TRURO — Eric Jansen, owner of the Blackfish Bistro in Truro and Local 186 in Provincetown, says that the beauty of running a restaurant is the sense of community it gives him. His customers are all kinds: year-rounders, summer-home owners, and tourists.
Jansen is running a write-in campaign for a seat on the planning board, bringing the number of candidates to four competing for two seats.
“I leave town meeting each year with a sense of the importance of volunteering and giving back,” Jansen says. “I always say, ‘When I retire, I definitely want to do this.’ But this year, I thought, ‘Why not go for it now?’ ”
Jansen has lived in Truro since 1985. He has five children in the Nauset Schools: one at Eddy Elementary, two at Nauset Middle School, and two at Nauset High, where he coaches girls hockey. In Truro, he coaches youth soccer and Little League.
This is Jansen’s first bid for a town government position. He says his work has provided him experience working with town boards and rules. “There are pieces I’m going to have to learn in real time,” he says. “But I like that it’s a regulatory board, that it looks at commercial site plan reviews, land use, subdivisions.”
Jansen moved to Truro with a group of high school friends who rented a house together. The rising cost of housing, he knows, means “that’s not an option anymore.” Jansen says that only one other member of that original group still lives in town.
That fact relates to one of his concerns: “Families are moving away because they can’t afford to stay here.” Jansen says that “housing, in my opinion as a business owner, is a crisis.” He thinks it’s important that working people are able to live here. On his list are schoolteachers, public safety officers, plumbers, and electricians.
Jansen says he sympathizes with the belief that Truro should stay rural, but he also says the town has “only become more rural” since the 1980s. He says he remembers five gas stations in town when he first arrived — now there’s only one.
As for a solution to the housing problem? “How we get there is going to be challenging, and there’s going to be tough questions,” he says. “I’m not suggesting we build anything gigantic.”
One of Jansen’s priorities is simply to be able to work cooperatively with the other members of the planning board. “It’s a common belief that this is an adversarial board,” he says, “and I don’t want to be a part of that. I’m not joining to push an agenda.” He says he wants to go in with “fresh eyes, honesty, and integrity.” That’s essential because “not everybody’s going to be happy when a board makes a decision.”
Jansen says he supported the zoning overlay for the Walsh property, which passed by a narrow margin at Truro’s annual town meeting. He thinks the overlay creates “a place to start the conversation” about moving forward with the land.
He says he understands voters’ concerns about the water table and population density on the site, but that regardless of whether the zoning overlay was approved the town would need to address those issues.
When it comes to decision-making, Jansen says his style has been to “try to hear both sides” of the issues. “I think that’s what you have to do as a board member
