Meetings Ahead
Most meetings in Wellfleet are remote only, but some are held in person. Go to www.wellfleet-ma.gov/calendar and click on the meeting you want to watch, then follow the instructions on the agenda.
Thursday, April 6
- Housing Authority, 10 a.m.
Wednesday, April 12
- Planning Board, 7 p.m.
Conversation Starter
Bylaw Committee Recommendations
The bylaw committee voted to recommend four of five general bylaw amendments that will come before voters at the April 29 annual town meeting.
The committee is made up of three members, Dawn Rickman, Liz Stansell, and Sam Pickard, who make recommendations to town meeting on proposed bylaws or amendments.
During the committee’s March 24 meeting, Pickard lamented the apparent demise of proofreading skills in town. “As usual, the articles contained a number of typographic errors,” he said.
The committee voted unanimously to recommend proposed amendments to the rules on composition of the council on aging advisory board, the demolition delay bylaw, the floodplain district bylaw, and the accessory dwelling unit bylaw.
The council on aging advisory board amendment would reduce the number of members on the board from 11 to 9. The board has found it difficult to achieve a quorum at meetings.
The demolition delay bylaw amendment attempts to clarify definitions and procedures to protect Wellfleet’s significant midcentury modern houses and significant houses over 75 years old. It would require an independent evaluation from a structural engineer when there is a claim that a building is structurally unsound.
Floodplain district bylaw updates are mandatory for Wellfleet to remain in the National Flood Insurance Program.
The ADU bylaw amendment, the committee found, was about “unremarkable housekeeping” changes intended to make the bylaw easier to interpret.
But the three committee members all voted not to recommend a specialized energy code bylaw written by the energy and climate action committee. The amendment would update the town’s current stretch code to a stricter code designed to increase efficiency and cut fossil fuel use.
Stansell called the amendment “an exercise in virtue signaling” and noted that “there is no discussion or mention within the article of the increase in construction costs that such a stringent code necessarily entails,” according to the minutes of the meeting.
Stansell added that “blathering about how stretch code changes are important because they are hard is not a substitute for reasoned argument as to why the taxpayers should approve this article.”
Pickard “failed to see the necessity of a stricter code.” Committee members also noted that two of five select board members voted against the article. —Sam Pollak
