The city will undertake a harbor plan review this year.
Because we are a community with a Designated Port Area, we need to periodically go through a formal harbor planning process, and then submit our municipal harbor plan to the state Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs for approval.
The first harbor plan for the city was approved by the commonwealth in 1999. The plan focused primarily on infrastructure improvements for the port, and one of the big accomplishments as result of the plan was the construction of the Jodrey State Fish Pier.
The 1999 plan was due for review after five years, and in 2004 the then mayor appointed a Harbor Plan Implementation Committee.
By 2006, there was a draft plan which basically supported the goals of the original 1999 plan.
Read the complete opinion piece in The Gloucester Daily Times