Buzzards Bay Village Association, Inc.
Mission, Program Objectives and Status Report
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Annual Report 2007 >>>
 The
mission of the Buzzards Bay Village Association is the rehabilitation
of Main Street/Buzzards Bay area as a viable and visible
center for business growth, job creation and maintenance,
housing, local and regional transportation, cultural, historical,
social and recreation center for both residents of the Town
of Bourne and visitors and tourists.
The Main Street area has suffered from many years of neglect,
a lack of business and public investment and two public
policy decisions designed to ease and expedite traffic access
through the village to neighborhood communities. Efforts
to stem its decline or to restore its vitality have been
only partly successful as they failed to deal with the pressing
need on systemic basis reflecting smart growth and contemporary
village-growth development disciplines.
Once Vibrant!
Main Street/Buzzards Bay was once a vibrant Cape Cod village
benefiting from is access to the Cape Cod Cod Canal, the
U.S. Army Facility/Otis Air Force Base, now the Massachusetts
Military Reservation, and its geographical location as the
access community to all other Cape Cod communities.
This confluence of economic vibrancy resulted in local
traffic strangulation demanded attention from public officials
– both state and local. The public responses, though
well conceived at the time, however, further exacerbated
and accelerated the area’s decline. A by-pass road
parallel to Main Street was constructed. This road took
most of the interstate traffic off the village’s main
thoroughfare – the lifeblood of its retail community.
Subsequently the state constructed of a direct access highway
from the terminus of Interstate 495 to the Bourne Bridge
further redirecting traffic away from Main Street.
The combination of these two public policy transportation
decisions also provided local residents, the consumer of
goods and services once provided on Main Street, easy access
to emerging malls and other retail outlets across the Cape
region and abutting communities that offered a wider variety
of alternative services.
These decisions, and their economic and transportation
impacts, also stimulated job losses and discouraged minimal
investment in building renovations. Building maintenance
was also deferred or cast aside to maintain limited marginal
profitability.
In addition, the military, since the end of the Korean
War, substantially reduced its manpower and mission on Cape
Cod further exacerbating the village’s economic and
physical decline.
Greenbelt Pathway
In addition, the Association continues to implement its
Greenbelt Pathway project linking historical, open space
and tourism sites across Buzzards Bay into a walking path.
It is near closure on one of the project’s flagship
pieces – opening up a walkway from Main Street/Buzzards
Bay to the Cape Cod Canal allowing visitors and residents
alike to have a direct walkway to the Cape Cod Canal path
and bikeways and choice fishing locations.
The U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, which manages the waterway,
reports that some 4 million people visit or transit the
facility, each year, the vast majority of whom, must access
it via Main Street/Buzzards Bay’s local streets and
roads.
In addition, the Association conducts a number of social
and business development events. In 2004, it sponsored a
Daffodil Festival and a Christmas walking stroll of Main
Street. Both events will be repeated in 2005. This year
the social events schedule was expanded to hosting an Annual
Snowflake Ball with proceeds dedicated to the Greenbelt
Pathway project. All of these activities are designed to
attract residents and tourists to the area and to highlight
its consumer and business opportunities.
Rehabilitation has Regional Implications
The Association believes that the rehabilitating Main Street/Buzzards
Bay has regional implications and benefits beyond new local
building investments, building upkeep, job creation, increased
tax bases, tourism expansion and walkways and direct open
access to the Cape Cod Canal. The catchment area is also
strategically sited to be a critical component in the resolution
of the peninsula’s ever-growing traffic crisis.
The Town of Bourne is sited to the north in Barnstable
County in Massachusetts, and as such, is both the entry
and exit point for all vehicular transportation modes across
the only two Canal bridges – both passenger and freight
– to the 14 other communities that comprise Cape Cod.
This situation impacts not only the Town of Bourne but several
communities to its south causing long delays, air pollution
and public safety implications, particularly during the
Summer tourism season – a major component of the region’s
total economy. On an average summer day, some 80,000 plus
cars cross either the Bourne or the Sagamore Bridges.
Need Transportation Alternative
This traffic burden is oppressive and cries out for alternative
transportation. A possible solution is the restoration of
passenger and freight service from Main Street/Buzzards
Bay to other locations in eastern Massachusetts, New England
and the Northeast. Depot, storage, rail lines and signal
systems are in place and studies to restore this service
are under consideration. By bringing back rail service from
Boston, New York and points further south, a significant
number of cars can be taken off town roads, which can only
decrease vehicular traffic pressures on both bridges that
now cross the Cape Cod Canal. Planning to restore this service
is a principal component of the Association’s business
plan.
BBVA Committed
The Officers, Directors and members of the Buzzards Bay
Village Association, Inc., believe they are engaged in the
rehabilitation of an area that that has duel benefits –to
the Town of Bourne and the entire Cape Cod peninsula and
will substantially enhance job creation investment, restore
local and regional consumer amenities, decrease motor vehicle
travel, improve the physical environment and undertaken
within smart growth and village center renewal parameters.
November 2, 2007
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