TRURO — Planning board clerk Jack Riemer is running for re-election on May 13 against incumbent Paul Kiernan and challengers Harlen Howard and Eric Jansen.
Riemer was one of three board members to vote against the proposed zoning overlay district for the Walsh property. The district was approved at the May 3 town meeting.
Riemer declined to be interviewed by phone or in person but agreed to answer written questions. In his written comments, he said water was the issue that most informed his votes on the planning board — a priority reflected in his public comments as a board member.
“The town needs a master development plan” on water infrastructure, he wrote. “Then we can know whether we need water, what kinds we need, and where that would need to be built and to serve the identified needs and uses.”
In January 2021, Riemer advocated a stricter cap in Truro’s growth management bylaw, which already limited the number of building permits for new single-family units to 40 per year. Riemer favored halving that number to 20 units, saying “the cap is necessary to ensure the rural character of Truro and preservation of natural resources.”
Riemer has expressed frustration about water infrastructure planning and the risk he sees in the Walsh property’s development. At the 2024 annual town meeting, his exchange with Health Agent Emily Beebe on the matter led another town official to protest Riemer’s conduct.
During debate on the map of a proposed water resources protection overlay district, Riemer said that the town’s water security was threatened “due to the lack of competent development of alternate sources of supply.”
Riemer’s statement was misleading, Town Planner Barbara Carboni told the planning board at its next meeting. “To the extent this statement was a comment on our health and conservation agent’s professional competence, and I do not see how it could be interpreted otherwise, it is unfounded and uninformed,” she said.
Riemer replied that he was “happy to meet with Emily and any members of the staff to further continue the concerns that I have.” He said he made the comment as a private citizen.
At this year’s town meeting, Riemer again raised an alarm about water. “Walsh is the center for future public water supply development, which will address a top priority for all of us,” he said. “This priority was never considered in the Walsh overlay district article.”
Riemer was elected in 2015 to a five-year term on the planning board as a write-in candidate with 95 votes. In the 2020 election, he received 300 votes in another uncontested race.
Riemer has said he supports keeping the planning board elected rather than appointed by the select board. “Consider the hypocrisy of our elected officials who would choose to rule,” he said at the 2022 annual town meeting, “by limiting the public’s democratic right to choose our governmental officials.”
He has not taken a position on the proposed wastewater plan for the Walsh property, which would also serve the Truro Central School, saying “I would need to see a real plan, not a concept, before I could venture an opinion” in his written comments.
He had objected to a proposed waiver to allow affordable housing to be constructed at the Cloverleaf. “I don’t dispute the fact that we do need more housing here in town that is affordable,” he said at the time. “But I’m also deadly concerned about what the effects are if we pollute our water supply by asking for a waiver.”
