Most meetings are being held in person, but some are still remote or virtual. Go to eastham-ma.gov/calendar-by-event-type/16 and click on the meeting you are interested in to learn about meeting locations and any remote options that may be offered.
Thursday, March 31
- Board of Health, 3 p.m., Town Hall
- Nauset Regional School Committee, 6 p.m., virtual
Monday, April 4
- Select Board, 5:30 p.m., Town Hall
Tuesday, April 5
- Zoning Task Force, 4 p.m, virtual
Wednesday, April 6
- Community Preservation Act Committee, 5 p.m., Town Hall
Thursday, April 7
- Cape Cod Commission: Eastham District of Critical Planning Concern, 3 p.m., virtual
- Zoning Board of Appeals, 5 p.m., Town Hall
Conversation Starters
Community Impact Fee
The Eastham Select Board voted on March 21 to give town meeting voters the chance to levy a 3-percent community impact fee on top of the short-term rental tax for “professionally managed” units.
If voters say yes to the impact fee, the funds would go into an account reserved for local infrastructure projects and future town meeting appropriations.
The community impact fee would apply only to multiple units owned by a single person and rented out to vacationers. Assistant Town Administrator and Finance Director Rich Bienvenue has said the community impact fee would bring Eastham $54,000 a year. (For additional analysis, see story by Paul Benson on page A12.)
The community impact fee is meant to discourage the “warehousing” of property for short-term rentals, reducing the housing stock for year-round and seasonal occupancy, according to the summary of the article on the draft warrant.
Lynn Collins Francis, one of the owners of Collins Cove Cottages, objected to the fee, saying that her cottage colony, in existence for over 100 years, would be hurt.
“We’re not like the corporations that are buying up short-term rental units and we’re not keeping housing away from people,” she said. “It just doesn’t seem to really fit the criteria.”
Other community members argued the fee would make a Cape vacation unaffordable.
Select board member Jared Collins disagreed.
“You need to tax the people that can afford it,” he said. “In most of my generation, especially around here, people can’t afford to spend a couple grand and go on a vacation for a week,” he said. “But for the people that can do that, an extra 50 or 100 bucks is absolutely nothing.”
He said while people talk about breaking points for renters, “the main issue is we need to have a workforce.”
“If we don’t support enough workforce housing for the people that live here, there’s going to be no one left to provide the services that the people coming here want to enjoy,” Collins said. —Michaela Chesin
