Francis Mand launched his campaign for a five-year seat on the Plymouth Planning Board this week, delivering a sharp critique of the current board’s environmental record and calling for more aggressive action on affordable housing. While Mand is running unopposed for the term, he used his candidate statement to distance himself from the board’s recent decisions, arguing that local officials have failed to protect the town’s character from development pressures.

Mand expressed frustration with what he described as a gap between the town’s regulations and the reality on the ground. Plymouth voters don't have unreasonable expectations. They want to keep the town green, affordable, and efficiently managed, Mand said. But little by little, piece by piece, they have watched our beautiful woods clearcut, our water polluted, and our open space developed or degraded. His comments follow his recent dissenting vote regarding a lot split on Sandwich Street, where he argued against using open space bylaws to facilitate density increases rather than preserving meaningful habitats.

A central pillar of Mand’s platform is the acceleration of affordable housing production to protect the town from 40B developments, which allow developers to bypass many local zoning rules if a municipality’s housing stock is less than 10% affordable. Mand insisted that the board must reach that threshold to gain local control. We must strive at every opportunity to reach that elusive 10% goal and so be immune from 40B developers, he noted, adding that future projects must include resilient infrastructure and green corridors.

Mand also took aim at the board’s current leadership and his predecessor, claiming that even when members speak up for the environment, their words rarely translate into results. He described the board as being enamored with words while failing to stop the bulldozers, lawnmowers, and sandal feet from damaging Plymouth’s natural resources. Mand pledged to reject any development that wastes water or impedes wildlife, signaling a potentially more restrictive approach to site plan reviews and special permits.

My opponent is for all of these things, but he's been, for the most part, too quiet, too hesitant to speak out for these minimal standards, Mand said of the seat’s incumbent. Despite the lack of a challenger on the ballot, Mand concluded that the town deserves a higher standard of oversight. I may be running unopposed, but I know I can and should do better.