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Community Development Partnership

    HOUSING

    At the Groundbreaking on Lawrence Road

    By

    WELLFLEET — State and local officials wielding shiny shovels officially broke ground at the site of the Residences at Lawrence Hill on Oct. 30. Speaking to a small group of early-rising neighbors, state Sen. Julian Cyr said that the success of the effort so far shows “we can turn the tide on the housing crisis.”

    At the Oct. 30 groundbreaking on Lawrence Road, directly across from the Wellfleet Elementary School, from left: Cory Fellows, a vice president at POAH; John Wolf, chair of the Wellfleet Select Board; Deacon Reeves and Finley O’Dell, fifth-graders at Wellfleet Elementary School; state Sen. Julian Cyr; Gail Sullivan, managing principal at Studio G Architects; Elaine McIlroy, chair of the Wellfleet Housing Authority; Mary Thompson, a senior vice president at Bank of America; and Jay Coburn, CEO of the Community Development Partnership. (Photo by Nancy Bloom)

    The 46 new apartments, designed to be energy-efficient, are going up on town-owned land across from the Wellfleet Elementary School. Adam O’Shea, the principal, attended the groundbreaking with two Wellfleet Elementary fifth-graders, Finley O’Dell and Deacon Reeves, who were there to listen and report back on the goings-on to classmates in grades three to five. Wellfleet Elementary, O’Shea said, is “excited about having new neighbors on top of the hill.”

    A rendering of the Lower Village building at the Residences at Lawrence Hill. (Image courtesy POAH)

    Seventy-five percent of the apartments will be reserved for people earning no more than 60 percent of the area median income (that number in Barnstable County is now $68,500 for one person and $97,800 for a household of four). That means affordable rents “for many people we cannot afford to lose,” said Elaine McIlroy, chair of the town’s housing authority.

    Sen. Cyr with two Wellfleet women who provided leadership for the development, Elaine McIlroy of the housing authority and Sharon Rule-Agger, chair of the local housing partnership. (Photo by Nancy Bloom)

    Two nonprofits, the local Community Development Partnership (CDP) and Boston-based Preservation of Affordable Housing (POAH), are the developers, with Studio G Architects doing the design.

    Jay Coburn, CEO of the CDP, said the progress on addressing the region’s housing crisis “gives hope.” Besides being beautiful, said McIlroy, these apartments will be “essential for a healthy community.”

    AFFORDABLE HOUSING

    ZBA Kicks Off Review of ‘Long Pond Village’

    Solar panels and a design inspired by modernism in Wellfleet

    By

    WELLFLEET — The zoning board of appeals began its formal review of the long-planned 95 Lawrence Road affordable housing project on July 14.

    The three-story Lower Village has a common room, elevator, and 22 one- and two-bedroom units. Across the ballfield, there are 24 townhouses in seven buildings.

    For the first time, the developers, Preservation of Affordable Housing (POAH) and the Community Development Partnership (CDP), presented an overview of the design. The renderings show a new neighborhood named Long Pond Village on six acres of town-owned land.

    The 46 apartments, all rental units, wrap around the ballfield across from the Wellfleet Elementary School. The ballfield will be open for use by schoolchildren, the public, and the residents of the development, said Jay Coburn, the CDP’s CEO.

    The neighborhood comprises two areas. The Lower Village is a single three-story building containing 22 apartments, all with one or two bedrooms. The building will have a common room, patio, elevator, and laundry. Designed for singles or couples, it will be close to Long Pond Road, where the dilapidated former council on aging building sits.

    Across the ballfield and up the hill is the Upper Village with seven buildings holding 24 townhouses. These are two- and three-bedroom units. The roofs have solar panels, and the design, said Coburn, is inspired by mid-century modern architecture.

    “Our team has crafted a proposal to build high-quality affordable housing for a range of incomes and household sizes,” Coburn told the ZBA. Another goal of the proposal he described is to ensure environmental sustainability, including being nearly net-zero in energy consumption. The mid-century modern look of the complex reflects a commitment “to create a community with a resilient and elegant design that draws on local building traditions,” he said.

    A rendering of an aerial view of Long Pond Village, proposed for 95 Lawrence Road, shows the Wellfleet Elementary School in the foreground. The design was formally presented to the zoning board of appeals on July 14. (Images courtesy Studio G Architects)

    Coburn called the 95 Lawrence Road project “a once-in-a-generation opportunity to build a considerable number of affordable homes in Wellfleet.”

    The ZBA must decide if the 46-unit development qualifies for a comprehensive 40B permit, which will allow for streamlining of the permitting process and the possibility of requesting waivers of certain zoning restrictions that would otherwise make an affordable housing project impossible. The statute allowing a comprehensive permit is sometimes referred to as the “Anti-Snob Zoning Act.”

    One zoning waiver, for example, will address the fact that ordinarily multifamily housing is not allowed in the area. Other waivers pertain to lot size and building height.

    The ZBA will be meeting in the coming weeks to review project details in phases. Coburn will fully present the architectural and landscape design on July 21. Traffic will be discussed on Aug. 4. The septic and wastewater presentation will be Aug. 25.

    The zoning board anticipates it could be ready to decide on the permit on Sept. 8, said Chair Sharon Inger. But knowing that these approvals often take longer than expected, the board has also reserved Sept. 22.

    Coburn said that time is of the essence as developers need to queue up to receive federal tax credits that are awarded to affordable housing projects by the state Dept. of Housing and Community Development (DHCD). The DHCD needs preapplications in October and will be formally awarding tax credits during the “rental round” in January 2023.

    The Upper Village, which includes this community building, will be across the ballfield from the three-story Lower Village building.

    Usually, projects must wait for two years to receive the limited pool of aid. But, Coburn said, 2023 is different because of significant American Rescue Plan Act funds directed to affordable housing.

    “We think we have a good chance to get funded in the first year because of the need on the Cape and because there are more resources available,” he said.

    Coburn said the CDP and POAH went through a preapplication process with the ZBA starting in April and held a question-and-answer session with the public in June. These steps helped prepare the developers for issues that might be raised by town staff and the public.

    Using preapplication meetings worked for another developer, Pennrose, which got a comprehensive permit to construct 62 units of affordable housing in Orleans after only six weeks of meetings with the ZBA, Coburn said.

    In contrast, the Truro ZBA review of the 39-unit Cloverleaf project took 14 months. Then, after the proposal received a comprehensive permit in January 2021, Truro property owners sued the ZBA. The lawsuit was dismissed in February 2022, but it delayed the development for a year.

    Perhaps fearing that the Cloverleaf saga could be repeated in Wellfleet, someone at the July 14 meeting asked if there was any litigation facing this project. No legal challenge can be filed until the permit is issued, Inger said.

    The developers hope to begin construction at 95 Lawrence Road in the fall of 2023 and to finish in 2025.

    If these units are built, they will be available to people at three different income levels. Twenty-seven units will be reserved for those earning up to 60 percent of the area median income (AMI), which would be $45,660 for one person in 2022, and $58,740 for a three-person household.

    Eight of the units would be set aside for those earning up to 30 percent of AMI, which is $22,850 for one person and for three people would be $29,350.

    Eleven are reserved for those earning up to 120 percent of AMI, which for one person is $91,320 and for three is $117,480.

    “We are proposing a community that provides housing for a range of Wellfleet residents, from seniors and families living on very modest incomes to working families to empty-nesters struggling to downsize,” Coburn said.

    95 LAWRENCE ROAD

    Final Choice of Developer May Be Delayed Until November

    The POAH-CDP partnership wins an early vote of support

    By

    WELLFLEET — The committee charged with rating the would-be developers of 46 affordable apartments at 95 Lawrence Road hopes to clarify a few details with the three groups that submitted proposals as the panel heads into the home stretch.

    Meanwhile, the nonprofit Preservation of Affordable Housing (POAH), which is partnering with the local nonprofit Community Development Partnership (CDP), appears to be solidifying its position as frontrunner among the eight-member Lawrence Road Task Force.

    One member of the task force, Jan Plaue, has already announced her choice, because she would be unable to attend some upcoming meetings of the group. She voted for POAH-CDP.

    “I think all three were worthy proposals,” said Plaue, “but none of them was fully compliant with the RFP. One of the most important things to me was that our vision for this project was to give homes to people who truly cannot afford to live in Wellfleet but work here or do good services. As much as I hate their great big building, I’ve chosen POAH.”

    Plaue had rated the POAH proposal Unacceptable, the lowest score, for both site and building design a few weeks earlier.

    The request for proposals for the Lawrence Road project set the range of affordability between 30 and 120 percent of the Area Median Income (AMI), but stipulated that proposals with larger numbers at or below 80 percent of AMI would be ranked more favorably.

    POAH had the largest number of units for those who earn the least, Plaue pointed out.

    Three proposals for 46 affordable rental units are under review by the task force. The POAH-CDP partnership proposed a $20.2-million plan in which all units would be rented to tenants earning 80 percent or less of the AMI. And 35 of those units would go to tenants earning no more than 60 percent of the AMI.

    The Community Builders, another nonprofit, proposed a $19.3-million plan that also had all of the units designed for households at or below 80 percent of the AMI. Of the total, 33 units would go to those at or below 60 percent — two units fewer than POAH proposed.

    Civico Development’s $14.6-million plan assigned four units to tenants making 30 percent or less of the AMI. Of the 46-unit total, 33 would be for tenants earning 80 percent or less of the AMI. The remaining 13 units would be for tenants earning up to 110 percent. Civico characterized its proposal as focusing on “workforce housing.”

    The task force canceled its meetings that had been scheduled for Oct. 1 and Oct. 15, and had no meetings scheduled at press time this week, since the review of the developers’ financial plans had not been completed.

    The task force had expected to make its final recommendation to the select board on Oct. 26, but the date will likely be pushed back to early November, said chair Elaine McIlroy in an email.

    Meanwhile, the task force wants the relationship between Preservation of Affordable Housing and the Community Development Partnership to be spelled out more clearly. The members want to know whether they will jointly own the development, or whether POAH will be sole owner. Initially, it had appeared as if CDP was simply partnering during the permitting stage of the project. Later discussions indicated that the CDP might have part ownership.

    McIlroy thought that was an important detail to nail down. But task force member Harry Terkanian didn’t. “It wouldn’t bother me if POAH was the sole owner or CDP was the sole owner,” he said during the group’s last meeting, held in September.

    Kathleen Bacon said she had “great concern” over the relationship of the two nonprofits because they could have a falling out at some point. Although McIlroy wanted more clarity, she said that POAH tends to choose local partners. In other Cape projects, POAH partnered “very successfully” with the Housing Assistance Corp., McIlroy said.

    The task force planned to send a letter to all three bidders asking them to elaborate on their organizational structures for the Wellfleet project. “My general concern is that this is our one shot at this,” said Gary Sorkin, who had suggested contacting all three.

    The task force also decided to go beyond the lists of references that had been supplied by the bidders. All three groups received stellar recommendations. The task force members planned to contact others outside those lists, such as town planners.

    Bacon urged her fellow committee members to review the comments from a community forum last January before they take their final vote. “Going forward, my biggest concern is not so much who we pick but how that developer fits in with the neighborhood,” Bacon said.

    TAXES

    3 Towns Consider Raising Short-Term Rental Tax Rate

    But few decisions are made on how to spend the money

    By

    Town meeting voters this spring in Truro, Wellfleet, and Eastham will be asked to raise the short-term rental tax rate from 4 to 6 percent, to maximize what state law allows towns to collect on vacation home rentals.

    Provincetown is currently the only Outer Cape town that charges the maximum 6 percent. In one year, Provincetown accrued $1.7 million in new revenue from short-term rentals. Even at 4 percent and even in a pandemic, the other three towns also did well. Truro will get close to an additional $600,000, Wellfleet almost $700,000, and Eastham almost $800,000, according to the state Dept. of Revenue.

    Though housing advocates and legislators are urging officials to earmark much of that money towards housing, Truro is the only town so far that has proposed a specific housing-related use for it.

    “If the select boards and finance committee cannot find a way to take a certain percentage of that money and devote it to affordable housing, it is a huge missed opportunity,” said state Rep. Sarah Peake of Provincetown. “This is millions and millions of dollars coming directly back to the communities as the result of people who vacation here.”

    Jay Coburn, CEO of the Community Development Partnership, said 50 percent should go to housing.

    “I don’t understand why every single town isn’t doing that,” Coburn said. “Why aren’t we using that money now?”

    “This crisis is so severe, we need multiple revenue streams, and we need multi-million-dollar investments,” said state Sen. Julian Cyr of Truro.

    Provincetown: 13% for Housing

    The select board got into the nitty-gritty of how much of the town’s short-term rental revenue should go to housing on May 10. The latest proposal from town officials puts 13 percent into housing, or about $416,000. The rest of the anticipated $3.2 million would go to the tourism fund, capital stabilization, wastewater infrastructure, and the general fund.

    Select board member Louise Venden asked why so much (26 percent, or $832,000) is for the general fund. Town Manager Alex Morse said nearly $600,000 from the general fund pays the mortgage on Harbor Hill, a market-rate rental housing project. No decisions were made that night.

    The nonprofit Housing Assistance Corporation’s CEO Alisa Magnotta said taxpayers should be alarmed if select boards aren’t setting aside money to help year-rounders stay here.

    “Once it starts going into the general funds, it will be really hard to pull it back,” she said.

    Truro: 33% for Housing

    Truro town officials had worried that the new short-term rental tax, which went into effect in July 2019, would deter vacationers. Instead, rental demand and real estate sales skyrocketed. Even with newly hired Truro Town Manager Darrin Tangeman’s $172,000 salary, he is unable to get financing for a house in town, he said.

    So, along with the 6-percent tax rate article, Truro voters on June 26 will be asked to create a housing stabilization fund. The fund would get 33 percent of the revenue from the short-term rental tax. The money would be spent on housing projects approved by town meeting. The proposed stabilization fund differs from a housing trust, from which trustees can authorize spending without town meeting approval, Tangeman said.

    Any more than 33 percent, Tangeman said, would cut into what the town used last year to offset budget shortfalls.

    Eastham: No Decision

    The Eastham Select Board remains uncommitted.

    “It will be used for attainable housing, but we are waiting to decide on the most impactful use,” board chair Jamie Demetri said.

    Rich Bienvenue, Eastham’s assistant town administrator, said that so far Eastham has used the short-term rental tax for capital projects and budget reserves. Currently, the town has only an AA+ bond rating and Bienvenue said increasing reserves will help the town achieve a AAA bond rating.

    The extra 2 percent would give Eastham at least another $300,000, he said.

    Wellfleet: Transfer Fee?

    Town officials have been caught in a crisis trying to prepare for the June 26 town meeting. Both the town accountant and town administrator resigned, and officials are struggling to put together a budget. There has been no decision about what to do with the short-term tax revenue — either what has come in so far or future receipts, said Harry Terkanian, a member of the Wellfleet Housing Trust and a volunteer now helping to prepare the warrant in the absence of town leadership. Raising the tax by 2 percent would bring in an additional $375,000, according to the Wellfleet draft town meeting warrant.

    At the same time, the select board is considering a real estate transfer fee, which could put many thousands of dollars toward year-round housing each year. The article, proposed by board member Ryan Curley, would impose a fee of ½, 1, or 2 percent, still undecided by the select board.

    Select board member Ryan Curley at the Wellfleet Shellfish Farmers Market. He has written a home-rule petition that would add a transfer fee to real estate sales for a housing fund. (Photo K.C. Myers)

    State Rep. Sarah Peake said she has asked the state legislature to approve a home rule petition for a ½-percent real estate transfer fee in Provincetown ever since she was first elected to the House in 2007. Provincetown voters have approved the idea repeatedly, but opposition on Beacon Hill is strong, particularly from the Mass. Association of Realtors. CEO Theresa Hatton told the Statehouse News Service that transfer taxes are “not good policy” because they ask one specific buyer or seller “to take care of the common good.”

    Curley, however, said he thinks the tide may be turning. Boston, Nantucket, Truro, Provincetown, Somerville, and Brookline have submitted home rule petitions to link transfer fees to housing, according to the Statehouse News Service.

    “Boston asking for it changes the playing field,” Curley said, adding when Airbnb infiltrated mainstream communities, suddenly Boston lawmakers saw the wisdom of a short-term rental tax.

    In Wellfleet, where just 1.9 percent of the housing stock is officially affordable, Curley’s proposal could raise real money. Based on 2020 home sales, a ½-percent fee would generate $237,247 a year if applied to sales over $500,000. (That is, if a home sold for $600,000, the fee would be ½ percent of $100,000.)

    Curley is waiting for more input from his fellow board members, which he hopes will happen in time to put the article before voters June 26. Chances of getting the required legislation through the State House, however, remain virtually nonexistent, according to Peake.

    STIMULI

    Covid Relief Targets Outer Cape’s Smallest Businesses

    Programs fill earlier gaps in CARES Act awards

    By

    PROVINCETOWN — When much of the American economy was forced to shut down last March due to Covid, Congress passed trillions of dollars of relief spending in just weeks. There was a scramble to access emergency funding such as the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), which offered forgivable loans equal to 2.5 months payroll for businesses with 500 or fewer employees.

    The situation now is more orderly, and significant sums are flowing again. In addition to a new round of payroll loans, there are several other programs, many of them targeting the smallest of businesses. But those businesses may not be aware of them.

    The Targeted EIDL Advance is a $20-billion program (based on the Emergency Impact Disaster Loan program in the CARES Act) that was included in the near-trillion-dollar stimulus bill that Congress passed in December.

    The original EIDL program wrote large loans that are repayable over 30 years to the Small Business Administration (SBA), as well as $10,000 “advances,” which were essentially grants.

    But not every applicant got a $10,000 advance. After a crush of nearly four million applications, the SBA changed the terms to $1,000 per employee, up to a total of $10,000. Data released by the agency in December show that 615 businesses in the four Outer Cape towns received EIDL grants — but only 71 received the full $10,000, and 336 received only $1,000.

    Census tracts marked in purple are “low-income communities” — relative to the state’s average family income — and eligible for extra EIDL advance funds. (Source: SBA)

    The Targeted EIDL Advance program aims to circle back to these businesses and top up their grants to $10,000. Only businesses that can show a loss of 30 percent over any eight-week period in 2020 are eligible — but given the two-month lockdown, that’s a threshold many can meet. And only businesses located in a “low-income community” are eligible — meaning census tracts with a median family income that is less than 80 percent of the state’s median.

    By this standard, Provincetown, Truro, Wellfleet, and the northern half of Eastham are low-income communities. The southern half of Eastham — south of Doane Road from Route 6 to the ocean, and south of McKoy Road on the bay side — is not. That means between 400 and 500 of the smallest local businesses, most with five or fewer employees, can apply for these expanded grants.

    “There hasn’t been much publicity for the Targeted EIDL loans,” said Marc Goldberg, a director at the Service Corps of Retired Executives Cape Cod, which provides mentoring and other assistance to local small businesses.

    One reason for limited visibility may be that the SBA sent emails to business owners inviting them to apply, and they’re easy to miss. They were sent starting Feb. 1; in the subject line was the application number of the original disaster loan.

    More Grants

    Another program focused directly on the smallest businesses is managed by the Community Development Partnership (CDP) in Eastham and is still taking applications from residents of the eight Lower and Outer Cape towns. The CDP’s microenterprise program includes $10,000 forgivable loans that can be used for a range of business expenses. Only businesses with five or fewer employees can apply, and only if the owner is personally earning less than 80 percent of “area median income.”

    One reason the targeting is narrow is that this program only has about $400,000 to give out. Only 28 grants have been awarded so far. CDP staff are available to help people who haven’t applied yet, said CEO Jay Coburn. (Details are at capecdp.org.)

    Another 86 businesses on the Outer Cape have received larger grants from the state via the nonprofit Mass. Growth Capital Corporation (MGCC). Like the CDP grants, this money originated with the CARES Act, was delivered to the state in the summer, and was allocated to a nonprofit to administer it in the fall. Unlike the CDP grants, the MGCC program covered the whole state, and ultimately had more than $650 million to give away.

    Applications for the MGCC grants are closed now, but the program has delivered almost $4.4 million to the four outermost towns, and grants are still being paid. They range from $5,000 to $75,000 and are fully forgiven after proper documentation.

    PPP Redux

    Finally, the Biden administration has just announced new rules to help sole proprietors and independent contractors access the second round of PPP loans.

    Previously, people who are in business alone had to use their net income (after deductible expenses) to calculate the size of their payroll loan. As a result, some people’s April 2020 PPP loans were only a few hundred bucks.

    For the ongoing second round of PPP loans, independent contractors and other self-employed people can use gross revenue to calculate the size of their forgivable loans, making them significantly larger.

    The first round of PPP loans generated $37 million for 571 local businesses on the Outer Cape. Of those, at least 130 were one-person enterprises that might do better in this second round.

    Businesses in food services and accommodations can also look forward to the second round of PPP loans. The December stimulus bill authorized PPP loans equaling 3.5 months of average payroll for those businesses, instead of 2.5 months.

    The hospitality industry is the largest employer in each of the Outer Cape’s four towns, according to the Cape Cod Commission, and the next round of payroll loans has the potential to bring well over $40 million into the local economy.

    Meanwhile, there’s another bill nearly the size of the CARES Act working its way through Congress.

    CIVICS

    Cold Hands, Warm Hearts at Town Meeting

    Provincetown voters gets things done with unusual speed and harmony

    By

    PtwnTM
    On Monday, Sept. 21, 265 Provincetown voters gathered on a chilly late afternoon for a Covid-safe, socially distanced outdoor annual town meeting. (Photo Paul Benson)

    PROVINCETOWN — The long-delayed annual town meeting moved at a brisk pace on Monday, Sept. 21, with the chilly weather perhaps encouraging voters gathered in the parking lot at St. Peter the Apostle Church to reach a consensus.

    The meeting was completed in just under two hours — an achievement for any Cape town, and especially one as prone to contentious debate as Provincetown, where meetings have commonly stretched to two and even three consecutive evenings. The meeting was also remarkable for the level of agreement, with no more than a scattering of “no” votes for any of the articles.

    Article 8, concerning the Gosnold Street dune project, was approved with little discussion, and Article 9, a series of Community Preservation Act grants, including a land acquisition for senior housing at Maushope, was approved quickly as well. The grant of $425,000 will allow the Provincetown Housing Authority to expand its affordable senior housing efforts, according to PHA Director Kristin Hatch, who is seeking to add 10 to 15 units of supportive senior housing on the site.

    Article 11, a $595,000 bond payment for the debt used to acquire Harbor Hill, provoked the longest discussion, beginning with presentations from Nathan Butera of the Year-Round Market-Rate Rental Housing Trust and select board member Louise Venden. Butera’s report included information on the current tenancy of the project — 50 people, including eight children, with the 28th and final unit scheduled to be occupied on Oct. 1 — and on the trust’s efforts to pursue a broad range of financing, ownership, and management arrangements.

    The project is currently in the third year of a three-year management contract with the Community Development Partnership in Eastham. A capital needs assessment identified $800,000 worth of maintenance that ought to be done in the next five years, and the trust is studying whether outside capital can be involved in the project.

    Eight people rose to speak on Article 11, raising questions about the cost structure, and arguing for and against town involvement in middle-class housing.

    A tenant in the building, Jaime de Sousa, was last to speak. “As a resident of Harbor Hill, I encourage folks to support this article and also future articles that have to do with affordable and market-rate housing,” he said. “Studies have shown that as housing availability declines, my entire age bracket is projected to decline. To secure the longevity of Provincetown as we know it, it’s important to have housing for all.”

    A series of church bells rang out in heavy tones while de Sousa spoke. The somber tones seemed to have a settling effect — the vote was called immediately after, and the article passed with fewer than 10 votes against it.

    Article 13 appropriated $12,600 to hire an indigenous peoples consultant, who will help develop at least one public art project and study other forms of representation. Article 14 banned plastic water bottles under one gallon, and Article 15 set the town’s zero-emissions goal into town bylaws. Fewer than 10 people voted against Article 14, and no one voted against 13 or 15.

    Another interesting development at this town meeting was the debut of a group called Four Hundred Plus. On at least three articles, speakers began their public statements with “I stand in solidarity with Four Hundred Plus, an intersectional and intergenerational, queer and allied collective of seasonal, transient, and permanent residents.” Carolyn Clough advocated for Harbor Hill with this identifier, and other speakers rose for the indigenous memorial project and for the zero-emissions bylaw.

    “We started meeting in June, and we’re meeting every Tuesday night at the Provincetown Brewing Co.,” Clough told the Independent. “We’re a collective that’s sick of racism, misogyny, homophobia, transphobia. Instead of celebrating the Pilgrims taking this land, we want to see a new era. We did the Black Lives Matter chalking all over town on Labor Day, and we met on the Sunday before town meeting to go over the articles and see where we wanted to speak.”

    Organized public comments may not be entirely new for Provincetown, but they’re not typical. Town meetings are always a disparate collection of subjects, initiatives, and budgetary housekeeping — and for one to be this short and generally sweet was quite the September surprise.

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