Josh Faherty was recently named the newest Director of Planning and Community Development after serving the town for two-and-a-half years in various roles in the planning department.

Faherty will be taking over for longtime Director of Planning Ken Buckland who will remain with the town until he finishes up work on some outstanding projects.

“I look forward to embracing the new challenges and responsibilities from myself and the planning office,” Faherty said.

Faherty served as the conservation administrator from Dec. 2022 to May 2024 until he was named the land use coordinator for the town.

As a member of the planning department for the last two-and-a-half years, Faherty said he has learned a lot about the town to prepare him for his new role.

“Since I took over as the land use coordinator I took over the planning and zoning of a lot of projects and I can see where the town has concerns,” he said. “There’s a drive to enhance the features Wareham offers now.”

As the director of planning, Faherty said he has a number of projects he plans to tackle to help improve the town and respond to citizen concerns.

“I’m looking to bring the department into the 21st century,” Faherty said. “We’re going to try and streamline the permitting process for applicants and get general information distributed better.”

One of the largest projects Faherty is taking over is reviewing the town’s master plan and getting public input on how development of Wareham could look over the next two decades.

The master plan is a framework for how the town will be developed over the course of a 15 to 20 year period and Faherty explained the plan is still in its infancy because implementation of the plan began in 2020.

Faherty described himself as the connector of ideas from public officials and residents in order to implement the plan.

“It’d be really hard for me to say here’s one place to change because the ideas that come from the public could totally change my perception of a situation,” he said.