Cohasset Planning Board Candidates Clash Over Ledge Bylaws While Library Trustees Address Funding Concerns
Candidates present differing views on land use regulations and library funding strategies during League of Women Voters forum
COHASSET - April 30 - Candidates for Cohasset's Planning Board presented contrasting approaches to land use regulation during a Candidates Night forum sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Hingham, with ledge removal bylaws emerging as a key point of contention.
The event, held at Willcutt Commons and recorded by 143 TV, featured candidates for the town's two contested races – Planning Board and Library Trustees.
Nino DiNunno, president of DiNunno Construction, argues that recent changes to ledge removal bylaws have created unnecessary bureaucracy for property owners.
"Over the past few years we've seen well-intentioned changes to the ledge removal bylaws and subdivision control rules, but in practice some of these changes have added unnecessary layers of review and bureaucracy on projects that have little to no impact on the public," DiNunno says.
DiNunno believes the current regulations impose financial burdens on homeowners for simple projects like installing a pool, requiring application fees, attorneys, and civil engineers even for work out of public view.
"I'm not running to eliminate oversight, I'm running to make sure it's targeted, efficient, and fair," he explains.
His opponent, Birgit Schmidt-Wesche, who currently serves as an associate member of the Planning Board, supports the existing regulations as necessary to preserve Cohasset's character.
"I fully support the planning board's mission of preserving and protecting Cohasset without preventing the reasonable development of land. This balance approach is not always easy, but it is an important goal," Schmidt-Wesche says.
Schmidt-Wesche, who has a PhD in computational linguistics and retired from IBM in 2023, emphasizes the need for creative solutions that respect the town's topography while allowing for development.
"We may have to work across the board, not only the planning board, but see whether we can collaborate with zoning in getting some leeway here or there in order to make a creative development possible," she adds.
The candidates also addressed affordable housing challenges, with DiNunno acknowledging it's "the toughest question of the night" given limited developable land in Cohasset.
Schmidt-Wesche suggests integrating affordable housing throughout the community rather than creating isolated developments.
"We can get from the train station to the village, not only transportation-wise, but integrating our housing towards having this more integrated view. And along that, I'm pretty sure that we can have more affordable housing like up in Avalon, but I don't want this ghetto thinking," she says.
In the Library Trustees race, candidates Elaine Breslow, Melissa Mendenhall, Susan Hobson Putziger, and Alex Viteri discussed strategies to maintain library services amid potential federal funding cuts.
The candidates addressed weaknesses identified in the library's five-year strategic plan, including technology limitations and funding concerns.
Breslow, a current trustee, highlights the challenge of balancing immediate needs with fiscal responsibility.
"Given what you just mentioned, the cutbacks in state funding, can we be as generous as we would like to be in certain areas but mindful about having to hold back because we don't really know what's coming down the pike," she says.
Mendenhall, who has an MBA and works in finance, suggests prioritizing initiatives based on their return on investment.
"I think it would just be sort of reprioritizing and having just a great detailed view of what is sort of the ROI of certain investments that you can make. What are the highest, what are the things that you need to do, what are the things that you want to do, but could maybe not be as crucial in the near term," she explains.
Putziger emphasizes focusing on core mission activities if funding decreases.
"I think you would have to reanalyze all the projects and hopes and dreams that the library wants to accomplish and drill down to the core mission," she says.
Viteri, a current trustee seeking reelection, suggests a more proactive approach to fundraising through the Friends of the Coastal Library.
"I think as we continue to put great programming out there, we continue to do great people experiences, our partners who do the fundraising component of it will continue to raise additional funds because it's so important to the community," he says.
All candidates expressed passion for the library as a community hub that provides essential services beyond book lending.
The candidates also discussed their leadership styles and how they would work within the nine-member Board of Trustees.
Cohasset's town election is scheduled for May 17, with polls open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mail-in voting applications must be submitted to the town clerk's office by May 12, and in-person absentee voting is available from May 12 to May 16 at noon.
The Planning Board seat is for a five-year term, while Library Trustee positions are for three-year terms.