Meetings Ahead
Most meetings in Provincetown are held in person, typically with an online-attendance option. Click on the meeting you want to attend on the calendar at provincetown-ma.gov for a link to an agenda and details. All meetings are at Town Hall unless otherwise noted.
Thursday, Feb. 13
- Bicycle Committee, noon, Veterans Memorial Community Center
- Community Preservation Committee, 2 p.m.
- Water and Sewer Board, 2 p.m., Veterans Memorial Community Center
- Shank Painter Corridor Planning Subcommittee, 5 p.m.
- Planning Board, 6 p.m.
Tuesday, Feb. 18
- Disability Commission, 9 a.m., online only
- Housing Authority, 5:30 p.m., 44 Harry Kemp Way
- Conservation Commission, 6 p.m.
Wednesday, Feb. 19
- Historic District Commission, 3:30 p.m.
Thursday, Feb. 20
- Board of Health, 4 p.m.
- Open Space Committee, 4 p.m.
- Zoning Board of Appeals, 6 p.m.
Conversation Starter
Lease to Locals, Year Two
At a Feb. 10 housing workshop, town leaders discussed how to fund a second year of the Lease to Locals program that provides incentive payments to homeowners to switch their short-term rental, vacation home, or seasonal rentals over to year-round rentals.
The incentive payments vary from $6,000 for one person in a studio apartment to $20,000 for three tenants in a three-bedroom. By the time the program’s first year ends on April 1, the incentives will have helped secure one-year leases for 55 tenants in 33 properties, at a total cost of $471,600.
The town has the opportunity to open the program to 25 more property owners to rent to another 44 tenants in the program’s second year, Town Manager Alex Morse told the boards — but alongside that opportunity are worries that because the incentives are for one year only, many first-year tenants might now be told to move out.
“The higher the incentive for cohort one into year two, the less people we could house in a new cohort,” said Morse. “How do we balance having as high a retention as possible in the first cohort while also being able to bring on an additional 44 tenants?”
After some discussion, select board members were willing to fund first-year leases for a second year at 75 percent of their original incentive, in light of the fact that those properties are now eligible for the town’s residential tax exemption for rental properties, which is worth about $2,100 per property.
After adding the value of the tax exemption, a studio or one-bedroom unit with one tenant would get just as much incentive money in the second year as in the original program. A two-bedroom unit with two tenants would get $14,100 in the program’s second year as opposed to the $16,000 incentive in the first year.
With the continued incentives and a new group of tenants, the total cost in year two is forecast to be $650,000. The money comes from the town’s tax on short-term rental and hotel stays. —Paul Benson
