Meetings Ahead
Most meetings in Provincetown are held in person, typically with an online-attendance option. 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. 9
- Water and Sewer Board, 2 p.m., Veterans Memorial Community Center
- Community Preservation Committee, 2 p.m.
- Planning Board, 6 p.m.
Monday, Jan. 13
- Select Board, 6 p.m.
Tuesday, Jan. 14
- Licensing Board, 5 p.m.
Wednesday, Jan. 15
- Historic District Commission, 3:30 p.m.
- Human Services Committee, 5:30 p.m., Veterans Memorial Community Center
Thursday, Jan. 16
- Board of Health, 3:45 p.m.
- Zoning Board of Appeals, 6 p.m.
Conversation Starter
Raising a Bulkhead
The zoning board of appeals will consider a trio of applications at its Jan. 16 meeting from three adjoining property owners requesting permission to “reconstruct and raise an existing bulkhead damaged by stormwater inundation” and to reconstruct “deck and egress structures within an existing footprint.”
The properties are 597A and 599 Commercial St., both of which face the harbor, and 596 Commercial St. Unit 1, which is on the landward side of the street but includes a deeded access deck on the waterfront. Owners of all three will be represented at the ZBA by Eric Larsen.
A bulkhead wall that runs across all three properties will be raised — by about 2.5 feet at 597A and by almost 4 feet at 596 Unit 1 and 599, Larsen wrote to the ZBA. Water-facing decks will also be reconstructed at a higher level.
“Aside from providing direct protection to these properties,” Larsen wrote, “closing off this gap along Commercial Street will provide much needed relief from wave inundation and overwash from flooding the greater neighborhood.”
Seawater has spilled over this bulkhead and onto Commercial Street several times in recent years, including on Jan. 13, 2024, when Suzanne’s Garden, a small town-owned park at 608 Commercial St., filled with seawater.
The area was mapped as a “storm tide pathway” by scientists at the Center for Coastal Studies back in 2016. —Paul Benson
