TRURO — The so-called Cloverleaf development, an affordable housing complex on South Highland Road at Route 6, received about half the approvals it needs for full permitting last week, while objections to the plan from neighbors continued.
On Oct. 22, the zoning board of appeals granted five of 12 main waivers that developer Ted Malone, of Community Housing Resource, must have before construction on the largest affordable housing development in town can begin. The ZBA tentatively approved a sixth waiver, pending a review by a water quality specialist with the Cape Cod Commission (CCC).
The Cloverleaf project has been before the zoning board for a year. Malone is seeking a comprehensive permit under the state’s Chapter 40B to construct the 39-unit complex, which would be a mix of affordable and moderate-income-restricted rentals, along with seven market-rate units. The comprehensive permit process allows the developer to receive relief or waivers from zoning restrictions that would otherwise preclude affordable housing, as long as the benefits of the project outweigh possible detriments.
The ZBA members favored granting all the waivers before them during the Oct. 22 meeting. But they referred the most significant and controversial waiver, which would exempt the development from the town’s septic regulations, to a water specialist at the CCC. The hydrologist will conduct a peer review on the proposed alternative for treating wastewater, a BioMicrobics system that has been used elsewhere but is still considered “innovative.” ZBA Chair Art Hultin said the review was limited to 20 days to prevent a lengthy delay in the permitting.
The BioMicrobics system has already been reviewed and approved by an independent engineer, Mark Nelson of the Horsley Witten Group, who determined that it will treat the development’s wastewater safely and effectively. Nelson recommended that the board grant the waiver.
Truro Health Agent Emily Beebe told the board, “[The Cloverleaf] proposal would treat the wastewater to a vastly higher degree than anyone else [in the neighborhood.]”
Still, four of the five ZBA members — Hultin, John Dundas, John Thornley, and Fred Todd — asked for the extra review. Only Chris Lucy did not want to see it headed to the CCC.
“I just don’t understand why we’re going to continue to review and review and then review the review,” Lucy said.
Lucy further commented on a report by Beebe that the real culprit causing poor water quality in the nearby Pond Village area has to do with homes that already exist and the old septic systems on those properties.
“It’s the constant building and rebuilding in the Pond Village area,” Lucy said, “and no one pays attention to the fact that their [own] sewage is poisoning themselves.”
A group calling themselves the “Members of the Pond Village Community” objected to the project in a three-page letter to the ZBA that was signed by 114 people. One of their main points is that the developer is proposing an “untested, pilot” septic system and that the town is being used as a guinea pig.
Laura English, who signed that letter, told the ZBA that the Barnstable County Dept. of Health “is only aware of three sites that have one of these systems … and nothing with the same volume as the Cloverleaf development.”
Earlier in the meeting, the Horsley Witten Group consultant said the system has been tested on a similar property, the 50-unit affordable housing development in Westport called Noquochoke Village. Beebe told the Independent that it was “a very close comparison with the same residential wastewater characteristics.”
The other waivers granted on Oct. 22 were to allow use of an alternative septic system, allow multifamily development on the nearly four-acre lot, allow the town to issue more than 50 single-family dwelling units in a single year, and to exceed height and floor area limits.
The waivers that are still pending include relief from the site plan review process, parking requirements, and subdivision regulations, such as size limits for dead end roads, grading standards, and vegetation standards.
