TRURO — The 70-acre Walsh property, which has been in the town’s possession since 2019, has been sitting in limbo on the eastern side of Route 6 since it was acquired. Special town meeting voters will get to weigh in on a plan for its use on Oct. 21.
The Walsh Property Community Planning Committee has spent more than two years working toward a presentation for town meeting. The group’s dozen or so members, down from 17 when it first convened in 2021, have been working with consultants to compile their report.
“We’re in the process of pulling together the reports to put up on the website,” committee cochair Eileen Breslin said. The committee has also been deciding on survey questions to gather opinions on Walsh-related issues ranging from development to open space, architecture, and traffic. That survey will be put on the website as well, Breslin said.
The committee’s draft report synthesizes six “planning principles” for use of the site: addressing the need for community housing; environmentally sustainable development; community and recreation spaces; protection of water supplies; efficient land use; and meeting open space and habitat protection requirements.
The draft lays out plans for the development of 252 housing units, a number the committee decided on in its first-ever vote last January. Of those, 152 units would aim to meet 60 percent of the need laid out in a draft of the town’s housing production plan. The additional 100 units would be market-rate “to help families stay within the community,” according to the draft plan.
The vote for 252 units was seven to three. Breslin was one of three who voted no. She declined to comment on her thoughts about the committee proceeding with that plan for housing development.
That housing quotient — and the allocations of land for commercial use (0.23 acres) and open space (40.2 acres) — is one subject on the survey that the committee is putting together. The committee is recommending a combination of townhouses, apartment buildings, single-family homes, and lots where residents can build their own homes. The survey will also solicit feedback about that breakdown of units.
Respondents will also be prompted to weigh in on traffic concerns. Unsurprisingly, a traffic analysis by the Cape Cod Commission predicted delays for cars exiting the neighborhood during the summer months. An estimate of a three-minute delay was based on winter traffic at intersections abutting the Walsh property, adjusted for winter-summer traffic ratios at the Wellfleet-Truro town line.
Now, the committee is awaiting real-time summer traffic data from the Cape Cod Commission, according to Town Manager Darrin Tangeman. He said on July 31 that the data are likely to be available sometime in the next 30 days.
The survey will also ask respondents about wastewater and phasing the construction, stating that “developers have indicated that 40-60 units of housing per phase would be best.”
The committee is also planning to conduct public outreach by setting up tables at the transfer station and farmers market. It will also hold a public session on Aug. 16, which Breslin said will entail a “brief presentation and an opportunity for the public to engage in conversation.”
The committee will revise the existing draft of its plan based on the feedback it receives. “We will see how the public responds, and then we will take that under advisement,” Breslin said.
Cochair Ken Oxtoby could not be reached for comment before press time.
The committee’s charge is “to engage a wide range of Truro residents in developing plans for the use of the property to be presented at a future town meeting for approval.”
Tangeman said he thought that the plan would be likely to appear on the warrant as a nonbinding resolution. “The town can’t implement any of these things,” he said. “It’s all going to be up to the developer,” he said.
Although the warrant closes on Aug. 10, Tangeman said that the deadline is different for articles coming from town committees. “Internal proposals can be sent to the select board up until the time that they can approve it and print it as a warrant article,” Tangeman said.
The warrant is usually printed two to three weeks before town meeting, he said, adding that the Walsh plan will have to be reviewed by Town Counsel John Giorgio of KP Law to ensure that it is in proper form.
