Meetings Ahead
Most meetings in Provincetown are held in person, typically with an online-attendance option for both committee members and residents. Click on the meeting you want to attend on the calendar at provincetown-ma.gov for a link to an agenda and details. All meetings are at Town Hall unless otherwise noted.
Thursday, Jan. 18
- Board of Health, 4 p.m.
- Zoning Board of Appeals, 6 p.m.
Monday, Jan. 22
- Select Board, 6 p.m.
Tuesday, Jan. 23
- Licensing Board, 5:15 p.m.
- School Committee, 6 p.m.
Wednesday, Jan. 24
- Harbor Committee, 2 p.m.
Thursday, Jan. 25
- Planning Board, 6 p.m.
Conversation Starters
Chapter 91 Action Plan
At its Jan. 24 meeting, the Harbor Committee and Dept. of Public Works Director Jim Vincent will review an “action plan” for bringing waterfront properties into compliance with Chapter 91, the state’s law governing private properties that intrude onto publicly owned tidelands.
There are more than 100 such properties in Provincetown, most of which do not have a license from the state.
Other properties, including the Provincetown Marina at 279 Commercial St., owned by Charles Lagasse Jr., have a Chapter 91 license but have not provided the public benefits that the license requires. The action plan will help coordinate the town’s efforts to secure those public benefits.
Business Survey
The select board voted on Jan. 8 to include a survey of business owners in the town’s new housing needs assessment being conducted by the UMass Donohue Institute.
For at least two years, select board members have said they would like to help the business community work on the shrinking supply of seasonal housing for summer employees but that they require better data to justify any expenditure of money or allocation of land.
Employers, for their part, have publicly complained that the only rentals some of their employees can find are overcrowded or unsafe.
The business owner survey will seek to put numbers on the seasonal housing problem and identify how it relates to the year-round housing problem, select board members agreed. They unanimously endorsed adding the business survey to the needs assessment. —Paul Benson
