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ADU

    HOUSING

    First $25K ADU Incentive Goes to Eastham Family

    CDP program sees year-round rentals as key to keeping young professionals here

    By

    EASTHAM — Katie Castagno and Natalia Redyk call it the “Cape Cod shuffle.” They’ve been doing it since landing jobs here nearly three years ago.

    Natalia Redyk, left, and Katie Castagno moved into an ADU on Katie’s parents’ property this summer. It’s their first year-round rental since they came to work at the Center for Coastal Studies and Spaulding Rehab three years ago. (Photos by Elias Duncan)

    “We moved here to start my position at the Center for Coastal Studies in November 2020,” Castagno said. Soon, Redyk, a physical therapist, landed a job at Spaulding Rehabilitation Center’s outpatient facility in Orleans.

    That fall, Castagno said, “We thought we would start looking for places to buy, but everything was out of our price range, so we decided to wait until January when prices usually come down.” But in January 2021, prices instead began to soar, as people turned rentals into year-round houses during the pandemic. Buying a house “became less and less of a possibility,” Castagno said.

    Castagno’s parents, Anthony and Karen Castagno, built a house in Eastham in 1991 at 325 South Sunken Meadow Road. The family spent summers there, and now Anthony and Karen, who are retired, live there full-time. Meanwhile, their daughter developed an interest in the Cape’s unique ecology, which led her to a Ph.D. in geological oceanography through a joint program offered by M.I.T. and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

    Castagno is happy to have a home for her five guitars and one banjo.

    Katie said day camp at Audubon’s Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary launched her on her career. “Basically, I get to do a lot of the things that I was doing in camp, exploring and enjoying the world around me,” she said.

    She found her dream job, but finding housing was a nightmare.

    “We lived at my parents’ house initially until we could find a seasonal rental,” Castagno said. The couple hopped from one seasonal rental to another over the next two years.

    Meanwhile, Karen and Anthony decided to look into the possibility of building an accessory dwelling unit, or ADU, on their half-acre property.

    It took two years to complete design, permitting, and construction, but the Castagnos got a certificate of occupancy for the 800-square-foot freestanding unit on July 1. Katie and Natalia moved in shortly thereafter.

    Constructing an ADU is an expensive venture, and in this case it became even more expensive than the family anticipated when they were required to install a new septic system. But the Castagnos were able to get some technical guidance as well as a little financial help from the Community Development Partnership’s ADU resource center.

    The resource center was launched in April 2022 with $1 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds. ADUs are added units built on existing residential properties. They can be converted basement spaces, apartments built over garages, additions connected to the main house, or detached structures.

    Resource center staff have been working with the health and building departments on the Lower and Outer Cape to streamline the process by developing templates to make it easier for property owners to navigate the various requirements in their communities.

    Light pours through the house as Redyk shows a photographer around the new ADU.

    “Folks contact us, and we help them through the process: seeing what their zoning bylaws and all their setbacks are to see if it’s feasible for them to build an ADU — and can they do it by right or will they need a special permit,” said Terri Baron, the CDP’s director of program resources.

    The resource center serves as a liaison between the town and the property owner.

    The Castagnos needed a special permit from the town to build a detached ADU, said Karen. “We were limited to 800 square feet because one of the restrictions in Eastham is that the ADU can’t be more than half the square footage of the main house,” she said.

    The resource center also offers $25,000 incentives to property owners who create ADUs, as long as they are rented year-round for five years. The money is a loan; once five years have passed, the loan amount is forgiven.

    The Castagnos were the first to get a $25,000 award through the center, but interest is on the rise across the Lower Cape.

    “People are becoming more curious about modular ADUs as more are being built,” said Talitha Abramsen, who manages the CDP’s housing resources program. Since the center opened a year and a half ago, more than 100 people have contacted the CDP for advice on building ADUs.

    The Castagnos’ ADU is a freestanding 800-square-foot house — half the size of the main house, a limit in place in Eastham.

    Jay Coburn, CEO of the CDP, said that there is no income requirement for prospective tenants. “One of the most challenging parts of addressing the housing affordability crisis in the region is that there are lots of different subsidy programs and resources available for units that are at 80 percent and below of the area median income, but only a tiny bit of money for those that are between 80 and 120 percent of AMI,” Coburn said.

    Homeowners are also hesitant to put a restriction on their properties requiring that the ADU remain affordable, Coburn said. For that reason, the CDP decided to make the only restriction on the incentive money the requirement that the ADU be rented year-round for at least five years.

    Tenants can also be family members, since many homeowners, like the Castagnos, are building units for their adult children who want to stay on the Cape but can’t find a place to live.

    “There are folks we’ve talked to who are thinking about signing over or selling their main home to their adult children and aging in place [in the ADU],” Coburn said. “Our thought was it’s OK to build these for family members because, again, it’s keeping working people in our region.”

    For Katie and Natalia, the ADU has lifted the constant worry over housing from their shoulders. “It’s really an incredible opportunity to be back here, working in an area that is so precious to me,” Katie said. “It feels very nice to have some stability in our housing.”

    THE HOUSING PUZZLE

    Resource Center Tries to Light the Way for More ADUs

    But even with help, most owners are deterred by high costs

    By

    PROVINCETOWN — Spend enough time learning about Cape Cod’s housing crisis and you’ll eventually hear something about ADUs, or accessory dwelling units. By definition, an ADU is a smaller residential unit, usually a one-bedroom or studio apartment, that can be legally added to a single-family home. Because Cape Cod’s existing housing is overwhelmingly composed of single-family homes, ADUs are sometimes described as an ideal solution for the Cape, a potential route to hundreds or thousands of smaller new places for people to live.

    Andrea Aldana, chief program officer at the Community Development Partnership. (Photo courtesy CDP)

    The theoretical promise of ADUs has been in stark contrast to their reality, however. All 15 towns on Cape Cod now permit some kind of ADU in their zoning bylaws, yet very few have been built.

    Brewster and Falmouth have had more success than their neighbors and have each permitted more than 20 ADUs over the last few years. In most other Outer and Lower Cape towns, however, you can count the number of ADUs on one hand.

    The ADU Resource Center, a joint project of the Community Development Partnership (CDP) and the Homeless Prevention Council, was created last April to help homeowners in the eight Lower and Outer Cape towns with permitting and building new units. It was funded with a $1-million earmark that state Rep. Sarah Peake attached to a spending bill in November 2021.

    The Resource Center offers free guidance to homeowners at every step of the process, especially when it comes to understanding what their town’s zoning rules might permit them to build and what it might cost. The Resource Center can also provide a $10,000 forgivable loan, which can be paired with other assistance from the Housing Assistance Corporation of Cape Cod, the Cape Light Compact, and even some individual town programs, said Andrea Aldana, chief program officer at the CDP.

    Terri Barron, who oversees the Resource Center, described some of the obstacles that the center can help with — and some that it can’t.

    “We do a feasibility study of the property for free, in which we go over all the rules that will apply to them, including lot coverage, square footage, and septic,” said Barron. But the rules might require an actual site survey, which can cost $5,000.

    State and town regulations on septic systems often stop homeowners in their tracks, Barron said. The state’s Title 5 septic rules limit the number of bedrooms per acre regardless of other zoning requirements, Barron said. New construction can trigger town rules about septic system upgrades, which can cost $30,000 or more.

    Terri Barron, director of housing rehabilitation programs at the Community Development Partnership. (Photo courtesy CDP)

    Then there is the cost of an architect — “usually $3,000 to $5,000,” Barron said — and the time to go through planning or zoning boards.

    According to the Cape Cod Commission, nearly every town permits some kind of ADU configuration by right — but in Barron’s experience it’s usually not so easy.

    “For very few people has it been a straightforward slam dunk like that,” Barron said. If any circumstance doesn’t fit the bylaw, then homeowners have to ask their planning or zoning board for a special permit, which can take months.

    Construction costs are the ultimate obstacle, Barron said, with an average cost around $450 per square foot. For an 800-square-foot ADU, that’s about $360,000.

    There are financing options, Barron said, and many people can pull money out of their existing house with a home-equity loan. But depending on interest rates, the rental income from the ADU might not be enough to cover the new loan.

    Of the 64 homeowners who have contacted the Resource Center this year, only about 10 appear likely to finish the permitting process and actually build an ADU, Barron said. Most of them have specific reasons to want the extra unit — typically, either adult children or elderly parents are moving in.

    “We have some people who just want to help with the housing crisis” and create a rental unit, Barron said, but they’re more likely to be deterred by the high costs and long process.

    “We think $50,000 would be enough of an incentive to unlock some of that larger second pool of people who don’t have family reasons but are interested in building,” Aldana said. “But that means that ADUs would be both time-intensive and resource-intensive, and at that point I think a wider conversation is warranted.”

    Compared to the recent past, three new ADUs per town per year would be a big improvement — and yet still completely dwarfed by the scale of the crisis. A study commissioned by the Housing Assistance Corp. last fall predicted that 829 households earning less than $100,000 per year would be displaced from Cape Cod this year.

    Even after they are created, ADUs require oversight from town staff to ensure that restrictions on their use are being enforced. This ADU at 249 Gross Hill Road in Wellfleet is deed restricted to affordable year-round rental only. Wellfleet town staff have struggled to decide whose job it is to enforce the affordable deed restriction, however. (Photo by Nancy Bloom)

    “Each unit is valuable, but these towns need lots of units,” Aldana said. “The strategies that will get us there are having multifamily zoning by right in village centers, having towns release their technicalities around how bedrooms are configured on a site, and allowing maximum residential density as long as wastewater regulations and environmental protections are followed.”

    In most residential parts of Cape Cod, a four-bedroom house would be legal; a three-bedroom house and a one-bedroom ADU might be legal; and a duplex consisting of two two-bedroom units would be forbidden. State wastewater laws control how many bedrooms are allowed, Aldana said — but whether they are in a single-family home, a house with an ADU, or a duplex is entirely up to the towns and their zoning choices.

    “We don’t need to put dense residential development everywhere,” Aldana said, “but we do need to concentrate development in village centers that have more amenities, better infrastructure, are more walkable, and are better for the climate.

    “We can do this in a beautiful way, with good design and open space,” Aldana added. “This is still very controversial in most of the towns. But you’re never going to get the number of units with ADUs that you’ll get from these larger-scale developments.”

    HOUSING CRISIS

    Town Meeting Will Decide Funding and Possible Development Sites

    Majority of select board favors stronger inclusionary bylaw revision

    By

    PROVINCETOWN — The local housing crisis will be on the table repeatedly at the 2022 annual town meeting in a slate of warrant articles to allocate money for housing, to strengthen the town’s inclusionary bylaw, and to begin studying possible new housing sites.

    The shapes of those articles were clarified at the second joint meeting of the select board, community housing council, and Year-Round Market-Rate Rental Housing Trust held on Dec. 15.

    Two of the proposed articles would ask voters to start the process of turning large town-owned parcels into housing by hiring development consultants to assess the two sites: the Veterans Memorial Community Center (VMCC) and the two southern lanes of Route 6 between Conwell Street and Shank Painter Road.

    The community center used to be the town’s elementary school. The building contains 46,000 square feet all on one floor and currently hosts several town departments, including the dept. of public works and the council on aging. The select board has argued that it could be replaced by a two- or three-story structure that would have town offices on the ground floor and housing above.

    The two southern lanes of Route 6 to the west of the proposed housing site — that is, the section of highway between Shank Painter Road and Herring Cove — are already slated to be removed. The town owns the right-of-way underneath those lanes, but the state owns a long parallel strip of conservation land, which makes development of that area tricky.

    Between Shank Painter and Conwell, however, there is no state-owned land and Provincetown owns an adjoining four-acre parcel that includes the skate park, a large parking lot, a soccer field, and a municipal wastewater leaching field. All of those uses could conceivably be relocated, according to a staff presentation to the select board in September, and the lot could be combined with the town-owned land under Route 6. That would create a developable area even larger than the land around the VMCC.

    The town-owned soccer field at 16 Jerome Smith Road is adjacent to town-owned land under the southern lanes of Route 6. The entire area could become housing. (Photo Paul Benson)

    Two smaller town-owned parcels will also be up for votes at town meeting as possible housing sites: a half acre at 30 Creek Road and the old Firehouse 2 building on Commercial Street at Court Street.

    Allocating Money

    Proposals to reallocate rooms tax revenues have been discussed at length at many different meetings this year. The current proposed town meeting article is unchanged and would direct 26 percent of the total rooms tax revenue to housing.

    The rooms tax is a complex subject, partly because it combines a longstanding tax on hotels and guest houses and a recently enacted tax on short-term rentals.

    The hotels part of the tax has for years been split four ways, with money going to the tourism fund, the sewer fund, the capital improvements fund, and the general fund. The expansion of the tax to short-term rentals took effect in July 2019, and it has dramatically increased revenue from prior levels. Before the expansion, the rooms tax brought in about $2.2 million per year; in the most recent fiscal year, receipts were up to $3.5 million.

    That fiscal year, from July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021, was scarred by the pandemic. Recent sales data from multiple sources show that both hotels and short-term rentals have done better in the current fiscal year than in the last one. The Independent recently examined these data and published a rooms tax forecast for Provincetown of $4.7 million for fiscal 2022.

    The total number is important, because reallocating the rooms tax and carving out a portion of the money for housing requires a clear idea of the total being divided.

    At the Dec. 15 joint meeting, Town Manager Alex Morse addressed the town’s current revenue forecast of $3.4 million and explained how the reallocation formula could change if revenues come in above that number.

    “I want to make it very clear at the outset of this workshop — there is no effort whatsoever to underestimate what the actual receipts will be,” said Morse. “We want it to be as high as everyone thinks it may be.

    “We aren’t firm at $3.4 million,” Morse added. There is a rooms tax payment from the state Dept. of Revenue due on Dec. 31, and Morse recommended that the three boards wait to see that payment before making a decision.

    Morse also walked the boards through ways they could change the allocation formula if the rooms tax number is higher than forecast. At the $4 million mark, for instance, Morse showed that lower percentages would still direct adequate amounts to the other four funds — freeing up a higher percentage for housing.

    The boards also discussed how to direct the incoming housing money. Members of all three boards agreed on a plan to let the select board decide each year how to divide the money between the town’s two existing housing funds: the affordable housing trust fund and the year-round market-rate rental housing trust fund.

    But Wait, There’s More

    Four more articles round out the housing measures being discussed.

    One would add a state-authorized “community impact fee” of 3 percent to bookings of short-term rentals that are investor-owned. Despite some confusion caused by the term “professionally managed” in the statute, definitions in state law make it clear that the fee would apply to bookings of any residence whose owner has two or more short-term rental properties in the same town. It would not apply, however, to the owner’s primary residence.

    Another proposal would allow accessory dwelling units (ADUs) to house seasonal workers, not just year-round residents. Very few people have built ADUs in the years since the bylaw was first passed, and the boards were divided on whether allowing seasonal workers to live in ADUs would entice more people, particularly business owners, to build them.

    A third measure would increase the permissible height of residential construction in the general commercial zone, which is primarily along Shank Painter Road but also includes the northern reaches of Conwell Street. Buildings could be four rather than three stories tall. That extra story would be available only under the town’s inclusionary bylaw, which permits various bonuses and regulatory relief when affordable units make up at least one-sixth of a proposed development.

    Finally, there is a proposal to revamp the “in lieu” fee structure in the inclusionary bylaw. For multi-unit residential developments that do not make one-sixth of the units affordable, the inclusionary bylaw mandates a fee in lieu of the units, to be deposited in the affordable housing trust fund.

    The boards discussed three alternatives that would raise the fees to varying degrees. Three members of the select board endorsed the option labeled “most aggressive.”

    “I think people get it now — they’re paying attention,” said select board chair Dave Abramson. “In other years I think it was the people selling or developing that had more control or power at town meeting. We do now have the support to be more aggressive.”

    HOUSING

    Wellfleet Planners See Only Problems in ADU Petition

    Proposed bylaw would just cause an explosion of short-term rentals, they warn

    By

    WELLFLEET — The planning board sees nothing but trouble if the town adopts a proposed bylaw allowing more accessory dwelling units, judging from its reaction at a May 5 public hearing on the proposal.

    Voters at June’s annual town meeting will be asked to consider two zoning bylaw changes that would allow limited-size accessory dwelling units, or ADUs, by right in all zoning districts, as long as they comply with the town’s other regulations along with state and federal laws.

    The exception would be properties in the National Seashore, where ADUs would require a special permit.

    The units, containing no more than 1,200 square feet, would have to be year-round rentals, under the proposed provisions, to add diversity to current housing offerings and to address the extreme need for year-round rental housing on the Outer Cape.

    Once an ADU received a certificate of occupancy, it could not be legally occupied under the proposal until it is registered with an agent appointed by the town, who would monitor and keep records of such units and register them with the assessor, building dept., and health dept.

    There would be penalties for noncompliance, such as using the units as short-term rentals. Unit owners would be required to file affidavits of compliance annually.

    One of the two ADU proposals was submitted as a petitioned article, the other as an article sponsored by the select board. They are nearly identical and were done in reaction to a decision by the planning board last winter to abandon its own plan to propose an ADU bylaw for this year’s annual town meeting.

    It is still up to the planning board to hold public hearings on each of the ADU proposals, and the board will have the option of making recommendations for or against them at the town meeting, or of making no recommendation at all.

    A May 5 public hearing on the petitioned article ran more than 2½ hours and was continued to Wednesday, May 19, when the selectmen’s article is scheduled for its public hearing.

    The petitioned article was drafted by members of various local boards who are familiar with the town’s housing crisis. They include Elaine McIlroy, the local housing authority chair; Sharon Rule-Agger, a member of the local housing partnership and the new affordable housing trust; select board member Helen Miranda Wilson; and planning board member Olga Kahn.

    They used some provisions in the Cape Cod Commission’s model ADU bylaw, along with those in place in eight other communities on the Cape. Local attorney Bruce Bierhans reviewed the proposal before it was submitted.

    On May 5, planning board members raised a host of potential problems with the petition. Enforcement would be impossible, they said. Adding a large number of dwelling units could worsen water and wastewater issues. The communities that have enacted such bylaws didn’t have the fragile water conditions of Wellfleet, they said.

    Planning board member David Mead-Fox agreed with the need for more year-round rentals, but worried they would become Airbnbs or other short-term rentals. “If somebody realizes they can make more on short-term rentals, that’s what they’re going to do,” he said. “We don’t want an explosion of units that are short-term rentals.”

    David Rowell, the most outspoken opponent of the bylaw change on the planning board, said that was exactly what would happen: once people secured their certificates of occupancy, they could do what they wanted.

    Bierhans spoke in favor of the petition. “What we have tried to draft is the best we could come up with at this time, and we’ll see how it works,” he said. “Not to do anything is not the answer.”

    Gerald Parent, the planning board chair, countered that everyone on the planning board “completely agrees with the urgency of this; that’s one of the things we all share. What we’re trying to do is raise issues so it is more likely to succeed.”

    Parent argued that one of the problems with the proposal was that it didn’t come from the planning board. “I know, after 27 years on the planning board, that when the planning board sends an article to the town meeting floor, we beat the hell out of it first,” he said. “Most petitioned articles have problems that arise in the future because they are not vetted as openly and as well.”

    Stefanie Coxe, a member of the SmarterCape Partnership, refuted the argument that the bylaw would create an explosion of short-term rentals. None of the eight Cape Cod towns with ADU bylaws, she said, has had more than 10 units created per year. “It’s not something a ton of people will do, and not everyone will be able to do it,” Coxe said.

    Health regulations limit the number of potential ADUs. If the septic system’s limit is three bedrooms, for instance, that is as many as the property owner could have as a total, in the main house and accessory unit.

    The planning board continued the hearing rather than closing it on May 5 so that proponents of the petitioned article can answer some of the board’s questions and lobby for support during the May 19 meeting. The select board’s ADU article will also be heard that night. Parent described it as “99¾ percent” the same as the petitioned article. The planning board will then decide whether it will recommend either proposal or none.

    Board members also intend to put together a report for the night of town meeting containing their comments.

    Both ADU proposals delete the current Affordable Accessory Dwelling Unit bylaw. As part of the new proposal, property owners can rent their accessory units at market rates or take advantage of the affordable housing tax exemption if leased at affordable rates.

    This Week In Wellfleet

    Meetings Ahead

    By

    Meetings are held remotely. From wellfleet-ma.gov, hover over a date on the calendar on the right of the screen and click on the meeting you’re interested in to open its agenda and learn how to take part.

    Thursday, April 15

    • Herring River Executive Council, 3 p.m.

    Tuesday, April 20

    • Emergency Management Team Covid-19 community update, 10 a.m.
    • Select Board, 6 p.m.

    Wednesday, April 21

    • Advisory Board of the Wellfleet Council on Aging, 10 a.m.
    • Wellfleet Conservation Commission, 4 p.m.

    Thursday, April 22

    • Select Board, 6 p.m.

    Conversation Starters

    On the Table: ADUs

    The select board voted 4-0 on April 13 to approve the local housing partnership’s proposed bylaw regulating accessory dwelling units (ADUs), referring it — as amended by the select board — to the planning board, and placing it on the warrant for the June 5 town meeting. Board member Justina Carlson recused herself from discussion of the bylaw.

    Members of the planning board began re-examining the town’s affordable accessory dwelling unit (AADU) bylaw last December, and on Jan. 6 voted to draft an umbrella bylaw legalizing ADUs and allowing for easy transitions between ADUs and AADUs in town. But on Feb. 17, citing what planning board member Beth Singer called “insurmountable challenges,” the board abandoned its initiative.

    In response, a group of Wellfleet residents including Olga Kahn of the planning board, Elaine McIlroy of the housing authority, Helen Miranda Wilson of the select board, and Sharon Rule-Agger of the local housing partnership drafted the proposed bylaw that was discussed at Tuesday’s meeting.

    The proposal would strike all mention of AADUs from the zoning bylaw. Town residents would have to apply for and receive a building permit for an ADU from the building inspector before beginning construction and sign annual affidavits of compliance to confirm that the ADU is being leased on a yearly basis. No rent or income restrictions would apply to ADUs, but any property owner who chose to rent his unit at an affordable price could benefit from the affordable housing property tax exemption.

    It’s now up to the planning board to review the bylaw and make a recommendation for town meeting. Board chair Gerry Parent has made clear his skepticism of any bylaw change coming via petition.

    “Most of the time,” he said at on Feb. 17, “when a petitioned article is placed, it has a lot more serious problems than when the planning board does it.”

    But Wilson said the group consulted the building inspector, the health and conservation agent, former Town Administrator Harry Terkanian, attorney Bruce Bierhans, and other advisers during the drafting process.

    “This got perhaps even a greater degree of scrutiny than a zoning bylaw gets going through the planning board,” she said. “No disrespect to them.” —Josephine de La Bruyère

    currents

    This Week in Truro

    By

    Meetings Ahead

    Thursday, Feb. 13

    • Select Board, 3 p.m., Truro Public Library
    • Housing Authority, 4:15 p.m., Town Hall
    • School Committee, 5:15 p.m., Truro Central School

    Friday, Feb. 14

    • Community Preservation Committee, 4:15 p.m., Town Hall

    Monday, Feb. 17

    • Town offices closed for President’s Day

    Tuesday, Feb. 18

    • Cemetery Commission, 10 a.m., Town Hall
    • Climate Action Committee, 4 p.m., Truro Public Library
    • Board of Health, 4:30 p.m., Town Hall
    • Planning Board, 5 p.m., Town Hall

    Conversation Starters

    Special Election Tuesday

    A special town election will be held Tuesday, Feb. 18 to fill a seat on the select board. Stephanie Rein, a farmer and educator, is running against Karen Tosh, an attorney, for a three-month position to fill the unexpired term of Maureen Burgess, who died suddenly in November. Both Rein and Tosh have said they plan to run again in the May 12 annual election for a three-year term. Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. at the Truro Community Center. —K.C. Myers

    Accessory Dwelling Units

    Paul Asher-Best asked the planning board on Feb. 5 to consider a change to the town’s zoning bylaw related to accessory dwelling units (ADUs).

    “I have an ADU that’s not an ADU but is screaming to be an ADU,” he said. “We have a house and a non-grandfathered cottage. We had to take the kitchen out of the cottage in order to build our house in 2009. The studio is a two-bedroom, one-bathroom warehouse. With the need for housing in Truro, [that’s] not the highest and best use.”

    Asher-Best proposed that the current prohibition against putting an ADU in separate ownership be changed, in light of the 2018 town meeting vote to allow for year-round occupancy of condo units.

    “I would sell my cottage for an affordable price,” he said. “I want to provide a home for a young couple, like the man who sold it to me to give me my start in Truro.”

    The board members agreed that the idea should be considered. —Edward Miller

    CIVICS

    Truro Planning Board Called Out for Opposing Housing

    A lobsterman takes the board to court and wins

    By

    TRURO — A local lobsterman feels vindicated after a judge reversed two conditions that the Truro Planning Board had imposed on his building proposal.

    Orleans District Court Judge Robert Welsh III agreed with Christopher and Heidi Townsend, who sought permission to build a 30-by-36-foot barn with an upstairs 1,000-square-foot accessory dwelling unit at their 41 Highland Road property. Townsend intends to use the accessary dwelling unit to house his lobster boat mate.

    Townsend Barn
    Christopher and Heidi Townsend recently built this barn and will be adding an accessory dwelling unit. A judge said the conditions imposed by the planning board for the ADU were outside the board’s authority. (Photo K.C. Myers)

    The planning board approved his request but with a condition that any shower or bathtub be on the second floor. The planning board also required Townsend to get a letter of approval from the Cape Cod National Seashore, since the property is in the Seashore.

    Welsh ruled that both conditions were outside the board’s authority.

    “The location of bathing facilities are not specified in the ADU [Accessory Dwelling Unit] bylaw and have no connection to the stated purpose of the bylaw,” Welsh wrote in his summary judgment on Nov. 26. “Truro improperly delegated permit approval authority to the United States. Zoning is inherently a local concern.”

    The decision has re-ignited an ongoing complaint that Truro’s planning board, which is among the few that are elected on the Cape, is particularly hostile to development.

    Addressing the condition requiring approval from the Seashore, the town’s own attorney, Jonathan Silverstein, wrote a letter to Town Manager Rae Ann Palmer advising that it was unnecessary for this ADU.

    The planning board imposed the condition anyway. So when Townsend challenged the conditions in court, the select board voted not to defend the decision.

    “It was a weak case for the town,” said Selectman Robert Weinstein. “We chose not to have town counsel defend the planning board.”

    Townsend said he was happy with the judge’s ruling, but that battling the planning board added legal fees for his attorney, Ben Zehnder, to the expense of paying rent for his employee for an extra season. He had hoped to begin construction in December 2018, but the permitting process with the planning board lasted all winter and he could not finish it in time for summer.

    Townsend said that the planning board’s decisions show a pattern of discouraging year-round businesses and housing.

    “They are extremely difficult, and they are clearly working against everyone’s wants and needs,” Townsend said. “I’m very passionate about the Outer Cape, and I want it to be easier for people who work for a living like myself.”

    “The planning board was doing the best it could to protect the town and the Seashore,” said Steve Sollog, its chair. “We’re citizens. I’m not going to represent a position or opinion, because as a member of the planning board, I’m representing the town. We made our decision. The town made its decision. The court made its decision, and we’re all going to move on.”

    Weinstein agreed with Townsend, noting that recent bylaw changes to promote year-round housing were brought to town meeting by petitioners and were opposed by the planning board. These included the bylaw that relaxed restrictions on accessory dwelling units in 2017 and the change to allow cottage colonies to be converted for year-round use in 2018.

    “Their record concerns me,” Weinstein said.

    Karen Tosh, a planning board member since 2017, said she disagrees that her board is against affordable housing. Since the ADU bylaw passed, all six ADU applications that have come before the board have been approved.

    But, she added, the planning board has been hampered by a lack of consistent professional help. In three years there have been seven town planners, she said. This has made reviews of projects lengthy and made it more difficult for them to bring bylaws to town meeting.

    Unlike in Provincetown, Wellfleet, and Eastham, Truro’s planning board is elected, which, Weinstein said, may be part of the problem. Nine out of the 15 Cape towns appoint planning board members, said Robert Panessiti, chair of the Truro Charter Review Committee and a member of the Truro Finance Committee for 18 years.

    “[The planning board] should be on the same page, with the same priorities, as the select board,” Weinstein said. No one wants to compete for those seats, he added, so most people get on the board unopposed or as write-in candidates.

    Panessiti said that current planning board members blatantly oppose affordable housing measures. He said the charter committee hasn’t decided whether to recommend changing the planning board from elected to appointed. But, he added, if the current planning board members were to stay on, then “absolutely. They should all be gone,” he said.

    “Sometimes the loudest voices are not the most well informed,” Tosh said in response to the criticism. An elected planning board is pure democracy and best represents the town, Tosh said. If people don’t like them, they should use the ballot box.

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