Cape Cod Regulatory Panel Created
Pleas from Cape Cod residents for someone to rein in development on their fragile, sandy peninsula were officially answered Friday with the signing of a law creating the Cape Cod Commission.
“In 1991--1992 at the latest--we are going to face a lot of very, very tough growth pressures,” Gov. Michael S. Dukakis said at a Statehouse news conference before signing the Cape Cod Commission Act.
Establishing a regulatory commission “gives everybody a chance to do it right,” he said.
Environmentalists, regular vacationers and homeowners have worried about the future of the cape, especially as condominiums and shopping malls began springing up in profusion.
In November, 1988, Barnstable County voters approved a referendum calling for an agency to regulate development. The Legislature later passed the law creating the commission.
The panel will include 15 representatives appointed by boards of selectmen in each of the cape’s 15 towns, three appointees by county commissioners and one gubernatorial appointee.
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