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Maurices Campground

    HOUSING AT MAURICE’S

    A Master Plan for Campground Is Unveiled

    Planners project that number of year-round units will drop from 300 to 250

    By

    WELLFLEET — Nearly three years after the select board signed a purchase-and-sale agreement for the 21-acre Maurice’s Campground, a master plan for affordable housing there is coming into view.

    A painting of a Cape Cod Village by Paul Suggs. Maurice’s Campground Planning Committee vice chair Carl Sussman said that the master plan was guided by design principles that comport with “Cape Cod Village”-style architecture.

    Members of the Maurice’s Campground Planning Committee were prepared to present the plan in its current iteration to residents at the Wellfleet Elementary School at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, April 2. The committee held two meetings last fall for comments on the project.

    “This is different from the first two community meetings, where the emphasis was on getting feedback,” committee vice chair Carl Sussman said. “This is the final report, presenting what we’re proposing. I’m sure people who are both strongly opposed and people who are advocates for affordable housing will be there asking questions.”

    Roland Blair, a member of the planning committee who lives next to the campground, sees the town’s need for new housing as “drastic.” He pointed to a finding in Wellfleet’s 2023 Housing Production Plan that 495 households spent more than 30 percent of their income on housing. “That’s just cost-burdened people,” he said. “Then you have the teachers and firefighters, DPW workers, police. They can’t find housing, and we can’t hire people.”

    Cape Cod Commission data from 2023 show that 56 percent of Wellfleet’s housing stock is seasonally vacant, and only 6.8 percent of housing units are occupied by renters. There are no buildings in town with more than 10 units, according to the data.

    That would change in the latest draft of the Maurice’s master plan, which was reviewed by the Independent. The plan offers four alternative land-use “schemes” that could serve as a basis for development — two modified from the “Petals” plan and two modified from the “Loop” plan that were discussed at a November 2024 meeting.

    A variation on the “Loop” plan for affordable housing at Maurice’s, with a loop road and wooded perimeter. (Images courtesy Maurice’s Campground Planning Committee)

     

    A variation on the “Petals” plan, with clusters of buildings in “micro-neighborhoods.”

    Each alternative incorporates commercial buildings, open space, and seasonal-worker housing, with a fairly equal ratio of two- and three-story buildings; the plans envision between 250 and 290 housing units and 40 to 90 seasonal worker beds. The three-story buildings, Sussman said, had been moved toward the center of the development because of objections from abutters.

    The master plan was developed in collaboration with Studio G, an architecture firm in Boston, and consultants JM Goldson, Langan, and Boston Communities, which provided input on landscape engineering, zoning, and financing, Sussman said. He added that the team’s work would be complete by the end of April.

    Sharon Rule-Agger, another member of the planning committee, stressed that the master plan’s “schemes” are not the final designs. This stage “was for master planning, looking at what could feasibly go on the site,” she said.

    In the next stage of planning, committee members expect the town to hire additional consultants to help write a request for proposals from developers. The committee will present the master plan to the select board on April 29, the day after town meeting, and the board would have to vote to start the RFP process.

    Sussman said the master plan resembles a traditional “Cape Cod Village” style of architecture more closely than other areas of Wellfleet. A Cape Cod Commission design manual on that style helped to guide the planning committee’s work. “If you read it, what’s described as a ‘village’ really incorporates what we now call ‘smart growth’ principles: higher density, compact, and walkable,” Sussman said.

    To maintain those design standards, Sussman said, the planning committee expected the maximum number of year-round units would decrease from 300 to around 250, a move also intended to ease worries about density.

    “The Studio G people came back and said, ‘We could put 300 units here, but it’s not going to have that same look and feel’ ” of Cape Cod-style architecture, Sussman said. “We’ve all basically conceded that we can’t go ahead if it doesn’t satisfy that requirement that it’s a place that fits in.”

    Parking and Lighting

    In the months since the November 2024 community meeting, the committee has been revising the plan to incorporate residents’ input.

    Aside from moving the three-story buildings, notable revisions include an increased number of parking spots, which are now designed so that headlights will not shine in the direction of neighbors. Per abutter requests, the revised plan also accounts for “dark skies” lighting to minimize light pollution.

    “We’ve been meeting with any abutters that wanted to meet one-on-one,” planning committee chair Ryan Curley said. Despite those efforts, Sussman and Curley both said that some abutters remain opposed to the project.

    Curley said that those conversations had underscored the need for more community spaces in town — because there were so few places in Wellfleet to sit down and get a cup of coffee.

    “I grew up here,” Curley added. “There used to be Uncle Frank’s down at the harbor — it was basically a greasy spoon, but a lot of people would meet there. We had the Lighthouse restaurant, and people would meet there as well. Those are gone.” He said the project, with its commercial buildings and open space, would help to supply some of those missing places.

    Though Blair lives on neighboring Spring Brook Road, “I don’t really see it affecting my day-to-day life at all,” he said of the project. In summer, he estimated, traffic at the project would be comparable to the current volume because of the seasonal workers who live at the campground. “The only difference will be year-round, but in the winter, tourism traffic is gone, so I don’t think it’ll make that big a difference,” he said.

    A New Village Center

    Sussman said one aim of the project, aside from addressing the housing shortage, was to provide a new “village center” benefitting residents of North Eastham and South Wellfleet. Locals and committee members wanted to maintain a commercial market on Route 6 where the Billingsgate Market is located.

    The historic house at 70 Commercial St. in Wellfleet that committee members say offers an example of three-story local building design.

    “We’d like to see it expand a little and maybe have some other amenities: a co-working space, art studio, or a little coffee shop,” Sussman said. The plan lists those possible uses for the site along with a central open space, possibly for a playground, dog park, pollinator garden, or amphitheater.

    In practice, amenities could emerge from a more organic process. “It takes a spark to light a fire,” Rule-Agger said. “It may be that there’s a perfectly lovely, sunny spot, and people living in the neighborhood that is now Maurice’s Campground are passionately interested in growing vegetables.”

    Blair formerly lived in a camper on the site for several summers. “I had a little garden out front, with some tomato plants and lettuce,” he recalled. To this day, he strolls through Maurice’s and the surrounding woods several times a week — a routine that he doesn’t envision changing.

    “I enjoy very much going for a walk through there,” he said, “and I still will when it’s housing.”

    HOUSING AT MAURICE’S

    A Vision of Small Neighborhoods Comes Into Focus

    Townspeople want a ‘cozy’ plan for the 22-acre campground site

    By

    WELLFLEET — Some 100 residents turned out for the Nov. 20 “visioning session” on the future of what is now Maurice’s Campground. The crowd was considerably larger than planners at Studio G Architects had anticipated, and the scene was lively as people packed themselves tightly around a half dozen round tables, ready to provide input on two possible housing layouts for the 22-acre property off Route 6 near the Eastham town line.

    The two plans were introduced as jumping-off points aimed at finding out what townspeople wanted to see happen or to avoid.

    “These are not a done deal,” said Gail Sullivan, Studio G’s managing principal, as she began her PowerPoint presentation. She also clarified Studio G’s role in the work: “We are not the developers. We are not the designers,” she said. “We are your planners.”

    When the layouts were presented, participants were asked to pick which elements they preferred from each. Both featured 300 units of housing with a total of 750 bedrooms. “We’re trying to reflect small neighborhoods with a village center,” Sullivan said. In general, the layouts had higher density near Route 6 and lower density at the back of the lot near Spring Brook Road and the rail trail.

    The campground currently supports 227 trailer, cottage, and tent dwellers during the busy season. (Maurice’s has 200 trailer sites, 11 cottages and cabins, and 16 tent sites.)

    Regarding wastewater, the development promises a fix for what is currently a problem: the campground uses cesspools. An on-site wastewater treatment facility will eliminate them and is envisioned to be large enough to treat the Maurice’s property, Spring Book Road and Village Lane, on either side of the campground, and the Wellfleet Cinemas across Route 6, Sullivan said. Meanwhile, Wellfleet has an agreement with Eastham for a water line that will be sufficient to support both housing and other uses on the site.
    Many details, including the mix of types of housing, cannot be determined until developers complete their proposals, but the purpose now is to shape a request for proposals that reflects the town’s vision. In its suggested housing breakdown, Studio G included 140 to 200 affordable rental apartments and 60 to 100 houses for ownership in the 300-unit total.

    The rental component, the planners said, could include 40 to 80 bedrooms of seasonal workforce housing, including some small dorm-style units and some larger suites with single bedrooms, with both styles featuring shared kitchens and bathrooms.

    Loops and Petals

    The first layout, named “The Loop,” calls for a paved road to loop around the property, with housing on either side. There are two access and egress points from Route 6. Types of housing include a three-story building with an elevator designed for smaller households and seniors and a handful of other three-story buildings that feature two- or three-bedroom units. The layout also includes townhouses, single-family homes, and duplexes. Workforce housing was placed at the front, since tenants would likely need the public transportation system. The main floors of those buildings would be reserved for commercial uses.

    “The Loop,” one of two possible layouts for housing at Maurice’s Campground, arranges buildings around a semicircular road with open space in the center. (Drawings courtesy Studio G Architects)

    The second layout, labeled “The Petals,” offers smaller neighborhood clusters spread throughout the site. A three-story building with an elevator and bordering Route 6 would house small households and seniors. Workforce housing, as well as community and commercial space, also borders Route 6. Other two- and three-story buildings line the area on the Spring Brook Road side but are a significant distance away because of wetlands and wildlife habitat limitations.

    “The Petals,” showing small clusters of housing placed across the site, was favored by those at a Nov. 20 meeting.

    Later in the evening, as small group discussions were brought back to the larger session, it was clear that the “petals” plan, with its mix of small neighborhoods, was the more popular direction — participants called it “cozier.”

    “You don’t have to choose vision one or vision two,” Sullivan said. The planners wanted participants in the session to choose characteristics from each.

    Before the participants brought the discussion into small groups, Gerry Parent, who chairs the Wellfleet Planning Board, voiced some objections. “Having a three-story building just as you go in isn’t what Wellfleet is all about,” he said.

    Keihly Moore, a Studio G architect, said that the landscape was part of the tradeoff for the three-story buildings. Going up rather than out “allows us to keep more trees,” he said.

    Nancy Civetta, the town’s shellfish constable, said most people want home ownership. She predicted they wouldn’t be interested in living in a three-story building of rentals. Karen Johnson disagreed. “If it’s a choice of moving out of town or into a one-bedroom apartment, I’m there,” she said.

    Parent was also concerned about the number of units being discussed. “I look at this as tremendous density,” he said. Traffic would also need consideration. The property, across from the Wellfleet Drive-In, is on the town line between Eastham and Wellfleet. “We choke down from four lanes in Eastham to two in Wellfleet,” Parent said.

    Parent suggested breaking the project into phases. “Build the single-family homes first and see what that looks like,” he said.

    It is going to take 8 to 10 years to complete construction, Sullivan said. If the single-family homes are built first and sold off, their purchase price would end up unreasonably high, since the road and other infrastructure for the whole site would have to be covered. The cost would burden the homeowners “unless the town wants to pony up,” Sullivan said.

    After an hour in breakout groups, leaders from each summarized their discussions. They expressed the preference for the “petals” design and emphasized the importance of mixed use at the front of the site with workforce housing above. Participants also asked for a better idea of the number of workforce housing units needed and wanted local preference considered. Commercial uses should be “nothing fancy” but rather businesses similar to the old South Wellfleet General Store, some said. There was also talk of a traffic light and crosswalk at Gill Road.

    A third and final community meeting is tentatively set for March 26. At it, the public will be presented with “draft guidelines to be attached to an RFP,” Sullivan said. Next, there will be a review by the select board, which must draw up the request for proposals.

    Sullivan predicted the RFP would not be ready for advertising until late 2025 or early 2026.

    The town purchased the campground in 2022, with the provision that it remain an active campground until 2028.

    HOUSING

    An Initial ‘Community Conversation’ About Maurice’s

    Wellfleet awaits a 2028 start date for converting its campground into housing

    By

    WELLFLEET — The excitement was palpable at the Adult Community Center as roughly 60 people filed in to discuss the future of Maurice’s Campground, the 22-acre parcel that the town bought in 2022 to create affordable housing.

    The 60 or so Wellfleet residents at the Aug. 1 meeting on Maurice’s Campground were asked for demographic information. Most live in town year-round. Nearly all were over 40, and most own their homes. (Photo by Sam Pollak)

    The two-hour meeting on Aug. 1 was more like a dreaming session than a planning one: people sat around tables saying what they would like to see happen at the property. Different types of housing and the balance of density to open space were envisioned. So were bridges and tunnels that would carry pedestrians across Route 6 — and a full-length swimming pool. But there was clear consensus on one thing: the need for housing is acute.

    “I know a lot of people feel an enormous sense of urgency to solve this,” said Gail Sullivan of Studio G Architects at the meeting’s start. Sullivan is leading the master planning services for the town. “Housing growth has not kept pace with the needs of the year-round community,” she said.

    Sullivan pointed to sobering trends: according to the town’s 2023 housing production plan, 91 percent of the units in Wellfleet are single-family, and 66 percent are used only seasonally.

    This meeting was the first of three that will take place before March, when planners hope to present a final recommendation to the select board. The next community planning session will take place on Nov. 14, at which the town’s planners will present several different visions for the property.

    According to Sullivan, once the select board approves a plan the town will issue a request for proposals from developers.

    Sullivan reminded the group that the timeline for development at Maurice’s has a limitation built into the purchase-and-sale agreement: when the Gauthier brothers sold the campground to the town for $6.5 million in 2022, the contract stipulated that the town would continue operating the property as a campground until 2028.

    If the planning, development, and financing timeline go as planned, Sullivan said, groundbreaking will happen shortly after that six-year waiting period ends.

    At each table, one of six topics was taken up: housing; open space; community and commercial space; sustainability; transportation; and Wellfleet’s “character.”

    Discussion was liveliest at the housing table, where participants exchanged ideas about the relative advantages of high-density rental units, home ownership opportunities, tiny houses, and the relative needs of year-round versus seasonal workers. Also thrown into the mix were intentional communities, like housing with supportive services designated specifically for older women.

    “A common theme was the way in which the lack of affordable and attainable housing in town percolates and affects everybody,” Maurice’s Campground Planning Committee member Emily Achtenberg said as she reported on that group’s discussion. “There was a feeling that we should think big. This is a once-in-a-lifetime shot.”

    Sullivan told the Independent that, per zoning regulations, if the property were to be developed for single-family houses, fewer than 30 units could be built. Achtenberg added that home ownership opportunities would not be covered by government subsidies and would require town funding.

    According to planning committee members Sharon Rule-Agger and Jan Plaue, who facilitated discussions regarding public space and community use, participants hoped that, whatever is developed, some part of it might be devoted to public use.

    “A lot of people were quite clear that there should be some community uses,” Rule-Agger said. Ideas included meeting spaces, playgrounds, community gardens, a stage, and ample storage space. Apparently “Wellfleet is a town with great storage needs,” Rule-Agger said, with the shellfishing community and tradespeople needing a place to store equipment.

    Plaue said that several participants in their group suggested that a centralized wastewater treatment facility would make a good gathering space for barbecues. Some suggested a “senior play space,” reserved for elders’ recreation.

    Participants who spoke to the Independent after the meeting said they had come for various reasons. Rose Clark, who is in her mid-20s, worries about the future for young families. “I hope this project can encourage young families to stay here,” she said. “The community is dwindling.”

    Select board chair John Wolf said he wants to see plentiful home ownership opportunities. “I would be reluctant to support it if that wasn’t part of the picture,” he said.

    “This is all fine,” said part-time resident Charlie Rutz. “I just don’t want to see any impact on my taxes.” Businesses that need employee housing should invest more than other taxpayers, he proposed.

    Sullivan told the Independent that the aim of the meeting was to gather community members to share ideas and learn about each other’s concerns. She saw the session as a success in that regard.

    “We want to lay the groundwork,” she said. “Isn’t it better to have people say what they want as the starting point?”

    WELLFLEET HOUSING

    Staffing Crisis Puts Maurice’s Planning on Hold

    Resignation of assistant town administrator is latest blow to town’s capacity

    By

    WELLFLEET — Bids on a master plan for housing at Maurice’s Campground were supposed to be due on June 21, and interest in the project was strong. But the committee charged with overseeing the creation of affordable housing at the 21-acre site withdrew its request for proposals on the master plan on May 24. The reason: the town lacks the staff needed to move the work forward.

    Rebecca Roughley, the assistant town administrator and procurement officer for contracted projects, submitted her resignation on May 12, according to Town Administrator Rich Waldo. He said her last day will be June 30. Roughley declined a request for comment from the Independent.

    Cottages line the entrance to Maurice’s Campground, which, according to the terms of the sale, will operate for six years while the town makes plans for developing housing on the site. (Photo by Nancy Bloom)

    Roughley’s resignation follows those of Health Agent Hillary Lemos-Greenberg and Building Commissioner James Badera. These departures, combined with the failure of a proposed housing coordinator position at the town election on May 1, leave Wellfleet without key personnel needed to proceed with the planning phase of the housing project, said Maurice’s Planning Committee and select board chair Ryan Curley.

    Curley said that some 30 packages detailing the proposal requirements had been requested by contractors to date. The decision to withdraw the RFP came only a week before a planned June 1 site walk.

    “We did this reluctantly,” Curley said of the planning committee’s decision. “We have a very aggressive timeline, and I want to stick to it because the need for housing is so great. Hopefully this doesn’t affect it too much.”

    A funding delay had also thrown a wrench into the committee’s schedule. The $50,000 appropriated at this year’s town meeting for planning and development of the site is not enough to cover the cost of the master plan. Curley estimated that the total cost of planning will be $150,000 to $200,000, and he said the committee expects the town will receive county ARPA funds for the remaining $100,000 to $150,000.

    But prospective planning consultants expressed concerns, according to a press release circulated by Curley, because of a delay in Wellfleet’s application for the ARPA funds. State law mandates that all available funds must be appropriated before a contract can be executed. Committee members worried that if the bidding process were to fail for this reason, prospective consultants would not want to bid on the project a second time.

    The town applied for county funding on March 21, Waldo said. But Curley told the planning committee on May 24 that because “there were a number of things missing from the initial application,” the money would likely not come before June 21.

    Waldo said, “I wouldn’t call them ‘missing.’ A few things needed clarification,” including supporting documentation for the cost of the services, proof of a vote from the select board to request the ARPA funds, and proof of the September 2022 special town meeting vote to purchase the campground.

    Waldo said he had submitted a revised application with all the required documentation on May 12. He expects the town will hear back from the county within a month.

    At the May 24 planning committee meeting, members proposed alternative funding solutions should the revised ARPA application not be approved. Curley suggested placing an article on the fall town meeting warrant to fund the remaining planning costs with free cash. He told the Independent that the town’s current free cash balance of $2.6 million is “in excess of the amount our financial management policies suggest having in reserve.”

    Committee member Gary Sorkin suggested taking out a loan from the affordable housing trust, but member Carl Sussman countered that the bigger issue is the lack of town staff to support the process.

    “The personnel issue is the one we can’t overcome in the short run,” Sussman said. Member Jan Plaue concurred, saying that “until we have a structure that engenders confidence, we ought to wait.”

    Member Sharon Rule-Agger told the committee that housing advocates are discussing bringing back the housing coordinator position at this fall’s special town meeting after the position lost by 17 votes at the election. Curley said that the coordinator position “would have provided a considerable amount of staff support for consultants and the planning committee.”

    Still, the absence of an assistant town administrator beginning in July could delay the project significantly, Curley said. And Health Agent Lemos-Greenberg, who left Wellfleet in April to work in Eastham as director of health and environment, was helping the committee plan for wastewater treatment, Curley said.

    According to Curley’s press release, the planning committee hopes to reissue the RFP in the fall after the special town meeting, once staffing and funding issues are resolved.

    The impact of the delay, he said, “remains to be seen.”

    ECONOMICS

    Town Seeks Bidders for Maurice’s Campground Management

    Wellfleet will lease the 21-acre site rather than try to operate it

    By

    WELLFLEET — The town is now accepting bids for the operation of Maurice’s Campground on Route 6 during the six-year transitional period before construction begins on an affordable housing development at the site.

    Wellfleet officials decided to lease the 21-acre property rather than have the town attempt to run the campground itself. They hope to find an experienced campground management company to operate the business seasonally for an initial term of three years, with the option of extending the lease for another three.

    A view of the cottages at Maurice’s Campground in Wellfleet. (Photo by Nancy Bloom)

    The bidding period will close on Wednesday, Feb. 8 at 2 p.m. The winning bidder will be announced on Feb. 21, and the lease will begin on March 1. A site walk for prospective bidders will take place on Tuesday, Jan. 17 at 11 a.m.

    The tight timeline was decided after a September town meeting approved the $6.5 million purchase from the Gauthier brothers, whose family had owned the campground since 1949. In the purchase agreement, the Gauthiers stipulated that the town must continue operating the campground to provide housing for 60 to 80 seasonal workers.

    The campground includes 168 full-hookup and 46 partial-hookup trailer sites, 16 campsites, 5 cabins, 4 cottages, a store, and one year-round home. The management company will also be responsible for maintenance and repairs of up to $5,000, according to the town’s request for proposal (RFP). Repairs costing more than $5,000 will be the town’s responsibility.

    The lessee will also be required to rent at least 26 camper units for workforce housing, according to the RFP.

    The outsourcing of the campground’s operations comes at a time when Wellfleet is struggling to resolve staffing shortages and get the state to certify its free cash account, which is reported to have between $1 million and $3 million.

    “We’re just happy to have some revenue coming in,” said Town Administrator Rich Waldo, “and to have someone else manage the campground so that our very limited staffing doesn’t have to scramble to try to make Maurice’s Campground operable.”

    Longtime campers at Maurice’s have created elaborate settings for their trailers. (Photo by Nancy Bloom)

    According to Waldo, the money that will come in from leasing the property will go towards paying for capital improvements at the campground during the six years it is leased.

    Waldo predicts that the bids will be between $150,000 and $250,000 per year. In the Sept. 10 town meeting warrant booklet, officials estimated the campground’s operating expenses in fiscal 2023 at $225,000. Any surplus revenue from leasing the campground will go towards offsetting the borrowing required for its purchase, said Waldo.

    Assistant Town Administrator Rebecca Roughly said that the town had so far received seven requests for bid specifications, including from three property management corporations: Mill Point Properties, Kampgrounds of America, and BA Services Inc. The town had not yet received any completed proposals, she said.

    Waldo has assembled a committee of six people — himself, Roughly, DPW Director Jay Norton, and three members of the public — to review the proposals and decide on a winning bidder.

    Applicants must have at least three years of campground management experience, said Roughly. The proposals will be rated on the amount of management experience bidders demonstrate.

    The winning bidder must also have liability, property, and workers’ compensation insurance.

    Running the campground will also mean managing the 35 cesspools on the property. Cesspools are defined as “failed systems” that must be upgraded to Title 5 systems upon transfer of ownership. But until the town is ordered to upgrade them by the Dept. of Environmental Protection, the cesspools “will operate under pre-existing use,” Waldo said.

    The RFP states that the management company will be responsible for pumping out all cesspools at the end of each summer season “and additionally during the summer as needed or directed by the Board of Health or DEP.”

    It also states that the Town has the right to terminate the lease at any time if the DEP requires the Town to undergo “cost-prohibitive upgrades” to the wastewater system to continue campground operations.

    The monthly testing of two wells on the property has shown that the water quality at the campground has not been degraded. The town will continue monthly testing, said Waldo.

    Waldo hopes that the short window in which the campground will be operable will not deter management companies from applying. “It might be a turnoff for some that this is at most a six-year operation,” he said. “But others might look at it as a good opportunity, because there is a potential to make a profit.”

    CIVICS

    Wellfleet Select Board Names 6 to Maurice’s Planning Committee

    A 9-member group will consider options for the 21-acre campground property

    By

    WELLFLEET — The select board filled six of seven available spots on the new Maurice’s Campground Planning Committee at its Nov. 1 meeting but ran into trouble trying to decide on its selection for the last seat.

    The committee was created by the board to design an affordable housing development at the campground after voters authorized Wellfleet’s purchase of the property at a special town meeting in September.

    The 21-acre site in South Wellfleet was purchased for $6.5 million. The agreement with the sellers allows for a six-year transitional period during which seasonal residents could remain at the campground before construction begins. It was the first time that Wellfleet has purchased property with the intent of using it for affordable housing, according to select board Chair Ryan Curley.

    Curley began by saying, “I just want to stress how important this committee is to Wellfleet.”

    The four board members present (Vice Chair Michael DeVasto was absent for personal reasons, Curley said) proceeded to set a cap on the number of committee members. “A very large committee becomes unwieldy,” board member Barbara Carboni said.

    Curley suggested setting the number at nine, with seven appointments made by the select board and two by the town administrator.

    Board member Kathleen Bacon interrupted him: “Mr. Chair, if I may, I would like to suggest that we ask in the best possible way our fellow board member Barbara Carboni to be on this committee as well.”

    Curley said that the town charter specified that such an appointment would have to be made by the town administrator.

    “Is that why my application isn’t in there?” board member John Wolf asked quietly.

    “Any member of the select board will have to be appointed by the town administrator,” Curley said.

    The board then voted to set the number of committee members at nine with three-year terms.

    The board had received 11 applications for the planning committee, which Curley said was unusual. “Normally, we don’t have more applicants than we have available seats,” he told the Independent.

    The board then began interviewing the candidates, five of whom were present. “I am not sure if all of them were notified,” Curley said.

    The applicants who were there were caught off guard. “I wasn’t aware this was going to be an interview,” applicant Sharon Rule-Agger said.

    “I didn’t realize I would be in this meeting,” Olga Kahn told the board.

    Each applicant was asked to explain his or her interest in the planning committee. Board members Wolf and Carboni then posed additional questions.

    “Home ownership is a very important component,” said Wolf. “I was wondering how you felt about that,” he asked the first applicant, Roland Blair.

    Carboni’s question was about nonresidential uses of the property. “Have you thought of other uses that the town might explore?” she asked all the applicants present.

    When Kahn mentioned mixed-use housing, Carboni asked for clarification: “So when you say mixed-use, you mean housing types?” she asked. Kahn answered affirmatively. “But uses other than residential uses for the property?” Carboni asked.

    “I think that should be considered,” said Kahn, “but we are focused on housing.”

    Applicant Peter Simon, who said he has worked in public health for 40 years, suggested that his expertise would be on the environmental impact of the project. “Am I hearing that the home ownership component isn’t as important?” Wolf asked him.

    “I am thrilled that you are a possibility for this important committee,” Kathleen Bacon said to applicant Heather Doyle. “I have gotten to know you over the years, and I think you would be a great person to have.”

    Applicant Farrukh Najmi was also a familiar face to some board members. “Just from knowing Farrukh and working with him previously, I think he would be an excellent candidate,” Wolf said.

    “I had the opportunity to work with Farrukh for an hour last week on some technical issue with my iPad,” Bacon noted.

    After the board completed the interviews, Bacon again appealed to her colleagues: “If I am not preempting anything here, I would like to suggest that my fellow board member Barbara Carboni be considered for this very important committee,” she said.

    Her appeal went unanswered, and the board proceeded to discuss how to properly conduct a vote, which proved to be difficult.

    “I was wondering how we do this,” said Carboni. Bacon proposed voting on a slate of candidates, and Curley suggested going down the list of applicants one by one. The board went back and forth for a while on which system was better.

    Finally, Curley said, “Well, we have to do something.”

    After slowly toggling between the applicants, the board reached a consensus on six appointments, all of whom had been members of the Maurice’s Campground Working Group: Roland Blair, Gary Sorkin, Sharon Rule-Agger, Emily Achtenburg, Heather Doyle, and Farrukh Najmi.

    “You’re missing select board member Carboni,” Bacon said.

    “We can’t do that appointment,” Curley responded. “It has to be through the town administrator.”

    The board determined that its final appointment to the committee would go to one of two other candidates, Olga Kahn or Carl Sussman. Candidates Jan Plaue, Peter Simon, and Brian Stern were no longer in the running.

    Kahn is an architect and a member of the Wellfleet Planning Board. She was also a member of the Maurice’s working group and the 95 Lawrence Road task force for affordable housing. Sussman is the founder of Sussman Associates, a nonprofit management consulting firm with extensive background in affordable housing development. He was a member of the 95 Lawrence Road task force.

    “I can’t tell you the value you are going to get in having someone like Carl Sussman on this committee,” Bacon said to her colleagues.

    “I just think that Olga brings a lot of important experience and interest to the table as well,” Carboni responded.

    “It would be hard for me to vote ‘no’ on either Olga or Carl,” Wolf said.

    “I think we already have our first six that we are in agreement with, so let’s not start reconsidering those,” Curley said.

    The board voted: two votes for Kahn and two for Sussman.

    “Are we at a Mexican standoff?” asked Bacon.

    The board then decided to wait to vote on the last appointment until all five members are present, presumably at its next meeting.

    “It is never great to have to choose between two different people,” Curley told the Independent.

    The board’s discussion concluded with a note of gratitude from Carboni: “I would just like to thank my colleague, Ms. Bacon, for suggesting that I be on this committee.”

    IN FAVOR

    Voters Endorse Maurice’s Campground Purchase

    Town meeting moves to preserve the ‘soul of Wellfleet’

    By

    WELLFLEET — With a show of hands, voters at Saturday’s special town meeting agreed to buy Maurice’s Campground for the purpose of siting affordable, year-round, and seasonal housing on its 21.25 acres. The negotiated purchase price is $6.5 million.

    Voters overwhelmingly supported the purchase of Maurice’s Campground at Wellfleet’s special town meeting on Sept. 10. (Photos by K.C. Myers)

    “I know you are all aware of the need for housing,” Elaine McIlroy, the housing authority chair and a Maurice’s Campground Working Group member, told the 295 voters (9.6 percent of those registered in Wellfleet) who attended the meeting on the elementary school ballfield. “But I cannot emphasize enough how our community is being hollowed out with the outflow of young people over the past two decades, the lack of workers who keep things running and our economy thriving, the loss of year-round homes to seasonal homes and short-term rentals, the impossibility of finding a secure year-round rental, and the staggering cost of buying a home today.”

    The campground acreage, between Route 6 and the bike trail, is currently dotted with 240-odd campsites, one single-family house, four cottages, seven cabins, a general store, an office building, and other outbuildings, said Sharon Rule-Agger, a working group member.

    After about one hour of questions and mostly supportive arguments, voters showed that they were on board despite last-minute changes regarding oversight of 35 cesspools on the property — and the added complexity that the seller stipulated the town must run the campground as is for six years before turning it over to a developer.

    “Many of you have asked why we need to keep the campground in operation for six years,” Rule-Agger said. “The simple answer is it provides seasonal housing for 60 to 80 local workers. All the studies have shown that it is a feasible plan. We can afford it. It is a fair price. It will cost the average homeowner less than $60 a year. The cost of building housing and septic will be borne by the developer. The town will not be running the campground. It has been determined that the best alternative is to lease it to an outside operator. Under this scenario, the town will not have the liability and will also receive some income.”

    A last-minute wrinkle in the deal emerged four days before town meeting. That was when local officials contacted the state Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) and learned that, contrary to what they had understood during weeks of planning, the local board of health does not have the authority to grant a waiver to state septic regulations requiring that cesspools be upgraded when a property is sold.

    That is because Maurice’s daily wastewater flow exceeds 10,000 gallons, which triggers DEP oversight. Maurice’s owners, three brothers from the Gauthier family, have continued to maintain the cesspools, which are considered failed systems under DEP rules, since 2005.

    This matters in relation to the short-term goal of keeping the campground open, but not so much for the overall purpose of building housing. If the DEP now finds that the cesspools are unacceptable, the town will have to close the campground. Was that OK with the Gauthiers? Andrew Freeman asked. Town Administrator Rich Waldo said the Gauthier family agreed to amend the purchase and sale to reflect that possibility: the town can shut down the campground if and when town officials determine the septic requirements have become too costly.

    Kathleen Granlund, Wellfleet Finance Committee chair, was one of three committee members to vote against recommending the purchase of Maurice’s Campground.

    Voters wanted to know how many of the future homes would be rented or sold to “locals.”

    McIlroy said that 70 percent of the units awarded in the first housing lottery can go to Wellfleet residents — defined as those who live or work in Wellfleet or send their children to the local schools.

    “We also have to recognize that we have lost so many people, we need to welcome other members of our community,” she said. Outer Cape Health Services does not have enough nurses, she added, and new ones would need to move here from other places.

    She said that all six apartments at the last completed Wellfleet affordable housing project, on Gull Pond Road, went to locals. Seven of the eight homeowners who received buy-down grants for Wellfleet homes were local. The eighth was from Harwich.

    Fred Bell Way, a 12-unit housing development built 18 years ago, was limited to those earning 30 percent or less of area median income. McIlroy said she was not sure how many units went to people from elsewhere originally, but gradually waitlists for housing include fewer people from other places and more locals.

    Other voters wanted assurances that the whole property would be used for affordable and workforce housing.

    Because the planning for a development is six years away, there are no guarantees, said Harry Terkanian, another working group member. His colleague Gary Sorkin said the intention is for all of it to be used for housing, though a master plan for the property must be made.

    In Article 7, voters agreed to designate $645,000 in Community Preservation Act (CPA) funds to buy three acres of the Maurice’s property to be used specifically for a development that can be deed-restricted for future tenants earning 100 percent or less of area median income. That amount will be deducted from the full purchase price, not added to it, Terkanian said. Most affordable housing developers rely on income tax credits granted to projects reserved for lower-income tenants. Using CPA funds allows for a different income mix, Sorkin explained.

    Dissent came from the town’s finance committee, which voted 3-2 not to recommend the purchase. The committee, which has nine members, did not explain why four members did not vote. Chair Kathleen Granlund said she and two others voted against the purchase because “we were concerned with the unknowns and the cost of those unknowns between transitioning from the purchase to what needs to be done.”

    Susan Reverby, president of the Wellfleet Seasonal Residents’ Association, expressed support.

    “All of us have a stake in making sure that we have a town that can have a diverse community that makes Wellfleet viable for all of us,” said Reverby. “This principle should be a guidepost now and into the future.”

    Terkanian summed up the working group’s message before the vote.

    “Let’s not let the perfect become the enemy of the good,” he said. “We understand it will take hard work and determination. This is a question that really is determinative of the soul of Wellfleet.”

    Voters must also approve the purchase as a debt exclusion at a town election on Sept. 20.

    HOUSING CRISIS

    When You Have to Live at a Campground

    Hundreds of workers feel lucky to stay in trailers for the season

    By

    WELLFLEET — Flowers border the trailer where Katie Nelson has lived for the past four summers. Rocks and antique bottles collected at the beach surround the garden. Her boyfriend’s neon clamming waders hang on a tree.

    Their trailer at Maurice’s Campground is as homey as can be, which is fitting because it is the only permanent home she and Shawn Arsenault have known for four years.

    “We love it,” said Nelson. “We don’t have to leave until October. All our neighbors are so nice.”

    Lifelong Outer Cape resident Katie Nelson lives in a trailer at Maurice’s Campground in the summer with her boyfriend. They have had to stay with friends or in a hotel in the winter months. (Photo by K.C. Myers)

    They accept the fact that, come October, they will again have to move into a hotel, paying $500 a week. That’s about what a winter rental costs, if you can find one, she said. Even though Nelson grew up in Wellfleet and works year-round at Cumberland Farms in Orleans while Arsenault plies the waters for shellfish, they cannot find anywhere better to live.

    “We are on every housing list — even elderly housing, because my boyfriend is 64,” she said. “We were thinking of moving to Vermont, but I don’t want to leave my job and my family.”

    A short walk away on the cart paths that crisscross Maurice’s 21 acres, a man talked on the phone with his daughters, who live in Jamaica. He was sitting in his car, a Bible open on the dashboard.

    This man, who said he works for Mac’s Seafood and the Furies cleaning service, did not want to give his name to a reporter because he worried it would affect his employment status as an H-2B temporary worker visa holder.

    He said he rents a trailer at the campground for $160 a week, which he can afford with two jobs. The privacy of living alone is sheer luxury, he said, compared to what he has endured in employer-owned housing: three people in one small room, and 8 to 10 people in a house with one bathroom.

    “The H-2B housing situation is awful,” said the man, who has been coming to the U.S. for 10 years. “I hate sleeping in a room with men who I don’t really know.”

    The housing available to him and his fellow visa holders is “deplorable,” he said.

    ‘A Hard Way to Live’

    The Outer Cape has eight campgrounds and all but two provide at least some housing for local workers. That is why the town of Wellfleet just voted to spend $6.5 million to buy Maurice’s Campground (the purchase must be affirmed by a debt exclusion vote on Tuesday, Sept. 20). It’s for Nelson, Arsenault, and about 60 other workers that officials hope to keep Maurice’s operating for six years while they plan for an affordable housing development at the site.

    Camping is an affordable way to spend the summer here if you can get a reservation. Most campground owners want to keep spots open for vacationers. Wellfleet Hollow Campground, which is state-owned, and Dunes Edge Campground at 386 Route 6 in Provincetown ban all-season camping entirely.

    Coastal Acres Campground has 193 sites in Provincetown, including about five spots with people living there for the entire summer, according to manager Anna Kuzia. “We don’t encourage it,” Kuzia said. “It is a hard way to live for several months.”

    The owners of the Atlantic Oaks Campground in Eastham tell a similar tale. Katie Nussdorfer and her husband, Dan, took over from Dan’s parents. She said 28 of 100 sites are occupied continuously from May through November by just one renter. Most of these all-season campers are retirees on summer vacation. Some have part-time jobs. Otherwise, there is a two-week limit for campsites.

    “We get a bunch of inquiries from people looking for long-term,” Nussdorfer said. “We have gotten into situations with people who are homeless, and that has been difficult.”

    Jana Harrison Currier, owner with her husband of North of Highland Camping Area in North Truro, said 20 to 30 of her 237 campsites are available to all-season renters. “We could probably fill it with all seasonal workers,” Currier said. “But it’s not what we do. It was founded by my husband’s parents. It has always been a vacation spot, and that is what we want it to be.”

    Green Acres

    Adventure Bound Camping Resorts owns 220 sites at two Truro campgrounds, Horton’s and North Truro. About 35 of those are rented all season to working people, said the manager, who declined to give his name.

    Joanie Carney and her twin sister, Jeanne Carney, bought the largest trailer available, 38 feet long, at Horton’s last fall. This is their first summer here. Joanie works as a baker at Jams and returns to her trailer by noon. It has an outdoor shower, a spacious deck, two bedrooms, two bathrooms, and four TVs.

    “It is so beautiful and serene,” she said.

    Just down the dirt path from her, James Lynch is working out the kinks of camping. He purchased a trailer at Horton’s last fall. A bartender and waiter at Waydowntown in Provincetown, Lynch also works part-time as a front desk clerk at the AWOL Hotel.

    He said he scored when he managed to buy a trailer on a site. There is a long waitlist for sites, so you need to buy a trailer that already has a space. Rent for the space alone is $9,500 for the season, according to the manager.

    Lynch’s dilemmas include almost zero storage space. He keeps a refrigerator and filing cabinet outside under a canopy. He spread outdoor rugs on the dirt. It looks homey. But the rugs also keep the dust out of his small indoor space and can be swept free of needle-sharp holly leaves. He has learned that a trail of Dawn dish soap deters earwigs.

    Lynch said his RV delivers about two minutes of hot water.

    “This is Green Acres, and I want to live in the big city of Provincetown,” he said. “Sometimes it is very nice. I go to the beach. It is calming. Some say the first season is the hardest.”

    SPECIAL TOWN MEETING

    Campground Cesspool Waiver Has to Come From the State DEP

    A new wrinkle appears in the plan to buy Maurice’s in Wellfleet

    By

    WELLFLEET — The details of a proposal that the town buy Maurice’s Campground as a site for community housing continued to change in the days leading up to the Sept. 10 special town meeting when voters will face the $6.5 million proposition. The question of whether the board of health would allow 35 cesspools to remain in operation for the next six years is now off the table.

    Glenn Robert has been coming to Maurice’s Campground since 1986. (Photos by K.C. Myers)

    The sellers have asked the town to keep running Maurice’s as a campground to keep their tenants happy. Because cesspools are illegal and must be upgraded upon the sale of a property, housing advocates and the select board had asked the Wellfleet Board of Health for a waiver of septic rules. Health board members were not pleased with the request.

    But on Tuesday, Sept. 6 town officials learned that the campground’s wastewater volume of over 10,000 gallons a day means the state Dept. of Environmental Protection, rather than the local board of health, would have to approve the continued operation of the cesspools. The campground has been in violation of DEP rules banning cesspools since 2005, said Town Administrator Rich Waldo.

    A last-minute compromise — to ask for a four-year rather than a six-year waiver of the rules — that was devised for the board of health’s Sept. 7 meeting will now be presented to the DEP instead.

    “This is not bad,” Waldo said. “Now the local board won’t be put in a tough position.”

    The hard part, Waldo added, is that the DEP cannot say how long it might allow the cesspools to operate before the town meeting vote on Saturday.

    Scott Delvin is a frequent visitor at Maurice’s Campground.

    “MassDEP can’t allow operation of the campground to continue as is without a reasonable timeline towards compliance and some intermediate mitigating measures,” DEP spokesman Edmund Coletta told the Independent. “But we do expect to work with the town to incorporate this issue into their Targeted Watershed Management Plans (TWMP) for Wellfleet Harbor.”

    Special town meeting voters will be asked to buy the 21-acre campground for $6.5 million to create affordable and workforce housing.

    John Gauthier, one of three brothers who own Maurice’s, said they want to avoid suddenly displacing their longtime clients, including 50 to 60 seasonal employees of Outer Cape businesses and nonprofits who live there.

    In the proposed compromise, after four years the town would install a new waste treatment system that would serve the property for two more years as a campground and then serve the community housing complex to be built there. The timeline includes beginning the housing development “public process” in October 2025 and having a contractor install phase one of a treatment system by July 2026.

    “We are seeing if we can put something in the ground before six years,” Waldo said.

    Pink Flamingos and other touches of home at Maurice’s Campground.

    The next step, Waldo said, is to ask the Gauthiers to change the terms of the purchase and sale agreement so that it allows the town to continue operating it with cesspools as long as the DEP allows it.

    Negotiations could continue after town meeting. The hard deadline for reaching an agreement is the scheduled closing on Oct. 31. Even then, the proponents of the plan could request an extension, said Kathleen Nagle, a member of the town’s Maurice’s Campground working group.

    The select board’s proposal offers assurances that the campground’s two wells and groundwater will be monitored for contamination while the cesspools remain in use. The wells have maintained consistently good water quality for 20 years despite the presence of the cesspools, as measured by monthly tests required by the state DEP. There were two outlier high readings in 2019 (7.7 mg/l and 9.7 mg/l) that came close to the 10 mg/l allowable maximum for nitrates. Under town ownership, testing will continue to be done monthly, according to Waldo.

    The town also plans to conduct a full sanitary inspection of the 35 cesspools. The $35,000 to $50,000 cost for this and other monitoring would come from the $202,000 in American Rescue Plan Funds that Wellfleet will receive, according to the select board.

    Meanwhile, Wellfleet could begin envisioning the campground’s future and issue a request for proposals from developers of affordable housing. Harry Terkanian, of the Maurice’s Campground working group, said people need to understand the town doesn’t pay to build housing. The town’s contribution is the land; a developer takes on the rest.
    Town meeting voters will also decide if they should apply $645,000 in community preservation funds to the campground purchase. This would involve reserving a three-acre parcel for residents earning 100 percent or less of area median income.

    SPECIAL TOWN MEETING

    Wellfleet’s Sept. 10 Campground Vote Hinges on Septic Waiver

    Proponents seek compromise on Maurice’s 35 cesspools

    By

    WELLFLEET — Voters will be asked to buy a 21-acre campground with 240 campsites for $6.5 million at the Sept. 10 special town meeting. The goal is to create a place to build workforce and year-round housing. But the board of health must first approve a waiver needed to allow the purchase to go through without immediately upgrading the 35 grandfathered cesspools on the property.

    A view of the cottages at Maurice’s Campground in Wellfleet. (Photo by Nancy Bloom)

    “This is a tough call,” board of health member Nick Picariello told the proponents of the purchase, who include the select board, town administrator, Maurice’s Campground Working Group, and affordable housing trust members. Those proponents made their first request for the waiver on Aug. 24 — just 17 days before town meeting. The health board will not take a vote until its next meeting on Sept. 7.

    Board of health member Janet Drohan called the timing “disrespectful,” adding that “this is not even allowing time for a civilized conversation.

    “We’re totally excited about the purchase of Maurice’s Campground,” Drohan continued. “My vote at town meeting would absolutely be to buy this property, and that won’t change. But I have to be able to put my head down on my pillow knowing my mission as a member of the board of health, which is to safeguard the water in Wellfleet.”

    The proponents are asking for a waiver for six years because the current owners, three Gauthier brothers whose parents bought the place in 1949, stipulated in the agreement they made in April with the town for the business to continue to operate as a seasonal campground to protect their tenants. John Gauthier, the youngest of the brothers, said the benefit of selling to the town is that protection, something that a private developer would never agree to.

    Those tenants turn out to be a significant number of the Outer Cape’s seasonal workforce. They include 50 to 60 seasonal workers employed at Mac’s Seafood restaurants and fish markets, other restaurants including the Pearl, the Bookstore, Joey’s Taco Joint, Montano’s, the Surf Club, and CShore Kitchen & Bar, and other businesses from Provincetown to Eastham, John Gauthier told the Independent on Aug. 29.

    Right now, 10 businesses own trailers on the property where they house workers, and Gauthier leases out another 20 to 25 trailers to other businesses. The cost to rent a campsite is $5,000 for the season, said Kathleen Nagle, a member of the housing trust.

    An Opportunity, With Challenges

    Town Administrator Rich Waldo agreed that the timing is not ideal. But, he told the health board on Aug. 24, Outer Cape towns don’t have the luxury of time. This kind of land is rarely available unless “it falls in our lap,” he said. “We are trying to seize the opportunity.”

    Longtime campers at Maurice’s have created elaborate settings for their trailers. (Photo by Nancy Bloom)

    The state Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) does grant variances for special circumstances, “and we are asking you to consider this a special circumstance,” Waldo said.

    State regulations define cesspools as “failed systems,” and they must be upgraded to Title 5 systems when ownership of a property changes. In this case, however, the town wants to buy the land and then create a master plan for housing, which could take years. That’s because upgrading a wastewater system now, without having a clear plan as to what will be built, means paying for something that would likely have to be revised.

    The affordable housing planned for 95 Lawrence Road was first conceived in 2018, and construction won’t be finished until 2026. Even with the process moving forward well, that’s eight years to take the neighborhood from inception to completion, according to the town’s application for the waiver.

    Waldo said buying the property and then keeping it vacant while a master plan materializes will “take away a lot of workforce housing.”

    Furthermore, proponents argue, in spite of the cesspools, the water quality at the campground is good. According to the town’s application, the campground uses two wells that the state tests monthly. DEP-required public water supply testing has shown no degradation over 20 years.

    The well with higher nitrate levels has an average reading of 3.04 mg/l. There were two readings in 2019 of 7.7 mg/l and 9.7 mg/l, but the levels returned to below 2 mg/l in 2020 and 2021. The nitrogen level has never exceeded 10 mg/l, the state maximum for drinking water.

    Still, health board member Deborah Freeman said, “You are asking us to allow 35 cesspools to continue to operate when others will come to us and say, ‘I cannot afford this.’ We are asking others to change their systems, and we are giving you, the town of Wellfleet, a break for six years. That really is a big ask.”

    Affordable housing trust member Harry Terkanian agreed, but he said the waiver is worth it because the long-term plan will provide desperately needed housing and better wastewater treatment. The waiver would give workers a place to live and a way for the town to realize income on the property simultaneously.

    Gauthier said the campground can easily bring in a $200,000 profit each year. He said Julie Simpson has been managing the campground for eight years and is prepared to continue to do so under town ownership. The Gauthier family would provide 1,500 hours of consulting time as part of the purchase and sale as well, he said. Simpson, he said, is fully capable of handling reservations and maintenance with an existing staff of about 12 people, many of whom get a place to live at the campground in exchange for work.

    Joining in the opposition, however, is the town of Eastham. A letter from Eastham’s select board and town administrator stated that when Eastham purchased the Town Center Plaza on Route 6 for $3.8 million in May, they built septic system upgrades into the cost, even though Eastham also has a still-unformed long-range plan for the property.

    “It is our belief that spending money to improve the situation will not be a waste of money if it moves the needle even slightly forward for our water quality goals,” the Eastham officials wrote.

    Hillary Greenberg-Lemos, Wellfleet’s health and conservation agent, said a compromise may be possible — with creative thinking.

    Funding the Purchase

    Officials plan to pay for the campground, which includes an office, four cottages, five cabins, a duplex cabin, the neighboring store, and 17 trailers, using four funding sources.

    The largest chunk of the $6.5-million purchase would be borrowed by the town in a 20- or 30-year municipal bond sale. Town officials will ask voters on Sept. 10 for $645,000 in Community Preservation Act funds, to be spent over the life of that loan. This money would be earmarked for a 3-acre vacant portion of the campground where a playground once stood. It would be restricted for an affordable housing development for people earning 100 percent or less of area median income.

    A third source would be campground profits. Though the owners say $200,000 can be expected yearly, officials are conservatively estimating about $100,000 annually, for a total of $578,000 over six years.

    A further source is the $22,633 a year that the town expects to bring in from the three-percent community impact fee imposed on “professionally managed short-term rental units,” which are defined as two or more short-term rental units that are not owner-occupied.

    The town collected $1.1 million from the short-term rental tax in fiscal year 2022. But none of that money is available to help buy Maurice’s Campground right now, said select board Chair Ryan Curley. The town’s accounting problems have meant the rental tax revenues will go into the general fund — at least until free cash is certified. That has not happened since 2019 due to accounting mistakes, according to town officials.

    Property owners in Wellfleet would see a tax increase for the life of the borrowing, estimated at $62 a year for a house of median assessed value with the residential tax exemption, or $83 for a similar house without the exemption.

    Gauthier said he hopes voters agree to buy his family business and help the town stay vibrant.

    “I don’t want to be a Truro where the town is dark from October to May because no one is in all the $6-million mansions,” Gauthier said. “The Truro police have to ask permission to go out of town to get a cup of coffee. We don’t want that.”

    DEVELOPMENT

    Group Sets to Work on Details of Campground Purchase

    Committee members consider cesspools, infrastructure, and campground finances

    By

    WELLFLEET — The select board signed a purchase and sale agreement for the 21.25 acres at Maurice’s Campground last month, but town officials say there’s a lot to figure out before the Sept. 10 town meeting. That’s when voters will consider authorizing the $6.5-million purchase, seen as a step toward addressing the town’s lack of affordable housing.

    Among the items is what to do about the estimated 35 cesspools on the property, and, if the town is to operate the campground for the coming years, how that business would be structured and managed.

    “Part of what we have to do between town meeting and closing, in addition to education and outreach, is due diligence,” said Affordable Housing Trust chair Harry Terkanian during the first meeting of the campground working group on April 29.

    Summer cottages at the front of Maurice’s Campground. The town’s purchase of the property will include four cottages, five cabins, and a duplex cabin. (Photo by Nancy Bloom)

    The sale agreement came after a year of conversation with the three Gauthier brothers — John, Martin, and Maurice Jr. — whose parents founded the place as Ann’s Motor Court in 1949. The purchase is to include the office, four cottages, five cabins, a duplex cabin, the neighboring store, and 17 used trailers.

    The working group includes 18 community members who’ve organized themselves into five subgroups to take on specific issues: infrastructure, waste disposal, operations, finances, and communicating findings with the public.

    “We have to evaluate the financial information we get from the sellers so we can make sure we can operate the campground in a way that makes sense,” said Terkanian. “We have to develop a good understanding of the existing conditions so we know what we will be facing in repair costs. We have to address the septic system, which will be a little bit tricky.”

    The agreement stipulates a six-year transition period, during which most of the property would still be used as a campground. That way, vacationers, employees, and locals who live on the site during the summer will have some time to find new living situations. The town must also honor a lease with a year-round tenant for the next three years. According to the contract, there are about five acres that could potentially be developed earlier.

    A summer trailer at Maurice’s. “Some families have four generations that have used the site as their summer home,” owner John Gauthier said during a tour of the 72-year-old campground. (Photo by Nancy Bloom)

    The property at 80 Route 6 is assessed by the town at nearly $2.7 million. While the site never went up for sale, Gauthier said it garnered plenty of interest. He negotiated the $6.5-million price with the town — which he said was generous in comparison with nearby properties. For example, one acre of land at 4715 State Highway, 1.4 miles up the road, recently sold for $675,000.

    If the purchase is authorized, the deal will close on Oct. 31, at which time health permits would need to be obtained. Analyses of the financials and existing conditions on the property are due by the end of June.

    “That way, we’ll see what we are taking on and if we want to take it on,” said Terkanian. “We have the ability to opt out of the deal should we find those things to be unsatisfactory or too burdensome, or should we find something like a hazardous waste site on the property.”

    If the voters authorize the purchase, a committee will be formed to plan future use of the property.

    Five Working Groups

    The five working groups will meet separately but convene every other Friday at Preservation Hall to discuss updates and findings over the next four months.

    The finance subgroup is deciding whether to hire a certified public accountant to look at the finances prior to making an operations plan. “They’re digging into all the nerves,” said Kathleen Nagle of the Affordable Housing Trust, “and making sure it’s not a black hole.”

    Many of the people in the working group aren’t sure the town should run the campground during the transitional period, but they still want to vet that option, Nagle said. The Gauthiers have agreed to consult with the town for at least 1,500 hours during the next year to ensure a smooth transition.

    The septic system subgroup will look at the estimated 35 cesspools on the property. Cesspools, concrete pits that allow wastewater to flow directly into the ground, are automatically defined as “failed” septic systems and must be replaced by Title 5 systems when ownership of property is transferred. The group’s strategy is to seek a waiver from the board of health, which would allow the town to continue to operate the existing system for the six transitional years.

    “It doesn’t make sense to design, build, and install a septic system to service what’s on the property now if it’s not going to be there 5, 6, 10 years from now,” Terkanian said. The cost to put in a compliant system could range from $10,000 to $50,000.

    Making upgrades later also makes sense, Nagle said, because often affordable housing development opens the way to grant money to help fund such expenses.

    The working group looking at the site’s infrastructure will release a report in the coming weeks after Building Inspector Jim Badera reviews the site. The town is considering connecting the property to Eastham’s water system, “which would make the property really appealing for housing,” said select board chair Ryan Curley.

    The members of the committee are Curt Felix, Elaine McIlroy, Farrukh Najmi, Gary Sorkin, Harry Terkanian, Heather Doyle, Jay Norton, James Hood, John Wolf, Kathleen Nagle, Lara Henry, Michael DeVasto, Nancy Najmi, Roland Blair, Ryan Curley, Sarah Pechukas Slivka, Sharon Rule-Agger, and Susan Spear.

    DEVELOPMENT

    Wellfleet Offers $6.5M for Maurice’s Campground

    The deal would leave the 21-acre site unchanged for 6 years

    By

    WELLFLEET — The select board has signed a purchase-and-sale agreement for the 72-year-old Maurice’s Campground and its 21.25 acres of land for $6.5 million. The board presented the purchase as a significant step in addressing the lack of affordable housing here.

    “We really need to start taking some big swings in terms of housing, because there’s nowhere for anyone to live,” select board chair Ryan Curley said the day after the agreement was announced. “It’s beyond a critical need.”

    The board said a special town meeting on Sept. 10 would consider authorizing the purchase. If it is approved, a planning committee would be appointed to study future uses of the property at 80 State Highway, near the Eastham town line.

    Maurice’s has been run by the three Gauthier brothers — John, Martin, and Maurice Jr. — for the last 45 years. “We’ve been in this business since it started,” said John Gauthier, who at 68 is the youngest brother. They took on the responsibility of running the business from their parents, Maurice and Ann, who started it (previously as Ann’s Motor Court) in 1949 after the family found themselves settling down in the woods of Wellfleet.

    Left to right, Maurice Jr., Martin, and John Gauthier, the sons of Maurice and Ann Gauthier, who created the campground in 1949. (Photo by Nancy Bloom)

    “It started with the idea of family,” John said, “though none of us have children and we’re not going to die on the property.” The brothers started to look to sell Maurice’s last summer and were quickly approached by both developers and campground operators.

    “They didn’t meet our criteria pricewise or the vision for doing it,” he said. “So many of these people come in and the first thing they do is double the rates. Or they’re looking to build trophy homes.”

    The sale to the town would include the 21.25 acres with all buildings and improvements, including cabins, mobile homes, travel trailers, and a store. The parcel, between Route 6 and the Cape Cod Rail Trail, is assessed at nearly $2.7 million, according to the town assessor’s database.

    The brothers were approached by the town, through housing authority member and real estate agent Kathleen Nagle. “We were willing to work with them,” Gauthier said. “This is a win-win.”

    The agreement stipulates a six-year transition period during which the property would continue to be a campground. It could be run by the town with municipal staff in charge, or it could be leased to another campground operator.

    “We didn’t want to cut short all the people who have been with us all these years,” said Gauthier. “We want to give them a chance to wind down.”

    Nagle said town officials felt comfortable agreeing to the transition period because “typically it takes that long — the town buys it, creates the committee, the committee decides what they’re going to do, then the permitting and the processing.” She cited the examples of the Walsh property in Truro and the T-Time property in Eastham. Both were purchased in 2019 and planning for their use is still in the early stages.

    The town will borrow to pay for the purchase. The estimated cost for the owner of a median-priced house would be less than $80 a year, based on a 30-year level payment bond at 4 percent interest, according to Nagle. She worked with Harry Terkanian of the Affordable Housing Trust and the select board in negotiations with the Gauthiers that started in July 2020. The town is exploring alternatives to reduce or eliminate the increase in property taxes, including grants, ARPA and infrastructure funds, net revenues from running the campground, and short-term rental tax proceeds.

    “We feel pretty confident that we’ll bring in revenue from running the campground that will reduce the tax,” Nagle said. More details are promised before the September special town meeting.

    By state standards, Wellfleet’s proportion of affordable units in its housing stock is currently the lowest on Cape Cod at 2.5 percent. The state’s minimum standard is 10 percent. The median price of Wellfleet houses sold in the last six months was $826,000, according to a select board press release.

    Each summer Maurice’s accommodates 125 campers. Some are families on weekend getaways, and others are seasonal workers, like the J-1 visa students hired by local businesses.

    “I saw that we’re serving a critical need,” said John Gauthier. “There isn’t a day that goes by now that I don’t get a call from someone saying, ‘I don’t know where to go. I’m going to be homeless.’ These are hardworking people with good jobs, and they just can’t find a place.”

    Many families look for housing for months to no avail, Curley said. “When they can’t find anything, they usually move off the Cape,” he said. “We need to be able to retain people. It’s impacting services people rely on, from fire department staff to home health aides.”

    The $6.5 million price amounts to $305,882 per acre for the land and buildings. “We believe it’s a good value, knowing what other towns have paid to purchase properties,” Nagle said. A “frequently asked questions” memo she wrote stated that Eastham paid $871,041 per acre for the 3.5-acre Town Center Plaza. Orleans paid $531,818 per acre for the 5.5-acre Governor Prence Inn and $928,571 per acre for the 3.5-acre Cape Cod 5 Bank property.

    The Walsh property in Truro cost $72,857 per acre for nearly 70 acres bought in 2019.

    “I’m nervous and I’m so excited,” Nagle said. “It could be such a game-changer for the town of Wellfleet. I just hope we don’t let it slip through our fingers. It’s not a deal until it’s closed.”

    Until September, the Gauthiers will enjoy their last summer season running the business together. “That’s what all three of us are proudest of,” said John, “and my parents would be, too.”

    OLD BUSINESS

    A Campground for Camaraderie

    After 71 years, Maurice’s is still a family tradition in Wellfleet

    By

    Maurices Front
    Ian Fedig of Gardner has been coming to Maurice’s Campground in South Wellfleet for 12 years — since before his son Jack was born. The campground, one of the last of its kind, has been run by the Gauthier family since 1949. (Photo Nancy Bloom)

    WELLFLEET — Back in 1949, Maurice and Ann Gauthier of New Bedford were in search of a better lifestyle for their growing family. They eventually found it in the woods of South Wellfleet.

    Seventy-one years later, that Cape Cod life is still thriving at Maurice’s Campground.

    Maurice, a civil service worker, bought 21 acres and built seven cottages and four cabins in what he initially called Ann’s Motor Court.

    The campground office is wedged between the Cape Cod Rail Trail to the east and Route 6 and the Wellfleet Drive-in to the west. It was also the house where Maurice and Ann, a teacher, raised their sons — Martin, Maurice Jr., and John. The three brothers own the place today.

    “We were raised in the office,” recalled John, who, at 66, is the youngest of the three.

    Gauthiers retro
    In the office, a family photo shows, left to right, young Maurice Jr., John, and Marty. Behind them are their parents, campground founders Maurice and Ann Gauthier. (Photo Nancy Bloom)

    For the Gauthiers, Maurice’s long run has meant pretty much seeing it all. “I can remember babies being born here,” John said.

    The old-fashioned campground has no swimming pool or electronic game room. What it has is the same feeling of community that it had in its early days.

    James Tibbetts, 54, said his parents began camping at Maurice’s nearly 60 years ago. By now, four generations of his family have spent summer weekends there. Tibbetts lives in Dunstable but still returns every weekend that he can.

    He comes “for the camaraderie,” he said. “You work all week and then go down there and have a good time. We all come from different places, but we’re all there for the same reason.” The way Tibbetts sees it, “A lot of the Outer Cape hasn’t changed. That’s part of the draw, right there.”

    Much of that community feeling starts with the brothers, who took over from their parents in 1976. They attended St. Joan of Arc Catholic Grammar School in Orleans, then went to live with relatives in New Bedford and attended Bishop Stang High School. But every summer, their Cape Cod playground was the undeveloped dune land where the drive-in now stands.

    Gauthier brothers
    Brothers Maurice Jr., Martin, and John Gauthier, who own Maurice’s, still work at the 250-site campground throughout the season.

    “The outdoors was yours,” John said. “You could get on your bike, go down to the seashore, wherever you wanted to go.”

    The military presence, including bombers, added a sense of adventure. “DC-3s used to fly over here,” said Maurice Jr., 71. They were aiming for the S.S. Longstreet target ship off the beach in Eastham. Once, Maurice recalled, “they dropped one right in front of this cottage when my father was building them.” A bomb squad came in and detonated the shell on the spot.

    Beth Connerly, 59, the campground’s office manager, and her family divide their time between Guilford, Conn., and Eastham. She said the owners “like being big brothers to me.” Connerly’s family camped at Maurice’s when she was child, and she became a summer employee while attending college in the 1980s. Because she and Maurice Sr. both spoke French, they were often on duty together Saturdays, checking in the abundance of campers from Quebec.

    Ann was sweet, Connerly said, but also “no nonsense.” Connerly had to learn how to hang and fold laundry according to Ann’s particular method. “Believe it or not, we still do it that way,” she said.

    After a day of fishing, Connerly’s father would bring in striped bass. He’d clean the fish right there, “and just hand out fillets to all the campers,” she said. “My dad grew up with that sharing tradition in the Depression.”

    Whatever Needs Doing

    This summer, Maurice’s managed to have, by pandemic standards, a pretty successful season. As usual, Maurice Jr. worked mostly in the store, Marty was in the office, and John could be found in between.

    But the pandemic did change some things. Gone was the annual influx of J-1 foreign workers. “They’re really great kids, and I miss that, culturally,” said Connerly. The campground store, which had 12 workers in summers past, had just four this season, while more cleaning and sanitizing tasks were added to the daily to-do list. The Gauthiers had to reduce office and store hours.

    Among the daily to-dos that did not change were the early morning hours making a slew of Maurice’s famous lobster rolls.

    “I tell the kids, your job is whatever needs doing,” John said. “There’s no job description.”

    Julie Simpson, a longtime Maurice’s camper who now summers at the campground and lives in Eastham during the off season, is among those multitaskers. An average work week for her this season has been 50 to 60 hours. Formerly from New Hampshire, Simpson opted to head for the Cape when her son moved out. “Why I am staying in the hills when I can go to the beach?” she reasoned, as Maurice handled the lobsters, supplied by the Turner family of Eastham.

    Lounging
    Lounging is part of what Cheryl Kolb of West Springfield comes to Maurice’s to do. She’s had a spot here for 17 years.

    More “tenters” came to the campground this year, John noted, but they still have at least 110 seasonal campers.

    John describes the campers as “a real nice mix.” Some are local residents who rent out their houses and live at the campground for the season. There are fish market workers and landscapers. Many campers have thriving flower and tomato gardens outside the trailers.

    Maurice’s Campground may be the last of its kind on the Outer Cape. Other family-owned camping areas have been sold, and none of the brothers has children. They don’t plan on moving on from where it all began, but, John said, “We’re coming to the end of the line here.”

    GALLERY

    Take Home on the Road

    Tents and campers for settling in under the stars

    By

    Remote work and distance learning have chained us to our devices and Zoom rooms. But now that it’s summer, camping offers outdoor low-tech liberation.

    Campgrounds are, by nature, well designed to provide lots of social distancing and a little community. Kids ride bikes in the twilight. Neighbors wave from their separate sites.

    On the Outer Cape, campgrounds report an increased demand for reservations, putting management into overdrive to keep things safe. Wellfleet Hollow State Campground is making a reduced number of sites available. Coastal Acres and Dune’s Edge campgrounds in Provincetown are offering campsites for self-contained RVs only, while Maurice’s Campground in Wellfleet is imposing distancing policies in bathroom facilities by limiting the number of users.

    John Gauthier, co-owner of Maurice’s, said that in previous years tent camping was in decline. Not so this year, as weary would-be travelers stay close to home and simplify their plans. Camping requires some equipment, but chances are a friend has a tent, a lantern, and a little cook stove to borrow.

    The joys of a campfire and waking with the sun are just the right antidote to the stress of these times, whether your style is to unfold a tiny teardrop camper or to spread out for the season with extras like decks, flowers, and sturdy picnic tables. Here is stay at home, redefined.

    Airstream Camping

    DeeDee Beckwith’s dad had an Airstream sitting in his yard in Marstons Mills. It was rarely used until the family decided to rent a spot at Maurice’s Campground for the season. Now, the family takes turns spending weekends at their beachside getaway. She and her husband John settle in on the deck, complete with canopy, sturdy picnic table — and tablecloth. (Photos Molly Newman)

    Sean, Matt, and Carolyn Condenzio escaped New York to spend two months camping at Adventure Bound Camping Resort in Truro. The boys’ stacked hammocks are a getaway within a getaway. Their advice for others: “Don’t be afraid of bugs.”

    Carly Halloran opens a canned cocktail while visiting her aunt, whose teardrop camper, “the honeybee,” is parked at Maurice’s. These tiny, towable campers are retro-inspired but contain lots of cleverly stowed modern comforts.

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