Consultants outline outreach plan and August survey for Dennis housing production plan

Tony Yung and Judy Barrett of Barrett Planning Group told the Dennis Affordable Housing Trust on July 13 that consultants will run stakeholder interviews, tabling at festival week, two community meetings and a public survey to inform an updated Housing Production Plan.

"We aim to have it wrapped up sometime in November," Tony said, describing a schedule that coordinates trust updates, outreach events and a community review period before presenting the draft to the planning board and select board.

The consultants proposed using SurveyMonkey for a 5–6 page public survey open for roughly one month (planned for August), with branching logic and built-in analytics to segment responses by tenure, household type and other demographics. Tony said paper copies and tabling are part of the promotion strategy and suggested working with the town's library and communications staff to distribute flyers and a QR link.

Trust members raised timing and promotion concerns: several asked whether late-August community meetings would miss summer residents, and Tony agreed evenings and post-Labor Day options might increase turnout while noting the contract runs through year-end. Judy Barrett asked the trust whether it wanted a passive feedback role or to help shape plan content; members agreed the trust should play an active, collaborative role, offering local knowledge and outreach help.

The consultants asked the trust to send comments on the engagement plan and survey by the end of the coming week (target dates discussed on July 24). The next steps are finalizing outreach details, printing paper surveys, scheduling stakeholder interviews and launching the public survey in August.