The Door County Environmental Council hosted Kristy Senatori and Erin Perry from the Cape Cod Commission on June 4 at the Kress Pavilion in Egg Harbor, WI. Cape Cod, also a peninsular tourist destination, has faced many problems similar to Door County’s experiences, from water quality to affordable housing to over-tourism. The challenges facing Cape Cod and Door County are similar in many ways to those facing other regions across the country, but as highly seasonal communities, the impacts are felt much more acutely. The greatest challenges facing Cape Cod also offer opportunities to shape and define the future of the region. The Cape Cod Commission is the regional land use planning, economic development, and regulatory agency created in 1990 to serve the citizens and 15 towns of Barnstable County. With a mission to protect the unique values and quality of life on Cape Cod by coordinating a balanced relationship between environmental protection and economic progress, the Commission’s work spans topics of land use, transportation, economic development, natural resources, climate change, and coastal resilience, among others. Kristy Senatori and Erin Perry highlighted ways in which the Commission has provided regional planning expertise, regulatory review, and technical assistance to advance initiatives that keep a special place special. How can our special place, Door County, benefit from learning about the challenges that Cape Cod confronted?
Kristy Senatori, Executive Director, Cape Cod Commission
Kristy Senatori leads the Cape Cod Commission in designing innovative land use policies, environmental and community resilience strategies, and comprehensive economic development initiatives through a multi-disciplinary approach. She promotes collaboration among communities through information and regionalization projects and the implementation of decision support platforms designed to create efficiencies. Ms. Senatori has been a featured speaker at regional and national conferences. She graduated from Hamilton College with a Bachelor of Arts degree and received her law degree from Vermont Law School. Ms. Senatori worked in the private sector for several years before joining the Commission in 2008 and serving as the Commission’s Chief Regulatory Officer and Deputy Director. Ms. Senatori is admitted to the Massachusetts Bar.
Erin Perry, Deputy Director, Cape Cod Commission
Erin Perry joined the Cape Cod Commission staff in 2011 and has served as Deputy Director since 2019. She manages regional planning efforts at the program level and engages communities during the planning process to build consensus. Ms. Perry has led development of plans and decision-support platforms on the topics of water quality, coastal resilience and hazard mitigation, climate change, economic development, and the Cape Cod Regional Policy Plan. Ms. Perry received a Bachelor of Science in Biological Oceanography from Rutgers University and a Master of Arts in Marine Affairs from the University of Rhode Island.