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Coastal Companies

    DEVELOPMENT

    More Condos, Less Impact

    Klink’s Route 6 development in Eastham won’t exit via Wiley Lane

    By

    EASTHAM — There’s been a meeting of the minds between Tim Klink and the residents of Wiley Lane, the cul-de-sac behind the Route 6 property he wants to develop.

    Rather than using Wiley Lane as an outlet for his condominium project, Klink, the founder of Coastal Companies, has worked out an access point from the state highway with a hammerhead turnaround for fire vehicles.

    “I commend you guys for working closely with the neighbors and trying to find something that worked well,” planning board vice chair Lauren Barker said at the board’s June 17 meeting. At that session, Klink withdrew his original proposal and invited comments on the latest iteration of the plan. Formal action by the board is expected at its July 15 meeting.

    The redrawn borders combine the first planned location, a wooded lot at 4615 Route 6, just north of the Shell station, with a developed property to its north at 4655 Route 6; both would be cleared in the new plan. Klink had planned another development for the latter, a mix of commercial and residential units that might have included a coffee shop. Following review by the board of health regarding the septic system at 4655, however, he decided to combine the lots into one condo project. The original plan’s 16 units have been increased by four, and a swimming pool has been added.

    When the board reviewed the original proposal on March 18, members of 8 of the 12 households on Wiley Lane called in to protest.

    “I think housing is important, but to open up Wiley Lane for traffic, to a shortcut away from Route 6, would be an inconvenience for any of us living here,” Evelyn Mullen said that night. The closest abutter, Debbie Canyock, objected to the introduction of “a significant amount of traffic” from the proposed complex, “more than double what we have” on the street.

    Developer Tim Klink wants to increase Eastham’s housing inventory with 20 new market-rate condos on this wooded Route 6 site north of the Shell station. (Photo Ed Maroney)

    Zoning maps show a potential extension of Wiley Lane to Route 6 that has never been completed. Klink’s ownership of 4615 Route 6 gave him the right to make the connection, but in March, board chair Art Autorino asked him to “seriously consider” the criticism of the Wiley Lane outlet. “If you eliminated that,” he said, “most of the abutter dissent would go away.”

    At the June 17 meeting, Klink said that installation of the hammerhead turnaround “eliminates the possibility that Wiley will ever be developed out to Route 6.” The new plan shows an extension of privacy plantings “way down past Wiley Lane,” he added. “There are some trees there that we will leave as well. We also extended a fence along the westerly property line to provide some buffer between our proposed development and the Canyocks on the other side.”

    The developer said he hopes his market-rate townhouses will attract buyers eager to downsize from large homes that now have an “empty nest” feel, though the townhouses will not be age-restricted.

    “We’re hoping this project becomes a model,” Klink said. “It’s really the first proposal under the new [zoning regulations for the district]. We’ve been working on this about two years. We hope it will be seen as the basis for going forward with other development in town.”

    Board member Jim Kivlehan asked about accommodations for pedestrians. “I walked the sidewalk on Route 6,” he said. “Cars are flying down that road. This property has a nice location relative to Ben & Jerry’s and the restaurants across the street. If a walking path from the street in the middle of the development to the southeast corner [could be made], you don’t have to walk that Route 6 sidewalk. Then you’re over by the gas station and there’s plenty of room.”

    Klink said he plans to create a berm between the property and the state highway using the fill from digging cellar holes for the units. Earlier plans had called for an internal pathway, and he said he’ll “make sure to put that back in.”

    Town Planner Paul Lagg said Eastham is working with the state dept. of transportation on traffic and safety upgrades for Route 6.

    “Eventually, we do expect that the sidewalk will be fixed up, widened, and be on both sides,” he said. “We’re trying to also consolidate curb cuts. Tim is consolidating two curb cuts in this area, and we’re looking at how we can align them at 90-degree angles.”

    “It looks like a great project,” Barker told Klink. “It’s a beautiful design and fits the standard well.” Noting the development’s potential to attract those downsizing from large homes, she said, “I think it’s really important, ones like this, to get the market moving again.”

    DEVELOPMENT

    ZBA Backs Commissioner’s Duplex Ruling

    A builder argues that his Route 6 project is really townhouses

    By

    EASTHAM — Developer Tim Klink of Coastal Companies failed to persuade the zoning board of appeals on May 7 to overrule the building commissioner’s decision that Klink’s proposed 16-unit Route 6 project should be considered duplexes and not townhouses.

    At the meeting, held virtually, Klink withdrew his proposal to construct a new mixed-use development at 4655 State Highway but asked to have his proposed housing development at 4615 State Highway be defined as townhouses.

    The project, first brought to the planning board in March, is in the Transitional Commercial District, in which duplex construction requires a variance while townhouses do not.

    The ZBA sided with Building Commissioner Tom Wingard in a 5-0 vote.

    Klink said in a May 11 email that he’s changing the project to combine the 4655 and 4615 parcels into one development and is consulting with his attorneys on his options for appealing the ZBA decision or possible litigation.

    “This is not the route I want to go but the ZBA did not conduct the hearing in a fair and equitable manner,” Klink wrote. “I was unable to present my position and discuss the facts.”

    The developer wants to build 16 units in eight buildings. The buildings would be separated by connectors made of noncombustible materials. Klink argued that the design fits the definition of townhouses in Eastham’s zoning bylaw.

    The town’s bylaw states that a townhouse is a single dwelling unit that is not above or below another unit and is separated from other dwelling units by a fire wall or party wall (another type of dividing wall).

    But Wingard determined that, based on the architectural layout of the development, the units should be considered duplexes under the state building code, which specifies that townhouses have three or more units in a building.

    ZBA chair Ed Schneiderhan said the connector design may have just been a way to try and turn the duplexes into townhouses when they aren’t by definition.

    “To me,” Wingard said, “a duplex is a duplex and townhouses, which often are not thoroughly defined, have three or more units by tradition and by building code and by conceptual design.”

    The zoning bylaw defines a duplex as a building containing living quarters for not more than two families, having not less than 1,000 square feet of floor area under a common or connected series of roofs, and containing in each dwelling all the requirements for a one-family dwelling.

    Klink said his project would have one- or two-bedroom units designed for singles or seniors and would be sold at market rate. He said townhouses with three or four units in each building would be too massive for the character of the town, and that there’s a limited market for that kind of development.

    “If I were to connect these buildings and make them conform to the townhouse building as per the building code, they would then be three or four units or more, all connected in one building,” Klink said. “I just felt they’re out of character for the look of Eastham and what we’re doing here.”

    Bob Bruns of the ZBA said he appreciated Klink’s effort but chose to stick with Wingard’s definition.

    “That particular district has been zoned for less massing,” Bruns said.

    Klink said more consideration should be given to allowing duplexes in the district.

    “I respect the building inspector and his interpretation of the building code,” he said. “The issue at hand was why duplexes are not allowed in the district and how to address that.”

    “I think the intent was to allow more density,” said Town Planner Paul Lagg. “We were more concerned with the building forms less than the use. So the townhouses made sense — build more of what we thought would be a village center style.”

    Lagg said revisiting the issue at town meeting may be necessary, given Klink’s comments that there may not be a market for such a development in this area of town.

    HOUSING

    Mixed-Use Developments Planned for Route 6 in Eastham

    Neighbors want to prevent access via Wiley Lane cul-de-sac

    By

    EASTHAM — Two projects have been proposed for the Transition Commercial District, designed for small-scale commercial and residential development on Route 6 outside the Core Commercial Area. But neighbors have raised objections to allowing access via nearby Wiley Lane.

    CEO Tim Klink of Coastal Companies wants to develop two properties south of his 4665 Route 6 office. First, he would demolish two dilapidated buildings immediately to the south and build a mixed-use retail and residential building with four one-bedroom apartments on the second floor and a possible coffee shop on the first.

    Residential project
    Coastal Companies, with offices at right on southbound Route 6 in Eastham, wants to develop an adjacent property (the boarded-up building at left) as a mixed-use commercial-residential project and another property further south as a townhouse development. (Photos Ed Maroney)

    South of that, on a heavily wooded lot at 4615 Route 6, Klink wants to build 16 townhouse units in eight buildings. The one- and two-bedroom units would be condominiums, priced from the high $300,000s to high $400,000s.

    The developer is proposing that the homes be accessed from Route 6 southbound via a single curb cut shared with his 4655 property. To limit left-hand turns in or out by northbound traffic, the development would open at its southwest corner into a cul-de-sac at the end of Wiley Lane, which feeds into Massasoit Road.

    “We have rights to develop Wiley Lane all the way out to Route 6 … but it’s not in the best interests of the neighbors or of the town,” Klink said by telephone at a planning board hearing on March 18. Still, he said, “people living in this development should have the right to come and go with an access not on Route 6.”

    Also on the telephone for the remote meeting were representatives of 8 of the 12 households on Wiley Lane. All were opposed to use of the cul-de-sac.

    “I think housing is important, but to open up Wiley Lane for traffic, to a shortcut away from Route 6, would be an inconvenience for any of us living here,” Evelyn Mullen said.

    Debbie Canyock, who said her house is “right next to the property to be developed,” protested the introduction of “a significant amount of traffic, more than double what we have. It’s a quiet residential street. Most people bought their property for that reason. We have a daughter in a wheelchair we like to bring on street walks.”

    “The development in and of itself seems appropriate and appealing for the area,” said Mike McCarthy, but access through Wiley Lane “will change the character of the neighborhood drastically.”

    Driveway in Wiley Lane
    A proposed driveway in the Wiley Lane cul-de-sac would provide access to Massasoit Road for townhouse residents.

    Jane Whitney said she wouldn’t have bought her corner lot on Wiley and Massasoit if Wiley were not a cul-de-sac. “In the summer, Massasoit is backed up all the way to Route 6 by the Wellfleet movie theater,” she said. “There’s not a possibility this driveway will not be used as a cut-through.”

    Klink said alternatives had been explored, but it’s important “that people in the neighborhood have a safe way to get to Massasoit Road without going to Route 6.”

    Stephen Woodard said he couldn’t imagine why “anybody on the board would think this is a good idea. We started out with a representation that it would be senior housing [via age restrictions that were later dropped]. Then it’s not 100-percent owner-occupied; [they] encourage summer rentals.”

    Before hearing from the public, planning board members had praised the project and questioned some elements of it. Noting attractions such as Ben & Jerry’s and Dunkin Donuts down the street, Board Member Jim Kivlehan suggested “extending the sidewalk down to the traffic light” for pedestrians. Klink said he would consider a sidewalk connection to the proposed coffee shop.

    Vice Chair Lauren Barker said the development “accomplishes what we’re looking for overall: infill of empty spaces. The landscaping and architecture are really top-notch.” She approved the absence of age restrictions. “With our housing needs, there are single people of all ages,” she said. “These would be perfect for working people on the Outer Cape.”

    Asked by Barker how he would “prevent use of these as summer rentals,” Klink countered, “We would encourage it…. Some rentals are critical to our economic environment.”

    Chair Art Autorino asked Klink to “seriously consider” testimony regarding this “through way on Wiley Lane. If you eliminated that, most of the abutter dissent would go away.”

    “We’ll take a look at it,” Klink said. Both projects were continued to the board’s April 15 meeting.

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