WELLFLEET — The developers of 46 units of affordable housing at 95 Lawrence Road, known as Long Pond Village, have requested 12 waivers from the town’s zoning regulations, which the zoning board of appeals will consider at a continuation of its public hearing on the development on Sept. 8.
The requested waivers would relax rules limiting building height, intensity of use, and the number of allowable signs and would reduce the number of required parking spaces and the minimum size of those spaces. One waiver would allow the construction of a multiple-family dwelling in the Residential 1 zoning district where the development is located and where such uses are prohibited by the zoning bylaw.
The nonprofit developers, Preservation of Affordable Housing (POAH) and the Community Development Partnership (CDP), are seeking a comprehensive permit for the project under the state’s Chapter 40B, which enables local zoning boards to waive or relax some regulations in order to make the construction of affordable units more feasible. Such permits may be granted for projects in communities with less than the state’s minimum standard of 10 percent of total housing stock being affordable. Less than 3 percent of Wellfleet’s housing is considered affordable under the state’s rules.
One of the requested waivers relates to the height of the proposed Lower Village building, which would occupy the site of the now abandoned Council on Aging building at the intersection of Long Pond and Lawrence roads. The zoning bylaw limits structures to two stories and a maximum height of 28 feet. The Lower Village plan calls for a three-story building that would be 44 feet high and contain 22 one- and two-bedroom apartments as well as a community room, laundry, and elevator.
Another waiver would relax the intensity-of-use rules in the zoning bylaw, which would otherwise require a minimum of 390,000 square feet for a development containing 46 dwelling units. The available area at 95 Lawrence Road is about 261,000 square feet — approximately two-thirds of the space required in the bylaw.
Two other requested waivers relate to parking: one would reduce the required size of parking spaces from 9 by 20 feet to 9 by 18 feet. The second would reduce the required number of spaces from 69 to 57.
Two more waivers relate to signs. One would allow the installation of up to four free-standing illuminated signs no more than eight feet high and 12 square feet in area. A second waiver would allow up to eight directional signs no more than two square feet in area.
One of the requested waivers would relax the bylaw’s regulations regarding driveways that are expected to accommodate more than 200 daily trips.
Traffic Study: Little Effect
The developers have also submitted to the ZBA the results of a traffic impact and access study carried out by Fort Hill Infrastructure of Hudson. The study concluded that the development “will have negligible impacts on traffic and should not impede the flow of traffic on nearby streets and intersections.”
The traffic study included observations of the number of cars traveling through the intersections of Long Pond Road with Lawrence Road, Old Long Pond Road, and Main Street, and analysis of the likely effects of increased traffic from the 46 new housing units to be built at Long Pond Village. The study also looked at accident data for the intersection of Lawrence Road and Route 6.
The study concluded that “the proposed development is anticipated to generate 47 vehicle trips during the morning peak hour and 29 vehicle trips during the evening peak hour. This amounts to less than one vehicle every minute under both peak hour conditions. For comparison, the proposed development will lead to a far lower number of vehicle trips comparatively to a commercial retail property.”
The ZBA hopes to conclude its review of the comprehensive permit application on Sept. 22.
