soolman

• Sustainability Committee Representative: Chuck Lidz

• Affordable Housing Trust Representative:
Alan Galiwango

• Board of Health Representative: Ed Burman

• Cultural Council Representative:
Stacey Grant Lewis

• DEI Task Force Representative:
Moala Kitayimwba

• Historical Commission Representative:
Karen Coleman

• Upper Charles Committee Representative: Tony Lewis

• Conservation Commission Representative:
Carl Hakansson

• Council on Aging Representative:
Steve Mitchell

• Design Review Committee Representative:
William Novakowski

• Econ Dev Advisory Comm Representative:
Beth Reynolds

• Town Forest Committee Representative: Cara Hulme

• ZBA Representative:
Nathan Band

• School Committee Representative: Mike Caira 

• Precinct 1: Kortni Wroten

• Precinct 2: Leah Suarez

• Precinct 3: David Evancho

• Precinct 4: Aroon Manoharan

• Precinct 5: Rajashree Ghosh 

• Precinct 6: Lisa Churchill 

• High School Representative: Hasini Reddy

Please reach out to any members of the Steering Committee for updates on the project.

The Project Management Team has also been working on finalizing the consultant we will be working with for the Comprehensive Plan. The Town issued a RFP and we received 3 responses from impressive firms. It is important that we hire the right consultant with extensive Comprehensive Plan and community outreach experience to guide the Steering Committee and create a plan that represents Ashland vision for the next 20 years. The Select Board and Planning Board will be jointly interviewing consultants and finalizing our decision at an upcoming meeting.

We anticipate that the Comprehensive Plan process will take approximately 2 years to complete and the Steering Committee will be working with the community to make sure everyone’s voice is heard. Please watch for updates through Town Pages, the Town Manager’s newsletter, social media, and come visit us at events around town this summer. If you have any questions, you can email us at [email protected].