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Cloverleaf

    AFFORDABLE HOUSING

    Cloverleaf Developer Addresses Wastewater and Accessibility Issues

    Opponents of Truro’s Cloverleaf dispute anti-affordable housing label

    By

    TRURO — As opposition to the design of the affordable housing project known as the Cloverleaf continued last week, the developer responded to wastewater concerns and objections by the disability commission at another hearing before the zoning board of appeals, which must decide whether to grant a comprehensive permit for the project.

    The Cloverleaf is a 39-unit development proposed by Ted Malone of Community Housing Resource Inc. of Provincetown, which has been building affordable housing for 24 years. If the Cloverleaf is approved, it would become the largest such development in Truro’s history.

    Developer Ted Malone. (Photo courtesy Community Housing Resource)

    It has been controversial mostly because of the waivers required for its wastewater treatment system and because of the scale of the 15-unit apartment building at the center of a cluster of 10 other smaller town houses on 3.9 acres at 22 Highland Road in North Truro.

    Though the ZBA has not yet voted on the project and its review will continue at a July 30 meeting, several issues were addressed on July 16, including the redesign of the septic system and handicap accessibility. There were also personal jabs at both the developer and the project’s opponents.

    The Horsley Witten Group did an independent review of a revised design of the wastewater treatment system and found it adequate.

    If it performs like a similar system in a development in Westport, it will reduce nitrogen to 5 milligrams per liter, which is half the state standard limit of 10 milligrams per liter for safe drinking water, said Mark Nelson of Horsley Witten.

    The system should reduce the amount of nitrogen in the effluent to no more than 9 milligrams per liter at the property boundary, said Nelson. The outflow will be monitored monthly for the first year, he said.

    The development itself will be served by town water, but the treatment system would protect neighboring private wells, said Nelson. Other filters included in the new design will catch more contaminants in the wastewater, he added.

    “So, I think it is a reasonable request to grant that waiver,” said Nelson, referring to the ZBA’s upcoming vote on a waiver of local board of health septic regulations.

    Susan Howe, chair of the Truro Commission on Disabilities, listed her concerns about the 39 units’ accessibility. She recommended that they meet universal design standards, which would require all the components of a home be accessible to the greatest number of people regardless of their physical abilities. Or, she added, the units should at least meet so-called “visitability” standards, meaning that they should be accessible for a visitor with physical disabilities.

    “A disability is not a special condition but will affect most of us for some part of our lives,” Howe said.

    The three basic features of visitability, she said, are no-step entrances, 32-inch-wide doorways, and a half bath on the first floor.

    The Cloverleaf’s architect, Jessica Snare, said all the units except four, which are on the second stories of townhouses, meet visitability standards. The townhouses have one-step entrances, which meets the design team’s interpretation of visitability, Malone said.

    The apartment building with 15 units has an elevator, and all those units exceed visitability standards, Malone added. Half baths were added to the first floors of townhouse units. Doors are 2.8 or 3 feet wide and the units have grab bars, Snare said.

    “We are reassured to hear those things,” Howe said.

    Malone also addressed some of the other objections listed in a letter signed by over 75 Truro residents.

    For one, he said, he cannot make unlimited profit from the development, as some have suggested. State subsidized projects such as this are highly regulated. The development fee is limited to 10 to 12 percent, and the return on equity is capped at 10 percent, Malone said.

    The residents’ letter also contends that congregate housing is dangerous in the time of the coronavirus, a criticism that Malone said confuses overcrowded housing with multifamily housing.

    “Overcrowding is more people living in a unit than allowed by code, such as what has happened at the Truro Motor Inn,” he said, referring to a motel inhabited year-round and recently ordered closed by the board of health. In subsidized affordable housing developments, on the other hand, occupancy is closely monitored.

    A number of people called in to list other grievances, among them opponents being attacked as “anti-affordable housing.”

    One of the callers, Regan McCarthy, former president of the Truro Part-Time Resident Taxpayers Association, said people are too intimidated to speak out.

    State Sen. Julian Cyr, a Truro native and resident, submitted a letter in support of the Cloverleaf. (Cyr has also written an op-ed column on the subject that appears on page A3 of this week’s Independent.)

    “It’s very intimidating to have a state senator basically write and say, ‘Think about this again,’ ” McCarthy said. “The community has a right to ask questions without being labeled bad actors.”

    Daniel Holt, son of resident Joan Holt, said the reaction by some members of the public to those questioning the Cloverleaf has been “incredibly hostile.”

    Kevin Grunwald, chair of the Truro Housing Authority, said that some of the objections to the project, such as those reported in last week’s Independent, display “classism.”

    To those who complain that they are being labeled anti-affordable housing, Grunwald said, “If the shoe fits, wear it.”

    OP-ED

    Racial Inequity in Our Back Yard

    Truro’s Cloverleaf project and the costs of systemic exclusion

    By

    TRURO — In early June, many Outer Cape Codders joined in our shared reckoning over the crisis of white supremacy and racial inequity in this country. After the protests, many of us put away our signs and returned to our summer lives on Land’s End. But this moment in history demands more — and that includes advancing the Black Lives Matter movement and addressing racial inequity right in our own back yard.

    A tangible step we can take to follow through on our collective public commitment to reverse decades of racial injustice here on Cape Cod is to commit to build more housing — especially affordable rental housing like the proposed Cloverleaf project in North Truro Center.

    Housing is American society’s most familiar form of wealth, and housing policy at every level of government that shifted resources and created generational wealth was either overtly or covertly crafted to keep black, indigenous, and people of color away from the benefits. Overt examples include Reconstruction, the New Deal, the G.I. Bill, and redlining. Covert examples persist today. In the midst of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, just 12 percent of black-owned businesses reported receiving loans matching their full requested amount from the Paycheck Protection Program.

    Housing is the primary vehicle through which white families like mine have built equity over generations and passed it along to their children. The high cost of entry into the real estate market keeps white families — who benefited from generations of inclusionary policies designed to build household wealth — separate from black families in practice, if not by decree.
    This systemic exclusion has a real cost, despite decades of denial. We see it here on Cape Cod, where working families — often people of color — live in substandard housing or are disproportionately displaced and must do the “Cape Cod Shuffle,” while most of the homes that dot our coastline sit vacant 10 months of the year.
    Are we willing to follow through on our commitment to racial justice in our own community? Will we put aside the exaggerated arguments that mask a persistent NIMBYism, understanding that those tactics serve racist ends?
    Truro has little to be proud of when it comes to affordable housing. Since 2000, we’ve built only 19 units; Provincetown, in contrast, built over 200 affordable and middle-income restricted units in the same period. According to a 2017 analysis by the Cape Cod Commission, Truro needs 723 housing units — including 154 rental units — to meet the demand for home ownership across all income levels. Truro clearly has a lot of work to do.

    The Cloverleaf project is an opportunity to make long overdue progress. The select board’s approval of the application has been transparent, inclusive, and closely watched. The town received this property from the state for little more than closing costs. Later, Truro received a $1.2 million MassWorks grant to extend public water to the site. The Cloverleaf parcel and the Walsh property are once-in-a-generation opportunities for Truro, given how little buildable land we have left and how desperately we need housing for working people.

    The arguments for halting the project are troubling. If they had any basis, I’d consider their merits. But they don’t, so I’ll call them what they are: procedural tactics designed to perpetuate racial and class inequities under a thinly veiled guise of moderation and caution. It’s a tired playbook that’s worked too well for too long.
    While the Cloverleaf has been plodding through the review process, too many people in Truro have turned a blind eye to where many working families live, in cramped motel rooms, cottages, and other places that we conveniently don’t see. We don’t acknowledge that much of our essential workforce is people of color, most of them immigrants. We’re already grappling with the situation at Truro Motor Inn and the displacement that is causing.

    If we believe Black Lives Matter, we need to start with the hard work right at home. For Truro, dismantling structural racism starts by building affordable housing and calling delay tactics what they are. The Cloverleaf project has my full commitment and it deserves yours, too.

    Julian Cyr of Truro represents the Cape and Islands District in the Massachusetts State Senate.

     

    LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

    Letters, July 23, 2020

    From Jane Leavy and Fred Sperounis, Alex Brewer, Dave Bedard, Stephan Cohen, Susan Kadar, Betty Gallo, Kevin Grunwald, and Judith Cumbler

    By

    Visiting Truro While Black

    To the editor:

    We appreciate the Independent’s attention to race-based discrimination and reports of racial profiling on the Outer Cape [July 2 and July 16]. In August 2019, another very unpleasant incident occurred when a member of our family who is Black and his two-year-old son were walking in an area near Pamet Harbor — an area that is private, but where many of us and our friends have walked countless times without incident.

    On this occasion, however, a man, who we later learned was the property manager, came up to our family member and told him he was not welcome and should leave. No one we have spoken with who knows Truro and has walked in this area has ever had that experience.

    We couldn’t help but conclude this was a case of racial profiling. We reported the incident to the owners of the property and were met immediately with strong pushback, a denial of any racial motivation, and a long treatise on private property. Later, when we pressed further, there was a verbal apology from the property manager’s employer, but there has been no follow-up that we know of. And even in the apology, there remained an underlying denial that the incident was racially motivated.

    There need to be opportunities for open discussion in Truro about these seemingly casual but undeniably racist encounters. We can be sure these incidents occur much more frequently than is reported. Most do not rise to the level of “hate crime,” but taken together they operate to create an unwelcoming atmosphere for anyone living in or visiting Truro who is not white.

    Jane Leavy and Fred Sperounis
    Truro

     

    Who Owns the Beach?

    To the editor:

    I was angry, but not surprised, reading Devin Sean Martin’s “Race-based Incidents Do Happen Here” [July 16, front page]. The very concept of a “private beach” has long struck me as paradoxical. Why stop at something as arbitrary and variable as the waterline? Why not claim the bay or ocean for your private enjoyment as well?

    I understand that Massachusetts law establishes the rights of ownership of “private tidelands” — that is, the land between the high-tide and low-tide lines — by the upland property owners. Public access to the beach is allowed only for “fishing, fowling, and navigation” — not swimming. The intention behind this law — preventing the King of England from unfairly taxing docks and wharves — seems slightly less relevant today than it may have been when the Massachusetts Bay Colony adopted it in the 1640s.

    There was an effort in the 1970s to amend the law to establish a free right of passage to the beach, as in every other state in the country. The bill went nowhere.

    Obviously, enforcement of the private beach law is selective, leading to the kind of incident where a black woman visiting Truro was ordered to leave, and the police were no help.

    As we take a fresh look nationally and locally at our outdated beliefs and policies, it is worth considering whether the beaches really do belong to the wealthy homeowners who claim (and guard) them, or whether they in fact belong to the greater community.

    Alex Brewer
    Wellfleet

     

    A Disregard for Civility

    To the editor:

    After reading last week’s article titled “A Missed Deadline, a Year’s Delay” [July 16, front page], I am absolutely appalled and disgusted by the behavior of planning board member Peter Herridge. As a Truro resident, I am angered by Mr. Herridge’s abuse of his position to further his own agenda.

    When did it become OK for a member of one of the town’s boards to call a developer “little scumbag”? He clearly states that he will stop at nothing to delay and eventually stop the Cloverleaf project.

    The planning board should be working for constructive dialogue between the parties to further a project that has a great deal of community support. But he has already determined the outcome he wants and declares that his motto is “never give up, never surrender.” No matter what your opinion of the developer is, a planning board member should at the very least be respectful and objective in all cases that appear before his board.

    Mr. Herridge’s blatant disregard for civility, his language, and his overt bias towards this developer and the project itself call for his removal from his position. His behavior clearly makes him unfit to serve on this board. At the very least, he should be censured and forced to recuse himself from further meetings involving this project.

    Dave Bedard
    North Truro

     

    A ‘Tone-deaf’ Reference

    To the editor:

    I was taken aback by two statements made by opponents of the Cloverleaf project. Likening the proposed housing density to that of a “concentration camp” is tone-deaf at a minimum. As a person of Jewish descent, I found that turn of phrase to be inflammatory and dismissive of the Holocaust.

    Jews, gay people, gypsies, political prisoners, non-Aryans, etc. were starved, stacked in bunks, and gassed by the millions. They were not housed in apartments ranging from 664 to 1,660 square feet over nearly four acres.

    The use of the term “scumbag” is an offensive ad hominem attack not worthy of civilized public discourse. Is it not possible to express concerns about the project in a more factual manner? The developer agreed to upgrade septic treatment. Solar panels would be a welcome addition.

    I am a year-round Provincetown resident and not intimately familiar with Truro concerns. I do know that Truro has 2.3 percent affordable housing stock out of a state recommended 10 percent. You may disagree with the developer’s approach, but I encourage you to engage in dialogue. Building costs may be one limitation. If citizens insist on single- or two-family homes, would Truro help meet those costs? Have people proposed or considered other affordable housing options for the site?

    One final thought: I am thankful that the land is not being used to build a highway ramp.

    Stephan Cohen
    Provincetown

     

    In Defense of Ted Malone

    To the editor:

    Having worked for years for affordable housing as a member and chair of the Truro Housing Authority and adviser to Highland Affordable Housing, I find not much new about opposition to and prejudice against affordable housing, nor the extent to which individuals will go to find “legitimate” reasons for opposing it.

    But I will not be silent when someone accuses Ted Malone of being a “scumbag.” Mr. Herridge’s comments are sickening.

    Mr. Malone was the developer of Truro’s Sally’s Way. It took 11 years and numerous lawsuits by neighbors before the project could be completed. Ted Malone stood by while the battle roared. He lost time and money — but he stood by and eventually completed the units to the delight of those inhabiting them.

    The Outer Cape’s economic success depends on housing that is affordable to those who provide needed services.

    Susan Kadar
    Duxbury

     

    A Neighbor’s Welcome

    To the editor:

    I am a strong proponent of the Cloverleaf project in Truro. I have never met Ted Malone. I have seen him present updates on the Cloverleaf at various meetings and hearings. When I decided I wanted to advocate for affordable housing, a friend who is a long-time resident of Provincetown took me on a walking tour of all of Mr. Malone’s projects.

    I was very impressed with the housing. It was hard to see much of a difference between affordable housing and the market-rate developments close by. All his projects were incredibly attractive and well maintained.

    I believe that the language Peter Herridge used in reference to Mr. Malone is totally inappropriate for public discourse, especially when the person using such language is a public official. Mr. Malone could have spent his career building only fancy market-rate housing on the Lower Cape and become a very wealthy man. Also, he would have saved himself from the kind of abuse directed at him by Mr. Herridge. He could have sold or rented those buildings for a very significant amount of money. He would have no cap on the profit he could have earned from that housing. Profits from affordable housing are tightly regulated and capped by both the state and federal governments.

    It is hard to find housing that is affordable on the Outer Cape. Yet for these towns to be sustainable and for people living here to receive vital services, we absolutely have to build affordable housing. I would like to thank Mr. Malone and all the good people of Truro who have worked so hard to make the Cloverleaf possible.

    I rent an apartment on Pond Road close to Route 6A, very near the Cloverleaf project. I am looking forward to welcoming my new neighbors.

    Betty Gallo
    North Truro

     

    A Call for Recusal

    To the editor:

    It was disturbing to see Peter Herridge resort to name-calling in your July 16 article on the Cloverleaf housing project, but perhaps reflective of the lack of any substantive opposition to this project.

    This behavior is inappropriate for an elected official and reflects poorly on Mr. Herridge and the committees that he is a member of. Given his stated opposition to this project, I believe that he should recuse himself from any subsequent discussion of it by the planning board or the community preservation committee. He is clearly unable to act in a fair and unbiased manner regarding the Cloverleaf project.

    Kevin Grunwald
    Truro

     

    The Real Concentration Camps

    To the editor:

    As someone whose relatives died in concentration camps, I was offended that the opponents of the affordable housing project in Truro would use that image in their opposition to the Cloverleaf project [front page, July 16].

    Perhaps instead of fighting housing for those in need in our community, the opponents of affordable housing should direct their attention to the actual concentration camps that hold the refugees that cross our southern border.

    Judith Cumbler
    Wellfleet

     

    AFFORDABLE HOUSING

    A Missed Deadline, a Year’s Delay

    Opponents of Cloverleaf project liken it to a concentration camp and call the developer a ‘scumbag’

    By

    TRURO — The zoning board’s review of the proposed 39-unit Cloverleaf affordable housing project will not be completed in time for developer Ted Malone to apply for state funding before an early August deadline. That means construction cannot begin until 2022 at the earliest.

    A July 9 hearing at which the board’s lengthy review process was to continue was called off after 30 minutes because of audio problems in the remote meeting setup. The hearing is now scheduled to resume at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, July 16.

    Before last week’s session was aborted, however, Town Planner Jeff Ribeiro said it would take more than two more meetings of the zoning board of appeals to work through unresolved issues with the project, to be built on 3.9 acres at 22 Highland Road in North Truro.

    It would have been impossible even without the technical snafu for Malone’s company, Community Housing Resource of Provincetown, to meet an Aug. 6 deadline for applying for state funding this year.

    “Reapplying in 2021 will put the timeline an extra year out,” Malone said.

    Before a shovel hits the ground, the ZBA must grant waivers to the town’s height, density, and wastewater regulations — waivers that are enabled under Chapter 40B, the state law that provides a relatively fast-track process for developers of affordable housing in communities with extreme scarcities of such housing.

    The opposition to the Cloverleaf project has been vocal.

    On July 9, the ZBA met in executive session to discuss Truro Planning Board member Peter Herridge, who has distributed a “fact sheet” of objections to the development.

    The exception to the state’s Open Meeting Law cited by the board in justifying the closed session was “to discuss the reputation, character, physical condition or mental health, rather than professional competence, of an individual, or to discuss the discipline or dismissal of, or complaints or charges brought against, a public officer, employee, staff member or individual.”

    Town Manager Rae Ann Palmer said that a resident had complained about Herridge’s fact sheet and that his language was intended to scare people.

    A major objection raised by Herridge and others relates to granting a waiver from town regulations on the treatment of wastewater. The ZBA asked the developer to design a more intensive septage treatment system; this design was then reviewed by an independent consultant, the Horsley Witten Group.

    The new design lowers the concentration of nitrogen of the treated effluent to below the state standard of 10 milligrams per liter. The Horsley Witten review, released on July 9, concluded “that it is appropriate to grant a waiver to the board of health nitrogen loading limitation regulation.”

    The Independent asked Herridge what he thought of the new proposed wastewater treatment system, and he responded that he had spoken to a water expert who told him, if properly maintained and monitored, it will be “adequate.”

    Herridge added, “It makes it impossible to sue [Malone] as I had intended. Of course, this little scumbag will try to sleaze in any way that makes him money and this system will require constant and expensive maintenance, which, of course, will be done in the crummiest and cheapest way possible. But I believe, from a purely legal perspective, it makes it highly unlikely that we could win.”

    A Strategy of Delay

    Herridge described his strategy for fighting the Cloverleaf project.

    “The thing to do now is to delay in every way possible, because there may be state and federal money available now, but there sure as hell will not be next year,” he told the Independent. “My motto is never give up, never surrender.”

    Herridge is not the only opponent of Cloverleaf. Stephen Williams, who was Truro’s building inspector 35 years ago, wrote to the ZBA that the development is too dense and out of character for the town.

    “And just because low-income working people aren’t rich enough to buy a house in Shearwater is no reason for them to have to suffer the added indignity of being herded together like animals so tightly into the concentration-camp like densities of this ‘duplex disaster,’ ” Williams wrote.

    Letters on both sides of the controversy have attracted large number of signatures. One such letter to the ZBA, signed by more than 75 Truro residents, stated, in part, “The pandemic — which we can’t assume will be our last — has put everything into a new perspective. We know now that infectious diseases like Covid‐19 disproportionately infect people living in densely populated housing. Doesn’t this fact make it incumbent on us to reconsider whether it is responsible from a public health standpoint to house close to 100 people including at‐risk workers and elders in close proximity on 4 acres of land?”

    Andrea Aldana, director of housing advocacy for the Eastham-based Community Development Partnership, has responded to this concern, “Solid affordable housing stock reduces overcrowding and makes public safety less of an issue,” said Aldana in June.

    Another letter, delivered this week to the ZBA and select board and signed by 85 people, refuted the objectors’ letter point by point, concluding with: “They say: We need to slow things down. We say: We need to keep moving forward to address our housing crisis.”

     

     

     

     

    HOUSING

    Cloverleaf Plan Adds Cedar Shingles, Wastewater Treatment

    ZBA continues its review of Truro’s largest affordable housing development

    By

    TRURO — The proposed affordable housing complex known as the “Cloverleaf” will have the cedar shingles and painted trim that have typified other housing developments by the Provincetown-based Community Housing Resource (CHR).

    Ted Malone, president of CHR, designed the Sally’s Way complex behind the Truro Public Library, as well as Stable Path, off Race Point Road in Provincetown. The design of Malone’s latest proposal was reviewed on June 25, when the zoning board of appeals reopened its public hearing on the permitting of the Cloverleaf, which will include 11 buildings on 3.9 acres of land acquired at no cost from the state at 22 Highland Road in North Truro.

    Due to the coronavirus, the ZBA had taken a long hiatus, but last Thursday the board was back in action, with town planner Jeffrey Ribeiro explaining his assessment of the Cloverleaf’s design and size.

    The plan now comprises 39 rental units, down from the original 40, due to reconfiguration of the entrance as required by the fire dept.

    Among the 11 buildings in the project, the largest, located at its center with 15 apartments, has generated the most questions, said Ribeiro.

    A rendering of the Cloverleaf affordable housing development shows 11 buildings with 39 apartments. (Image courtesy Community Housing Resource)

    He compared it to familiar local buildings: the front is about 29 feet tall, the same as Truro Vineyard’s main structure. The rear of the apartment building is about 39 feet tall, the height of the former town-owned Grace Gouveia Building on Provincetown’s Cemetery Road. The proposed building is 20 feet longer than the Grace Gouveia or the Vineyard building, Ribeiro said.

    Truro’s planner also conducted a “balloon test,” that is, he flew a balloon to the proposed height of the structures and took pictures from different viewpoints, including Route 6. The balloon did show above existing trees, but just barely.

    “You can see — the relative height is still within the tree line, so even if the tree line is thinned, it won’t be sticking out like a skyscraper on the horizon,” Ribeiro said.

    The statements of opponents during this virtual hearing were much less heated than in December, when Peter Herridge, a member of the planning board, warned that such dense development could cause water quality at nearby Pond Village to plummet in an area that already has the lowest water quality in Truro. A fact check of his statements, however, found some to be untrue. He said that nitrogen levels in some private wells in Pond Village are over 10 mg (the maximum allowed). Both Truro Health Agent Emily Beebe and board of health chair Tracey Rose told the Independent they were unaware of any tests over 5 mg.

    Nonetheless, the ZBA required the project to have a more rigorous septage treatment system, which was designed by engineer J.M. O’Reilly & Associates. The new design added a layer of treatment beyond a traditional Title 5 system, Ribeiro said. The Horsley Witten Group, which was hired to do an independent review of O’Reilly’s design, will present its findings at the next meeting, scheduled for July 9.

    Other objections came from Chuck Steinman, of Shore Road, who argued in a letter that the coronavirus is a “game changer” for congregate housing for seniors, and that a building with 15 individual units and common spaces may not be safe or marketable.

    To this, Andrea Aldana, director of housing advocacy for the Eastham-based Community Development Partnership, said his concern “is not founded in fact.”

    “Solid affordable housing stock reduces overcrowding and makes public safety less of an issue,” Aldana said. “Density is not linked to Covid-19.”

    The ZBA has two more meetings scheduled, the last on July 13, at which the board may approve the project. That would give the developer time to apply for state financing in August. If that happens, groundbreaking could begin as soon as June 2021, Malone said. But if permitting takes longer and funding must wait until 2021, it will be February 2022 when the first shovel hits the ground, Malone said.

    Ribeiro said Chapter 40B of the state’s zoning laws, which allows for waivers that make projects like this possible, is not just about affordable housing but civil rights: laws governing land use may effectively keep out people of certain income levels.

    “We always talk about inclusionary zoning, but there is exclusionary zoning that keeps people out of a community,” Ribeiro said.

    There are currently 687 employees working in Truro who earn an average weekly wage of $822, Ribeiro said. Without affordable housing, workers at that income level are prevented from living in Truro.

    CURRENTS

    This Week in Truro

    By

    Meetings Ahead

    Meetings are held remotely. To watch live, go to truro-ma.gov.

    Thursday, June 25

    • School Committee, 5:15 p.m.
    • Zoning Board of Appeals Cloverleaf Hearing, 5:30 p.m.

    Friday, June 26

    • Finance Committee, 4 p.m.

    Conversation Starters

    Covid-19 Update

    As of June 19, there were zero active positive cases in Truro and 10 cases considered recovered.

    Voting at the June 30 Election

    There has been a lot of confusion due to the closure of public buildings in the last few months, but it is OK to go to the polls in person on Tuesday, June 30.

    Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. at the Truro Community Center.

    While there are no contested races, voters will have their first crack at three overrides from the limits of Proposition 2½. These must also pass at the Sept. 15 town meeting.

    Question One asks voters to appropriate funds for a new heavy-duty tractor trailer, a one-time expense of $170,000. Question Two asks to appropriate funds for a new $350,000 ambulance, also a one-time expense. In Question Three, the fire dept. is asking for a permanent budget increase of $351,904 to hire four new firefighter-paramedics to add to the existing staff of nine.

    Election Tellers Wanted

    Truro residents are needed to serve as election tellers at the June 30 town election. Shift times and lengths vary, according to the town website. You must be comfortable interacting with the public and must be able to count ballots accurately.

    If that sounds like you, call the town clerk’s office: 508-214-0926.

    The Cloverleaf Hearing Is On

    After many delays, a public hearing on the largest affordable housing project in Truro’s history will resume on Thursday, June 25, at 5:30 p.m. The meeting will be held virtually. Go to the Truro town website, click on the meeting title, and you will get instructions on how to watch it live.

    At the meeting, John O’Reilly of J.M. O’Reilly & Associates Inc. will present his revised plans for sewage disposal and treatment.

    The Cloverleaf plan calls for 40 units at 22 Highland Road in North Truro. That works out to 70 bedrooms on 3.9 acres of land. Truro Board of Health regulations require 10,000 square feet of land per 110 gallons per day. With that standard, 17.8 acres would be needed to support the septage flow at the Cloverleaf — a number met only if National Seashore land around the site is counted, which town officials would not agree to do. For that reason, the developer has been required to design a more sophisticated treatment system for the site.
    In December, zoning board members asked for an independent peer review of the proposed treatment system. The peer review consultant recommended adaptations be made and the design of that adapted system will be presented on Thursday. —K.C. Myers

     

     

    CURRENTS

    This Week in Truro

    By

    Meetings Ahead

    Meetings are held remotely. To watch live, go to truro-ma.gov.

    Thursday, June 4

    • Select Board, 9 a.m.

    Tuesday, June 9

    • Select Board, 5 p.m.

    Wednesday, Jun 10

    • Planning Board, 10:30 a.m.

    Conversation Starters

    Covid-19 Update

    As of May 29, there were zero new cases and 10 resolved cases in Truro.

    ZBA Hearings May Resume

    After two months of delays of public hearings and most other substantial business, the Truro Zoning Board of Appeals may begin to hold hearings again in the next few weeks.

    Jeff Ribeiro, the town planner, told ZBA members on May 28 that there does not appear to be a foreseeable end to the limits on social gatherings. He said he would speak with Town Manager Rae Ann Palmer and possibly town counsel to determine if ZBA hearings can be done virtually, as already happens in many other towns.

    Since March, ZBA meetings have been limited to “procedural only” and the public has been asked to hold off on submitting any new applications for zoning relief.

    Virtual meetings are “certainly not ideal,” Ribeiro said at the May 18 meeting. “There are connectivity issues in Truro.”

    The hearing on the Cloverleaf, which would be the largest affordable housing development in Truro’s history with 40 units, has been put off due to the restrictions on public meetings. But Ribeiro now has it on the schedule for June 25 at 5:30 p.m.

    There are other cases before the ZBA as well, including an application to demolish and rebuild a pre-existing nonconforming cottage at 379 Shore Road, Ribeiro said. —K.C. Myers

    currents

    This Week in Truro

    By

    Meetings Ahead

    Truro meetings are generally held via telephone or video conferencing and are aired for the public after they are over. See: www.truro ma.gov/home/news/viewing-the-33120-select-board-meeting-and-general-remote-meeting-information

    Thursday, April 2

    • Zoning Board of Appeals, 5:30 p.m. (procedural only)

    Monday, April 6

    • Conservation Commission, 5:30 p.m.

    Tuesday, April 7

    • Board of Health, 4:30 p.m.
    • Select Board, 5 p.m.

    Conversation Starters

     Cloverleaf Affordable Housing

    The zoning board of appeals is expected to vote on April 2 to delay review of the Cloverleaf, a 39-unit affordable housing development at 22 Highland Road, until May 28, according to the meeting agenda. The ZBA has been reviewing the project for months now. The recent delay, due to the closure of public offices because of the coronavirus, will not threaten the project’s financing, said Ted Malone, president of Community Housing Resource, the developer.

    Malone said he can continue working remotely with designers and engineers to finalize the plans in accordance with changes already suggested by the board. He also can communicate by email with the town officials if necessary and be ready for further review on May 28.

    An Appointed Planning Board?

    Town meeting, originally set for April 28, will be postponed until a still undetermined date, but the select board has begun making recommendations on the warrant articles. On March 10, board members voted three to two not to recommend a petitioned article that would make the planning board appointed rather than elected.

    Truro is one of six towns out of 15 in the county that elects members of the planning board. Select board members Stephanie Rein, Sue Areson, and Jan Worthington voted to keep the planning board elected, while board members Bob Weinstein and Kristen Reed voted to recommend the change to town meeting voters.

    Raphael Richter, who sponsored the petitioned article, said the elected races are almost never contested and so there would be more accountability if they were appointed following interviews by the select board.

    Areson said she was distressed by “unwarranted public criticism of the planning board,” according to minutes of the March 10 meeting.

    The board has been criticized as working against business and affordable housing. —K.C. Myers.

    HOUSING

    Cloverleaf Developer Must Upgrade Septic Treatment Plan

    Revised plan has 39 affordable housing units

    By

    TRURO — An independent review of the Cloverleaf, the largest single affordable housing development in Truro’s history, found it needs a more powerful septic treatment system than was originally proposed.

    Community Housing Resource Inc. of Provincetown, developer of the Highland Road project, is now investigating the cost of installing such a system, after the review found the proposed system would not break down nitrogen enough to adequately protect nearby private wells.

    Ted Malone, president of the development company, told the zoning board of appeals on March 12 that he had been expecting this outcome. He said he would come back with a new plan on April 2.

    He also told the ZBA that he has had to reconfigure the entrance and exit to the development to make it easier for emergency vehicles to turn around. The new design caused the loss of one apartment, so now there will be 39 units instead of 40, Malone said.

    ZBA members agreed the septic treatment issue was the most important at this stage. The technology exists to provide a higher level of treatment; one such system has been used successfully at the Brackett Landing affordable housing in Eastham for over a decade, said Mark Nelson, a principal at the Horsley Witten Group of Sandwich, which conducted the review.

    “It buys an additional level of safety protecting the private wells,” Nelson told the ZBA.

    Nelson came to this conclusion after installing three monitoring wells in January to see where the groundwater flows from the proposed Cloverleaf site. He found that it moves south into Pilgrim Pond and the marsh in the Pond Village area, he said.

    The state Dept. of Environmental Protection has set a limit of 10 milligrams of nitrogen per liter for drinking water. Nelson found the nitrogen level would be above that outside the boundaries of the development using a traditional treatment system. Therefore, he said, private wells on neighboring properties could be affected.

    Town Planner Jeffrey Ribeiro as well as the town’s attorney, Barbara Carboni of KP Law, recommended that the ZBA condition approval of the project on an upgraded treatment plan, and the board agreed.

    “The people in that neighborhood need that kind of protection that high levels of septic treatment can provide to them,” said Chair Art Hultin. “There are issues with groundwater quality in that neighborhood and we don’t want to be adding to it.”

    The ZBA is reviewing the project under chapter 40B of the state’s General Laws, which provides for waivers for affordable housing construction. The ZBA can grant relief from certain zoning laws, though state sanitary codes and wetlands protections must be maintained.

    A few neighbors of the Cloverleaf project on Highland Road had questions for Nelson at the March 12 meeting. And Peter Herridge of the planning board, a resident of Overlook Drive, repeated his assertions that the Pond Village area has the worst water quality in Truro.

    Herridge said 22 private wells have been found to have nitrogen levels that the EPA would consider contaminated — and a few have levels much higher than that. He made similar claims in a “fact sheet” distributed in December and said that the Truro Board of Health had sent letters to residents warning them about their unsafe water.

    But when the Independent tried to verify these claims, Truro Health Agent Emily Beebe said, “I’m not aware of any tests over 10 milligrams in that neighborhood. There are some readings that are over 3, and a couple over 5. The average in Pond Village of all the samples we could find is less than 2.”

    Tracey Rose, chair of the board of health, told the Independent, “To the best of my knowledge, no letters have gone to Pond Village residents nor has anyone’s well tested at that high level.”

    Herridge also told the ZBA in December that the high concentrations of nitrogen could lead to “blue baby syndrome,” and that he did not want Truro to become the next Flint, Michigan.

    “I know people thought the blue baby [comment] was very funny,” Herridge said last week. “Yeah, very funny — until it’s your baby.”

    The zoning board will meet again on April 2, at 5:30.

    currents

    This Week in Truro

    By

    Meetings Ahead

    Friday, March 6

    • Dialogue with the Director, 10 to 11 a.m., Truro Council on Aging

    Tuesday, March 10

    • Select Board, 5 p.m., Truro Town Hall

    Thursday, March 12

    • Truro Housing Authority, 4:15 p.m., Truro Town Hall
    • Zoning Board of Appeals, 5:30 p.m., Truro Town Hall

    Conversation Starters

    Cloverleaf Review Continues

    Next week the zoning board of appeals will review the latest information on Community Housing Resource’s application to build housing at the Cloverleaf site. The proposed project was submitted in November of last year under the state’s Chapter 40B process. Neighbor concerns about the project’s septic system resulted in the town requesting a review by a third-party engineering firm. That review is expected to be presented at this meeting.

    The development would include 40 rental housing units in 11 buildings on approximately 4 acres at 22 Highland Road. The units would be mixed income, with one building including an elevator to make those units fully accessible. —Rik Ahlberg

    Crank Revisited

    The select board has agreed to let town meeting voters weigh in on whether the board should reverse its decision to replace the old hand-crank ballot box with an electronic vote tabulator. Board members said they were influenced by the number of comments they had received on the topic from citizens to draw up a warrant article for the April 28 meeting. —Edward Miller

     

     

     

     

     

    currents

    This Week in Truro

    By

    Meetings Ahead

    Monday, March 2

    • Conservation Commission, 5:30 p.m., Town Hall

    Tuesday, March 3

    • Board of Health, 4:30 p.m., Town Hall

    Wednesday, March 4

    • Planning Board, 5 p.m., Town Hall

    Conversation Starter

    Cloverleaf Report Delayed

    A report by an independent engineer on the proposed septic system for the 40-unit affordable housing project known as the Cloverleaf has been delayed until the March 12 zoning board of appeals meeting. The Horsley Witten Group was supposed to make a presentation on Feb. 24, but the engineer is still preparing the findings. Developer Ted Malone’s $12 million project is planned for four acres on Highland Road. —K.C. Myers

     

     

     

     

     

    EDITORIAL

    Questions for the Truro Select Board Candidates

    By

    Before a rare midwinter election, on Feb. 18, voters in Truro will get to hear from two select board candidates this Tuesday, Feb. 4, at 6 p.m. at town hall. Stephanie Rein and Karen Tosh are vying for a three-month term to replace the late Maureen Burgess, who died in November.

    What can happen in three months? Quite a bit. The select board is expected to appoint the Walsh property committee. This group will plan what happens to 70 acres of undeveloped land the town purchased last year for $5.1 million.

    Ultimately, town meeting will decide on the actual use. But all the proposals will be brought to you by this committee.

    Truro is the least developed, most rural town on Cape Cod, where open space is highly valued by residents. It also has sky-high property values. The Walsh property committee selection is a high-stakes moment both for housing advocates and those concerned with conservation.

    At the same time, Truro regulatory boards are reviewing the “Cloverleaf” project, a 40-unit affordable housing development, which has met with opposition, including warnings of blue baby syndrome resulting from nitrate contamination and other statements from planning board member Peter Herridge, which proved to be false.

    With that in mind we have a few suggested questions for candidates Rein and Tosh.

    1. What is your top priority for the Walsh land? How do you balance the need for affordable housing with a desire for open space?
    2. Since you are both in favor of the Cloverleaf project, how do you respond to objections raised about it?
    3. To Karen Tosh: You are a member of the planning board, which has been criticized as anti-business and anti-affordable housing. You have said you are sometimes an outlier on this board. Can you provide specific examples when you voted differently than other planning board members?
    4. To Stephanie Rein: You have said that you may not run for re-election to the select board seat in May if you win this contest. Is there something specific that you would like to accomplish in this three-month period?
    5. In previous statements to the press, you have both claimed an interest in helping working people. Tosh said she provides mediation services as a way to offer affordable legal guidance. Rein said she is running in order to help those who live and work in Truro. What policies would you propose?
    6. What infrastructure improvements do you support for Truro? Sidewalks, bike lanes, crosswalks, and/or expanded cable and internet access?

    We hope the town takes this election seriously, despite the brevity of the select board term. Even in local politics, three months can be surprisingly consequential.

     

    FACT CHECK

    Claims on Nitrates by Town Official Don’t Hold Water

    A second look at Cloverleaf project opponents’ arguments

    By

    TRURO — Some statements made at the Dec. 5 zoning board of appeals hearing related to groundwater nitrogen levels expected to be produced by the proposed “Cloverleaf” housing development did not pass a fact check conducted by the Independent this week.

    The planning board’s Peter Herridge, an opponent of the plan to build 40 units of affordable housing on Highland Road in North Truro, failed to provide evidence on water standards and the risk of nitrate poisoning to back up his statements. And local officials refuted some of his claims about recent nitrogen measurements and potential future pollution.

    Herridge told the Independent that he is part of a group that has created a “fact sheet” about the development and added that his group is prepared to sue the town to stop the Cloverleaf housing from being built.

    That document, circulating in Truro on Tuesday, warns that, if the housing is built with the wastewater waiver the developer has requested, it will create conditions “lethal to newborns and infants” and will “almost certainly” increase rates of cancer, birth defects, and thyroid disease.

    The U.S. standard for nitrate in drinking water limits it to 10 mg per liter. Herridge told the ZBA that the safety standard in Germany is 4.4 mg per liter. “By Germany’s standard, people in these hot spots in Pond Village are already drinking toxic water,” Herridge said.

    Asked to provide supporting evidence, Herridge cited a 2018 article from the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health by Mary H. Ward et al. But that article states that the standard in Germany and throughout the European Union is actually slightly higher than in the U.S., 11.3 mg per liter.

    Moreover, the Ward article casts doubt on Herridge’s predictions about the lethal consequences of nitrate in groundwater, concluding that “the number of well-designed studies of individual health outcomes is still too few to draw firm conclusions about risk from drinking water nitrate ingestion.”

    Nitrogen symbol

    In a Dec. 15 email, Herridge wrote, “I am a physician and a pharmaceutical patent attorney and I know my biochemistry and this is a serious threat to our water aquifer and the developer could easily properly treat his sewage on site or reduce the number of bedrooms to what the land can tolerate and that is all we want.”

    The developer has proposed that, by including undevelopable National Seashore land surrounding the site in wastewater calculations, the project will meet the town’s standards. The ZBA has asked Malone to hire a consultant to study that possibility.

    Herridge told the Independent that the Cloverleaf area has the worst nitrogen contamination in Truro. “In 2010, six percent of the homes had levels over 5 mg.,” he said. “The town did not check them more recently, but I have, and the levels are increasing. Some homes in Pond Village are over 10 mg and have gotten warning notices from the board of health.”

    But Truro Health Agent Emily Beebe said, “I’m not aware of any tests over 10 mg in that neighborhood. There are some readings that are over 3, and a couple over 5. The average in Pond Village of all the samples we could find is less than 2.”

    Tracey Rose, chair of the Truro Board of Health, said, “To the best of my knowledge, no letters have gone to Pond Village residents nor has anyone’s well tested at that high level.”

    In an interview, Herridge also had harsh words for Ted Malone, the Cloverleaf developer.

    “The developer is making money off poor people,” Herridge said. “The reason he didn’t want to treat his sewage is that it costs too much. He’s trying to con the town into giving him the most lucrative deal they can.”

    Herridge’s flyer states that “the developers are refusing to install and operate” an advanced nitrate-reducing septic system.

    Jay Coburn of the Community Development Partnership disputed this, saying that town officials were still weighing whether an advanced system should be required, and that Malone was exploring the cost of putting in a small wastewater treatment plant at Cloverleaf, should one be needed.

    Coburn defended Malone’s track record as a developer. Malone, he said, “is one of the most highly respected small-scale developers in Massachusetts.” Coburn also noted that the state caps the profit margin of affordable housing developers at 12 percent.

    Kathleen Henry, president of the board of Highland Affordable Housing, also defended Malone.

    “There’s no question, Ted Malone is in business,” Henry said. “He’s not running a charity. But he is a person of the highest ideals, with a deep commitment to affordable housing and to giving people not just the basics but housing that’s beautiful as well as efficient and clean and safe.”

    Referring to Malone’s development near the Truro Library, Henry said, “You only have to visit Sally’s Way to see the kind of work that he does.”

     

    HOUSING

    Cloverleaf Foe Raises Fears of Blue Baby Syndrome

    Truro ZBA to weigh affordable housing benefits against health issues

    By

    TRURO — Several residents, including three members of the Truro Planning Board, objected to the so-called Cloverleaf affordable housing development during a zoning board of appeals hearing on Dec. 5.

    Developer Ted Malone has proposed building 40 units at 22 Highland Road in North Truro. To do so, he needs several waivers from local zoning laws. The development is denser and taller than allowed by Truro’s bylaws. Among other exceptions, Malone is seeking a waiver from Truro’s regulations for wastewater.

    This request caused the most controversy at the meeting, with one speaker, Peter Herridge, warning about blue baby syndrome.

    “I wouldn’t want North Truro to become another Flint, Michigan,” Herridge said.

    The Cloverleaf plan calls for 70 bedrooms on 3.9 acres of land. Truro Board of Health regulations require 10,000 square feet of land per 110 gallons per day, which in this case would mean 17.8 acres is needed to support the septage flow at the Cloverleaf.

    The developer has proposed including the undevelopable land surrounding the project as part of the total acreage. The Cloverleaf got its name from a one-time plan to build ramps to Route 6 there. The state dept. of transportation never built the ramps and gave the land to the town for affordable housing.

    If the ZBA includes the entire layout of the proposed Route 6 interchange, adding 15.6 acres to the 3.91-acre parcel, the undevelopable land would therefore contribute to the “aggregate nitrogen loading land area,” according to report written by town staff for the ZBA.

    “Similarly,” the staff report continued, “the abutting land of the Cape Cod National Seashore will not be developed and could also be considered as contributing to the aggregate nitrogen loading analysis.”

    ZBA members asked Malone to hire a consultant to analyze the wastewater, stormwater, and groundwater impacts. This review would provide an outside source on the effect of the development. The consultant would be asked to consider if an alternative sewage treatment system would be necessary on the property.

    But that didn’t satisfy the half dozen speakers who opposed the plan.

    Herridge introduced himself as a medical doctor, lawyer, and member of the planning board. Tonight, “I’m going to talk about medicine,” he began.

    Pond Village
    Well water samples were taken near Pond Village in 2010. (Photo Mike Potenza)

    He said the groundwater in the Highland Road area flows toward Pond Village and the Shearwater development, south of Pond Village. Herridge said that well testing in 2010 found that the worst nitrogen loading in town was at Pond Village and Shearwater. Out of 169 samples, 5.9 percent had 5 mg of nitrogen per liter or higher at Pond Village.

    The EPA standard set 40 years ago is 10 mg of nitrogen per liter. But the safety standard in Germany is 4.4 mg per liter, Herridge said. The reason for the safety standards, he added, was to prevent blue baby syndrome, which he then described graphically.

    “By Germany’s standard, people in these hot spots in Pond Village are already drinking toxic water,” Herridge said. He asked whether anyone had seen a baby who had died of blue baby syndrome. “I have, in the slums of the South Bronx when I was a medical student,” Herridge said. “I don’t think we want to see that in North Truro.”

    Two other planning board members, who said they were speaking as private citizens, also voiced concerns. One, Paul Kiernan, said the wastewater would produce an enormous amount of flow in North Truro. And Jack Riemer, of Fisher Road, cited a judge’s ruling in Reynolds v. the ZBA of Stow, Mass. The judge, at the end of his decision, stated, “Faced with evidence that one or more adjacent private wells will have elevated nitrogen levels,” it would be unreasonable to conclude that the need for affordable housing outweighs the health concerns of abutters.

    Riemer also said he worried about the chemicals being dumped down people’s toilets and the effect they would have on the groundwater.

    The other three speakers had similar concerns about water and property maintenance.

    Debra Best-Parker of Waterview Heights Road in North Truro asked why the developer was bringing forward a plan that needed so many waivers from building regulations. KP Law attorney Jessica Bardi explained that the state’s Chapter 40B statute promotes affordable housing by allowing greater density and waivers of local bylaws. In 40B cases, the ZBA must decide whether the need for affordable housing outweighs health and safety concerns, she said.

    The ZBA will continue to discuss the project on Dec. 12 at 5:30 p.m. at Truro Town Hall.

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