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Special Town Meeting

    VOTER REGISTRATION

    Two Voter Appeals Yield One Reinstatement

    Truro now looks ahead to a Nov. 28 town meeting

    By

    TRURO — The board of registrars heard appeals on Nov. 17 from two people who had been removed from the town’s voter rolls after not showing up for hearings at which their status as residents, and therefore legitimately registered voters, was challenged.

    Rosemary Boyle, left, represented by attorney Donna Brewer, had her name returned to Truro’s voter rolls after she appealed the board of registrars’ decision to remove it. (Photo by Elias Duncan)

    About 30 such hearings were held in early November, and 14 voters were removed from the rolls. At least 21 others have given up their voter registrations voluntarily since an effort to persuade part-time residents to vote here was discovered.

    At Rosemary Boyle’s appeal hearing last week, the registrars reversed their Nov. 6 decision and reinstated Boyle.

    Rose Bayani was not reinstated, however, and will remain unable to vote at Truro’s special town meeting, now rescheduled for Nov. 28.

    Town Moderator Paul Wisotzky used his authority under state law to continue the meeting for the third time on Nov. 16. “I do know these postponements have caused inconvenience and frustration for many,” Wisotzky said. “Ensuring that no appropriately registered Truro voter is excluded from voting at the meeting is of utmost importance to all of us.”

    About a dozen people protested Wisotzky’s latest postponement, one clad in a sash reading “voter suppression.” The group waited for Wisotzky to stop speaking and then read simultaneously from notecards their objection — that Wisotzky had improperly convened the Nov. 16 meeting without a quorum of voters and therefore could not postpone it.

    Bayani’s Appeal

    Under state law, in order for an appeal hearing to be held, the challenged voter needs to offer “an acceptable explanation of why she or he did not appear” during the initial hearing. Bayani said she hadn’t appeared at the previous hearing because the constable’s summons was missing her unit number and was delivered to a neighbor.

    Raphael Richter, the voter who had challenged 66 new voter registrations before the original town meeting date of Oct. 21, presented the same evidence that the registrars had accepted earlier. Bayani pays personal property tax in Truro (which is levied only on nonresidents) but not vehicle excise tax (which is levied only on residents); isn’t on the town’s street listing; and has declared her homestead in Boston, where she also claims a residential tax exemption. She registered to vote in Truro on Sept. 5.

    In her response, Bayani said that her Jeep is garaged in Truro and presented insurance documentation. She also said she was not sure what personal property tax was for. “I just paid it annually, so it didn’t come back to bite me,” she said. “It was too small to think about.”

    Bayani said her ties to the community include office space she rents at the Provincetown Commons, her love of grilled cheese sandwiches at Canteen and pasta at Terra Luna, playing pickleball at Willy’s Gym, an annual pass to Truro beaches, and a Provincetown nonresident parking permit. In response to a question from registrars chair Elisabeth Verde, Bayani said she also purchases a parking pass in Boston.

    Bayani also included in her testimony “an Instagram post from August last year with a video of two blue jays in my birdbath that I captioned with, ‘I am officially the neighborhood bird lady!’ ”

    She described the post as evidence “that I am considered a neighbor.”

    Richter asked about the address on Bayani’s driver’s license — a question to which attorney Donna Brewer objected — and Bayani said Boston. Richter then asked where Bayani files her taxes. Brewer objected again, and Bayani declined to answer.

    When Richter asked whether Bayani is a member of the Truro Part-Time Resident Taxpayers Association, Brewer objected again. Bayani said, “I don’t want to answer because I’m not sure if I am or not.”

    Richter presented documents from the Truro Health Dept. showing that Bayani’s condo is seasonal. Verde compared water usage data for Bayani’s condo to an “expected number” provided by Truro Health Agent Emily Beebe.

    Bayani said she hoped to make her condo habitable in the winter. The board discussed the condo’s deed and whether winter occupancy would be subject to approval by her condo association or the zoning board of appeals.

    “It appears that she’s made efforts to be here on a more permanent basis,” said registrar Julie Cataldo.

    “We’ve talked a lot about intent in these hearings,” Verde said, adding that “there’s a difference between intending to live somewhere and actually living there and having it as your primary domicile.” Verde said that, although Bayani “may want to live here, it appears to me that most of her life is in Boston.”

    Bayani’s appeal became the only hearing in which the registrars split their votes. Verde and vice chair Elizabeth Sturdy voted to keep Bayani off the voter rolls; Cataldo voted the other way. Board of registrars clerk Heather Harper was absent.

    A Voter Reinstated

    Rosemary Boyle said she was absent from her first hearing because she was having a plasma injection in her knee. The registrars accepted that and reopened her hearing.

    Richter repeated evidence from the first hearing, including that Boyle, who registered to vote in August, pays personal property tax and not excise tax in Truro and claims a residential tax exemption in Boston, where she also declared her homestead.

    “I have spent as much time in Truro in the past decades as my life would realistically allow, and now I spend the overwhelming majority of my time in Truro,” Boyle said, estimating 70 percent.

    “Truro is the heart and center of my family life,” Boyle said, becoming tearful. As evidence, she offered her two children’s marriages in town, recently installed insulation at her house, and the local physical therapy and veterinary clinics where she and her dog have sought care.

    Verde had obtained proof since Boyle’s previous hearing that she pays for trash pickup year-round.

    Verde also presented Boyle’s voter history and read from an artist statement posted on her website: “I’ve been making art for 30+ years primarily in my Waltham, MA studio with satellite studios in Truro, MA and Santa Fe, NM.”

    Boyle said she plans to cancel her residential tax exemption in Boston and apply for one in Truro — though that will be done “with consult from both my financial adviser and my accountant,” she said.

    Sturdy said it seemed to her that “you intend to do things but haven’t quite done them yet.”

    Boyle said she hadn’t gotten to all the paperwork but was unwavering in her sense of Truro as home. “My condo in Boston is three rooms,” she said. “My home down here is at least seven, so this is my home. Boston is my pied-à-terre, so to speak.”

    The registrars ultimately voted to reinstate Boyle’s voter registration, making her eligible to vote at town meeting.

    Cataldo said she was swayed by Boyle’s electric bill, which showed “steady usage throughout the year” since the beginning of the pandemic.

    “We have some additional information that is more convincing than we had at the last hearing,” Verde said, citing the electric bill, home insulation, and year-round trash pickup.

    “I do think it’s a process to change everything when you move,” Verde concluded. “This has probably been a great reminder to get on that.”

    TRURO VOTERS

    Truro Special Town Meeting Will Be Held on Nov. 16

    Moderator will continue meeting again

    By

    TRURO — The rescheduled special town meeting will be postponed again, according to an Oct. 30 press release from the town. It is now set for Thursday, Nov. 16 at 5:30 p.m. at Truro Central School.

    On Oct. 21, the original date for the meeting, it was postponed to Nov. 2 after more than 60 voter registration challenges were submitted. The board of registrars deemed all of them worthy of hearings.

    The meeting warrant includes articles on development of the Walsh property and construction of a new DPW facility.

    According to the release, on Nov. 2 Town Moderator Paul Wisotzky will continue the meeting again “in order to allow for the pending voter registration challenges to be heard and resolved.”

    The release further states that voters are welcome to attend on Nov. 2, but “the Moderator will only open the meeting and continue it for up to another 14 days pursuant to GL. c.39, §10. There will be no check-in for voters and the Town Moderator will not be taking any motions, questions or undertaking any of the business on the special town meeting warrant.”

    The voter challenges were filed after an email sent to the board of the Truro Part-Time Resident Taxpayers Association (TPRTA) by vice president Regan McCarthy was made public. The email included instructions for switching one’s voter registration.

    In a letter to the TPRTA, Town Clerk Elisabeth Verde wrote, “The email that you sent to your members advised them that they could register to vote in Truro even if it is not their primary domicile. This is not correct.” McCarthy’s email also advised members that they could temporarily change their registration to Truro, then switch it back to another town.

    “Capriciously changing your registration between municipalities is not appropriate and frankly, is not right,” Verde wrote. “In fact, it does a disservice to the community that someone should be voting in.”

    Of the 67 challenged voters, nine were no longer registered in Truro as of a voter roll dated Oct. 27. Summonses are being served this week for hearings before the registrars, which must be scheduled within 2 to 14 days of the summons being issued.

    WHAT’S SPECIAL

    Short-Term Rentals, Secret Swigs, and Side Eye

    Provincetown voters turn out to cheer procedural (and soccer) superiority

    By

    PROVINCETOWN — Town meeting is, of course, the hottest event of the season. Special town meeting — well, it may not be the blockbuster of the year, but on the evening of Oct. 23, there was a turnout to rival the audience at the Joan Baez documentary at Waters Edge during Women’s Week.

    Town Moderator Mary-Jo Avellar keeps history and order at Provincetown’s Oct. 23 special town meeting. (Photo by Elias Duncan)

    Before it began, town personalities ambled down the aisles, greeting friends and figuring out where their foes were sitting, perhaps so they could see how they would vote on the pièce de resistance of the evening, a proposal to purchase $2 million worth of property for affordable housing.

    Town Moderator Mary-Jo Avellar called the meeting to order, telling the crowd that the Provincetown schoolchildren who were meant to be present to recite the pledge of allegiance were stuck on a school bus. “At least they beat Nauset,” she said to applause. (The school’s co-ed Fishermen won 5-4 against the Nauset Middle School soccer squad.)

    In her role as town Mom-erator, Avellar warned that if “anyone swears or is disruptive in any way, I will ask the town officers to remove them.” Some members of the audience gasped dramatically.

    A preponderance of flannel shirts among the nearly 500 voters at town hall suggested a local fashion trend. Two people, sitting side by side, wore marigold baseball caps. Everybody in the crowd made two small holes in their shirts thanks to the chic pin-on pink voter and purple nonvoter badges. As for other accessories, one person who asked not to be named admitted, “I snuck a High Noon in, just like I sneak one into Tea.”

    A feeling of civic superiority reverberated through the evening at the expense of some neighbors a few miles up Cape. “Thank you all for becoming registered voters and doing it the right way,” Avellar said, a sly reference to allegations of voter fraud in Truro.

    And yet this sense of being the procedurally correct town didn’t stop residents from jeering at comments they disagreed with. When David Abell asked if short-term rentals have been detrimental to the town, dozens shouted “Yes!” When he asked the question a second time, the yeses grew cacophonous.

    Amid the chaos, Avellar showed her mettle with a lucid flashback to another time. In a discussion of fractional ownership of homes, Christopher Snow, a local attorney, referred to an incident with a man named Maurice Goldman from a 1985 lawsuit in Brewster. Goldman v. Giroux, he said, dealt with condominium ownership. Avellar was sent back 40 years in a flash. “Aha!” she exclaimed. “Nobody remembers him except me.”

    All in all, the meeting moved along agreeably, and spirits were high. After all, it’s not every day that you get to see your friends, enemies, and frenemies all in one place.

    ON THE WARRANT

    Truro Looks Ahead to a Hefty Town Meeting

    Voters will weigh Walsh property, DPW building, duplexes, and senior passes

    By

    TRURO — At the special town meeting on Oct. 21, plans for the 70-acre Walsh property, which has been in limbo since the town bought it in May 2019, will come before voters for the first time.

    “How did we get here?” was the question atop a slide at the pre-town meeting on Oct. 5. Town Moderator Paul Wisotzky walked attendees through the 15-article warrant. (Photo by Sophie Mann-Shafir)

    Article 5 asks to adopt the Walsh Property Community Planning Committee’s list of 18 recommendations. Those include developing a maximum of 160 housing units — down from a previous plan for 252 — with a first phase consisting of 50 to 80 units. The plan also calls for a multi-use community space that could include child care and a community kitchen and for 60 percent of the property to be preserved as open space.

    The Walsh committee took almost three years to develop the recommendations and will dissolve after town meeting. Newly elected Town Moderator Paul Wisotzky is a member of that committee and had served as co-chair until February.

    Wisotsky is also the governor’s appointee to the Truro Housing Authority. At a pre-town meeting forum on Oct. 5, Karen Ruymann asked Wisotzky if he would recuse himself from moderating votes on various articles.

    “Will you recuse yourself from Walsh article votes and any other articles that include Walsh, LCP, and HPP, for example?” asked Ruymann, referring to the local comprehensive plan and the housing production plan. “What assurances can you give us all as to your impartiality as moderator during this debate?”

    Wisotzky said that both the state ethics commission and town counsel had advised him that he does not need to recuse himself or file a disclosure — although he said he plans to file anyway.

    Warrant Article 6 would create a six-member Ad Hoc Walsh Property Advisory Committee and is itself based on Article 13, a citizens’ petition submitted by planning board vice chair Anne Greenbaum.

    The local comprehensive plan, in the works since 2017, appears as Article 7 on the warrant. The plan outlines goals for housing, environment, infrastructure, economy, and community.

    Article 12 is designed to boost year-round rentals in town by allowing new duplexes by right, except in the town’s Seashore and Beach Point zoning districts. The amended zoning bylaw would require one unit of a new duplex to have a signed 12-month lease and the other either to be owner-occupied or also have a 12-month lease. The article also lowers the lot size required for a duplex and increases the permitted gross floor area.

    Similar measures were postponed at annual town meetings in 2022 and 2023, according to the warrant. Article 12 would require a two-thirds vote to pass.

    Voters will also consider three Proposition 2½ overrides, which require a two-thirds majority at town meeting and a simple majority at a town election.

    Article 1 is a debt exclusion for $1.4 million in borrowing to upgrade the Truro Central School’s roof and ventilation system. Classrooms on the west side of the school “have no air exchange whatsoever,” DPW director Jarrod Cabral said at the Oct. 5 forum, a deficiency that came to light during Covid. If the measure passes on Oct. 21, construction could take place during summer break.

    Articles 3 and 4 are mutually exclusive DPW facility funding articles. They ask for $35 million and $3.5 million, respectively, to fund either the whole project or just its engineering costs. Cabral said that the $35 million price tag is a “worst case scenario,” since the project will be eligible for some funding from the Cape Light Compact.

    Article 2 asks voters to dedicate a 2.7-acre town-owned parcel at 340 Route 6 for the new DPW project.

    Article 14, a citizen’s petition from a self-styled “DPW study group,” proposes an alternate DPW project at the department’s current location on Town Hall Road. As reported in last week’s Independent, the group claims its proposal would be “bigger, significantly cheaper, safer, and faster” than the plan produced by the town’s contracted professionals and that it would cost less than half the price.

    Another pair of dueling measures are Articles 8 and 15. Article 8 is a nonbinding resolution advising the select board to research a “Senior Pass Pilot Program.” If implemented, the program would either reduce or eliminate transfer station and beach permit fees “for Truro property owners and resident seniors of an age to be determined” in a year-long pilot program.

    Article 8 was “adopted” by the select board from petitioned Article 15, submitted by Joan Holt. Holt’s article specifies that people age 60 and over would be eligible for the senior pass, which would have a one-time cost of $50.

    According to the select board’s explanation on the warrant, the specifics in Holt’s article were problematic because “town meeting is not an authorized fee-setting body” under state law. Town Manager Darrin Tangeman said at the Oct. 5 forum that Article 8 “mirrors the intent” of Holt’s Article 15.

    Holt was not pleased, however. She said that Article 8 was a “power grab” by the select board.

    Rounding out the warrant are Articles 9 and 10, general bylaw amendments on stormwater and curb cuts, respectively, and Article 11, which would extend the duration of special permits granted by the zoning board of appeals from one to two years.

    Registration for special town meeting will begin at 9 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 21 at Truro Central School. The meeting will begin at 10.

    TRURO TOWN MEETING

    $34-Million DPW Upgrade Dominates Truro Warrant

    After 10 years of ‘kicking this can down the road,’ voters will face 4 articles

    By

    TRURO — Every year since 2012, the select board has included in its annual list of goals and objectives upgrading the Dept. of Public Works facility. At a special town meeting on Oct. 21, a funding authorization for $34.4 million for a new facility will appear before voters for the first time.

    Weston and Sampson’s site plan for a proposed $34.4-million DPW facility at 340 Route 6 includes space to store all vehicles indoors. (Photos courtesy Town of Truro)

    “Select boards — no disrespect to previous boards — have been kicking this can down the road,” said select board chair Kristen Reed at its Aug. 22 meeting. “I feel like it is the responsibility of this board to let town meeting decide.”

    The buildings that currently make up the DPW facility range in age from 40 to 70 years, are unventilated and not ADA-accessible or OSHA-compliant, and do not have sprinklers, according to DPW Director Jarrod Cabral. Due to insufficient floor space, several of the department’s 17 vehicles are stored outside, delaying DPW response time during inclement weather and resulting in “the rapid deterioration of high-value town-owned equipment,” Cabral said.

    The project is the subject of 4 of the 15 articles on the town meeting warrant. Article 2 seeks approval for the new facility’s location. The select board voted this summer to site it at 340 Route 6, near the police and fire stations.

    Cabral said that, aside from the land being centrally located and already town-owned, a facility at that location can be hooked up to existing water mains and septic systems. It would also allow the public works, fire, and police depts. to coordinate emergency response and share a wash bay, Cabral said.

    The next two town-sponsored DPW warrant articles are mutually exclusive.

    Article 3 requests authorization to borrow $35 million to fund the entire project. If it passes at town meeting and at the ballot box, then “engineering and construction can proceed without the need for future Town Meeting action, thus increasing the likelihood that the project proceeds at an expedited pace,” according to the explanation in the warrant.

    Article 4, which will be indefinitely postponed if Article 3 passes, would authorize $3.5 million for just the engineering costs of the project.

    Truro Finance Director Alex Lessin acknowledged that $35 million is a hefty sum to put before voters. Essentially, Lessin said, the two articles ask voters, “Is it a one-two step dance or is it a one-step dance?”

    Article 3 received unanimous support from the finance committee and was endorsed 4-1 by the select board.

    Select board vice chair Sue Areson voted no, saying at the board’s meeting on Sept. 12, “I don’t think we want to put the $35 million figure out there for voters at this point.” Because engineering takes around nine months, Areson said, she did not think approving the lower figure would delay the project.

    Lessin told the Independent that Article 3 could help control costs by “putting a stronger ceiling on the project.” If only the engineering costs were approved, “we may be in front of the town asking for an even higher authorization” later, Lessin said.

    “As soon as we get it authorized and shovels in the ground, the lower the cost will be,” he said. “The longer we wait, the more supply costs will increase.”

    Cabral said that grant funding will be available and that the town has met with Cape Light Compact to review possibilities. Departments of public works are classed as emergency services by the federal government but not by the state, which limits state funding.

    “Once the town begins final design, we will have a better understanding of what the town qualifies for,” Cabral said.

    DPW Study Group

    The DPW’s final appearance on the warrant is in a petitioned article, currently numbered Article 14, from a four-member “DPW study group.” Its proposal involves a $15.5-million upgrade of the existing DPW facility that ultimately would yield a “campus layout” near town hall.

    A volunteer “DPW study group” proposed an alternative plan for a $15.5-million phased upgrade of the current facility on Town Hall Road.

    At a presentation to the select board on Sept. 26, lead petitioner Kevin Kuechler and group member Anthony Garrett described the study group as “a small group of volunteer experts with connections to Truro.”

    Kuechler, a senior loan officer at Draper and Kramer Mortgage Corp. who studied civil engineering and geology at Princeton in the 1980s, is listed as the project’s hydrogeologist. Garrett, who is also president of the Truro Part-Time Resident Taxpayers Association, is an architect and partner at Bilow Garrett Group Architects and Planners in New Jersey and worked on the proposal’s architecture.

    The group’s other members are Jim Armstrong, a commercial facilities developer and vice president at Texas Instruments, and Mark Dickinson, a commercial real estate developer and “(former) part-time Truro resident.”

    The study group’s plan would involve phased construction and would reuse and refurbish two of the current buildings. The group claims that its proposal is “improved, bigger, significantly cheaper, safer, and faster to implement than the proposed Public Safety Facility site.”

    Jeff Alberti, chief operating officer of Weston & Sampson, the town’s project consultant, said, “If that were true, we would be pleased to support that. We don’t think that that’s the case.”

    Weston & Sampson’s engineers noted the proposal’s inadequacies in their response at the Sept. 26 meeting. They said that operating out of the existing buildings is a short-term solution and expressed concerns about stormwater management, regrading the site, and safety issues due to insufficient space around maintenance bays.

    Cabral said that years of experience in DPW facility design were prerequisites in the town’s search for project consultants. Weston & Sampson had to show recommendations from at least three DPW facilities they had designed in the past 10 years.

    Reed said that ideally Kuechler and Garrett would have presented their proposal earlier, when Weston & Sampson did. “That way we could have been working together to try to find a way that includes their good ideas and your expert analysis,” she said to the Weston & Sampson engineers.

    Select board member Bob Weinstein said the study group’s proposal had “monumental” inadequacies and that the group does not include a professional engineer or land surveyor.

    Weinstein also pointed to timing. “This isn’t even the eleventh hour,” he said. “It’s the eleventh hour and 59 minutes and 59 seconds.” He said the plan was “a delaying tactic” from people who live near the new project site and do not want to see a DPW facility near their houses.

    No Combined Garage

    Earlier this year, the prospect of building a shared facility with Provincetown briefly came up at a Truro Select Board meeting. Provincetown has also worked with Weston & Sampson on plans for an upgraded DPW facility, citing reasons similar to Truro’s.

    The town initially considered five sites for the renovated DPW. The select board voted for site 1, at 340 Route 6. The petitioned article from the “DPW study group” advocates site 4, on Town Hall Road.

    If that possibility was ever really on the table, it doesn’t appear to be anymore.

    “The question of a shared facility came up early in the process but was not pursued,” Cabral said. He said that savings from a shared facility would be minor, as the two departments would still house all their vehicles and continue their own separate operations, just out of one space. There would need to be only one heating and cooling system and one wash bay for cleaning vehicles, “but not much for financial savings other than that,” Cabral said.

    According to the Weston & Sampson consultants, said Cabral, efforts to regionalize DPW facilities “tend to fall apart toward the end of the evaluation process when discussing which community is paying for what.”

    TOWN MEETING

    Wellfleet OKs Wastewater Treatment, Town Planner

    Inclusionary zoning is approved; only the nips ban gets nixed

    By

    WELLFLEET — The Sept. 18 special town meeting was a bylaw bonanza. Voters approved 10 bylaw amendments as well as an inclusionary zoning bylaw that drew lengthy debate but then sailed through. The only proposal that was defeated was a proposed ban on “nips” — small bottles of alcoholic beverages.

    The three-hour meeting, with child care and Cheetos for all, also saw the near-unanimous approval of adding a town planner position at town hall and funding for a wastewater treatment facility at Lawrence Hill.

    Those authorizations, which require expenditures beyond the limits of Proposition 2½, will appear on the Sept. 27 special town election ballot as questions 1 and 2, along with a select board race to fill the remaining eight months of Kathleen Bacon’s term. Timothy Sayre is the only candidate to have submitted nomination papers; Curt Felix is running a write-in campaign for the seat.

    Proponents of the borrowing authorization articles urged voters to support them as substantial steps for the town in mitigating its wastewater and housing problems. “If we want to remain a year-round community, we need to support this,” said Elaine McIlroy, chair of the Wellfleet Housing Authority, about the $2.6-million request for the wastewater treatment facility.

    The facility is part of the town’s $106.6-million Targeted Watershed Management Plan to cut nitrogen loading in the harbor. The treatment facility will hook up the Lawrence Hill housing development, the elementary school, the police and fire stations, and some surrounding homes to a cluster system.

    Town meeting voters supported the new town planner position costing $145,000 in the first year. Because it will require a Prop 2½ override, it is also contingent on a majority vote at the special town election. Waldo said that the town lacks the staff to proceed with many projects that have been endorsed by voters.

    “We are failing to perform,” Waldo said. The town’s last local comprehensive plan was developed in 2008, Waldo said. Towns should develop a comprehensive plan every five years.

    He added that Wellfleet is the only town on Cape Cod without a town planner.

    Inclusionary Zoning

    Proponents of an inclusionary zoning bylaw managed to persuade voters to support it despite vocal opposition. The bylaw will require developers of multi-unit housing to reserve a fraction of the units to be rented affordably.

    Gerry Parent, chair of the planning board, opposed the proposal. His board had voted unanimously not to recommend it because, he said, the town already has a similar bylaw.

    That bylaw, passed in 2018, allows developers to seek a density bonus for additional dwelling units in exchange for a matching number of affordable units.

    “That bylaw has never been used by any developer,” said select board member Ryan Curley.

    The difference between the proposed bylaw and the existing one, Curley said, was that the proposed bylaw would be mandatory for any development of three or more units.

    Developers could also opt out of the requirement by donating land or money to the Wellfleet Affordable Housing Trust.

    “The formula in lieu of building is extremely difficult to understand,” Parent said.

    The formula, Curley explained, mirrored the one in Provincetown’s inclusionary zoning bylaw, which contains a sliding-scale fee schedule.

    Select board member Michael DeVasto moved indefinite postponement of the article and was supported by Parent and the other planning board members.

    But Town Counsel Carolyn Murray warned that indefinite postponement would count as a negative vote, and bylaw proposals rejected by town meeting cannot be reintroduced for at least two years.

    “It would be a terrible mistake to wait two years on this,” said select board vice chair John Wolf.

    DeVasto’s motion was defeated.

    McIlroy spoke in favor of the new law. “I love this bylaw,” she said. “Over the years, we have lost opportunities to build beautiful affordable housing. It’s important to get this on the books.”

    When the final vote was taken, a wave of green voter cards passed through the school gymnasium, and the bylaw passed with a two-thirds majority.

    No ‘Nips’ Ban

    The article that spurred the most debate of the evening was a proposal to ban the sale of 50-milliliter liquor containers, called “nips,” in Wellfleet package stores. Voters defeated the article, but only after a 40-minute standoff.

    On one side were conservationists and anti-litterers as well as social workers and substance abuse counselors who worried about the accessibility of nips for drivers. On the other side were owners of local liquor stores who expressed concern about the financial impact the ban would have on small businesses. They also doubted the efficacy of such a ban, considering that the surrounding towns do not have similar bans.

    “Wellfleet is sandwiched between four towns which do not have a ban,” said Alan Kogos, owner of Seaside Liquors. “If this passes, we would be pushing our customers to neighboring towns where they would be purchasing nips.” Those customers, Kogos said, would be purchasing the rest of their grocery list of beverages along with the nips.

    Julie Seabury, owner of Wellfleet Spirits Shoppe, supported Kogos’s argument. “It sounds great but really doesn’t solve anything,” she said. “I would suggest we work as a region or statewide, and then it will be effective.”

    Christine Shreves, cochair of the recycling committee, hoped that Wellfleet could take the first step. “I don’t think we can depend on state action anytime in the near future,” she said.

    Trees, Dogs, and Square Footage

    Locally notable trees, defined as trees with a girth of 120 or more inches, will be protected from removal or trimming unless it’s authorized by the zoning board of appeals through a special permit.

    The vote to amend the definition of cottage colonies to expand the allowed square footage of individual cottages will bring more cottages into conformity. And an affirmative vote on an amendment related to the intensity of use of multi-family dwellings will eliminate the requirement to have 8,000 square feet of additional land for every dwelling unit added to a development in the commercial district.

    Two bylaw amendments proffered by Animal Control Officer Jacob Berrick were accepted. They will require dog owners to register dogs within 30 days of adoption and will allow dogs to visit cemeteries. Dogs will be prohibited from lifeguarded portions of beaches and ponds between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. in the summer, and owners will be prohibited to leave their dogs unattended in their vehicles.

    Voters agreed to increase the infraction penalty for all bylaws to $300 per violation.

    TOWN MEETING PREVIEW

    Wellfleet STM Will Take Up 10 Bylaw Changes

    $2.7 million in overrides sought for wastewater and for a town planner

    By

    WELLFLEET — Many changes will be afoot at the Sept. 18 special town meeting, not all of them due to what is on the warrant.

    After complaints that last spring’s town meeting was inaccessible to working people and young families, this session will be held on a Monday night, and child care will be provided for ages three and up. The quorum requirement has also been lowered to 150 voters.

    Town meeting is set for September 18 at 6 p.m. in the gymnasium of Wellfleet Elementary School.

    The following week, on Sept. 27, voters will head to the ballot box to elect a new member of the select board to finish out Kathleen Bacon’s term. Bacon announced her resignation in July. According to Town Clerk Jennifer Congel, the only person to take out nomination papers for the seat was Timothy Sayre, who lost to Bacon last year when she ran as a write-in.

    Along with 10 bylaw amendments, voters will be asked to approve $2.7 million in Proposition 2½ overrides to fund a town planner position and a wastewater treatment facility at the Lawrence Hill housing development.

    According to Article 2 on the warrant, the town plans to install a cluster wastewater treatment system to serve the new housing as well as the Wellfleet Elementary School, the police station, and the fire station. Surrounding properties will also be hooked up to the system as part of the town’s Targeted Watershed Management Plan to cut nitrogen loading in Wellfleet’s embayments.

    The estimated cost of the project is $4.6 million, according to Town Administrator Rich Waldo; $3.5 million will cover planning and construction of the facility, and the remaining $1.1 million will pay for connecting properties to the system.

    Voters already approved $1.93 million at the 2021 town meeting to build the facility. Additional authorization from voters will allow the town to seek borrowing from the Clean Water Trust, a revolving fund that awards grants of up to 25 percent of the total project cost from the Cape and Islands Water Protection Fund.

    That’s a just-in-case scenario, though. If the town succeeds in getting a grant to fund the construction of the facility through the MassWorks Infrastructure Program, the town will not need to borrow. The town expects to receive notice of a grant award by November, according to the warrant.

    An override of $145,000 would fund a town planner’s job at town hall. Wellfleet is currently one of the only Cape Cod communities without one. Article 4 says the town planner would support the building commissioner and zoning board of appeals in enforcing zoning regulations as well as assisting in developing bylaws.

    Planning is currently assigned to the assistant town administrator, a position that is “overburdened,” the warrant says. “The lack of a dedicated town planner results in the burnout of staff.”

    The assistant town administrator job is currently being filled by David Colton as an interim, after Rebecca Roughly resigned at the end of June.

    Select board member Ryan Curley told the Maurice’s Campground committee on July 26 that the town planner would help perform the duties that would have been assigned to the housing coordinator, a new position defeated at the annual town election by 17 votes.

    Both the town planner position and the Lawrence Hill wastewater treatment funding will require a two-thirds majority at town meeting and a majority vote at the special town election on Sept. 27.

    Article 3 on the warrant would amend an existing borrowing article from the 2021 annual town meeting to fund an Innovative/Alternative septic system subsidy program. The article would allow borrowing from the Clean Water Trust.

    Ten bylaw amendment proposals will also come before voters on Sept. 18, eight of which were requested by the select board.

    An inclusionary zoning proposal, Article 5, would require developers to reserve a percentage of units in new developments to be rented or sold affordably or to pay a fee to the Wellfleet Affordable Housing Trust.

    Article 7 is an amendment pertaining to the intensity of use of multi-family dwellings and would eliminate the requirement to have 8,000 square feet of additional land for every added dwelling unit in any given development in the commercial district.

    Three tree-related bylaws, Articles 8, 9, and 10, would add exemptions to the prohibition of cutting timber in the National Seashore as well as the cutting of notable trees, defined as native trees with a girth of 120 or more inches.

    Article 12 would ban the sale of nips, or miniature single-serve liquor bottles made of plastic or glass. According to the warrant article, nips are a pervasive littering problem; a study conducted in Falmouth in 2021 found that nips accounted for 32 percent of roadside garbage. Nips are banned in Falmouth, Mashpee, Nantucket, and two Martha’s Vineyard towns.

    Two bylaw amendments in Articles 13 and 14 were requested by Animal Control Officer Jacob Berrick. They would require dog owners to register dogs within 30 days of adoption and would allow dogs to visit town cemeteries. They would also prohibit owners from leaving pets unattended in their vehicles and would prohibit dogs from lifeguarded portions of town beaches and ponds between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. during the summer.

    The Wellfleet Community Forum will host a Pre-Town Meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 12 at 7 p.m. at the Adult Community Center with Town Moderator Dan Silverman presiding.

    BREWSTER VOTES

    Town Meeting OKs Buying Former Sea Camps Properties

    The 120 acres come with a price tag of $26 million

    By

    BREWSTER — An overwhelming majority of the record 1,471 residents who turned out for last Sunday’s special town meeting at the Stony Brook Elementary School voted to have the town purchase two large parcels of the former Cape Cod Sea Camps (CCSC) property. The articles required two-thirds majorities to pass, but the vote was so one-sided that Moderator Charles Sumner (who is also Wellfleet’s interim town administrator) declared no count was needed.

    Completing the purchase still requires a majority vote at a special town election on Oct. 5 to approve a debt exclusion from the provisions of Proposition 2½.

    The votes in favor of buying the Cape Cod Sea Camps properties were so one-sided that the moderator said a count was unnecessary.

    The fate of the CCSC land has been a hot topic in Brewster ever since the Delahanty family announced in November 2020 that the camps would be permanently closed after 99 years of operation.

    Of the two parcels, the 54.7 acres between Route 6A and Cape Cod Bay were the main hub of Sea Camps activity. The Long Pond parcel, with 66 acres at 500 W.H. Besse Cartway, is the largest privately owned property in Brewster.

    The total purchase price approved by the voters and agreed to by the sellers was $26 million: $20 million for the bay parcel and $6 million for the Long Pond parcel.

    The Brewster Flats Foundation, a nonprofit group of CCSC alumni and former staff, quickly formed after the Delahantys’ announcement last year. The group attempted to raise enough money to purchase the bay parcel in hopes of keeping it running as a camp. The total raised was more than $1.6 million in July.

    When the town’s plan to take the land by eminent domain became public, foundation president Jim Fay said he was pleased with the move.

    Brewster residents Tom and Patricia Kennedy made a late push to head off the town’s purchase so that they could acquire the properties. The Kennedys are software entrepreneurs with successful start-ups including BackOffice Associates and Zudy. BackOffice Associates was based in Harwich before it was sold to investment giant Goldman Sachs; Zudy is now based in Harwich. The Kennedys also run SportsMoney, a financial management company for professional athletes.

    Patricia Kennedy posted a statement on her Facebook page on Sept. 21 outlining their plans for the property. It said the Kennedys wanted to “preserve the Sea Camps parcel and return most of the property to the wild.”

    The town meeting was scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 25, but bad weather postponed it to the following day. The Kennedys, who have strong ties to the New England Patriots, let the town know that “Trish” would not be able to attend the meeting because it conflicted with the Patriots’ game against the New Orleans Saints and plans for a retirement party for former wide receiver Julian Edelman. The message came by way of a video of Edelman explaining the conflict posted on Facebook.

    “I hope you guys have a good Sunday,” Edelman said. “Good luck with it … and remember, go Pats.”

    No one at town meeting spoke for the Kennedys. (The Patriots lost to the Saints, 28-13.)

    Behind the Scenes

    Town officials had been working behind the scenes with the Delahanty family to broker a deal to purchase the properties for nearly a year. The town had made an offer of $15 million in recent weeks but was informed that the family had received a $20 million no-contingency cash offer from a private bidder, according to select board member David Whitney.

    Although the total price for both parcels is $26 million, available town funds and pledged contributions from the Brewster Conservation Trust, Mass Audubon, the Brewster Water Dept., and an anonymous private donor total $6 million. That leaves a balance of $20 million to be borrowed by the town.

    The turnout at Sunday’s special town meeting set a record, with 1,471 voters present at the Stony Brook Elementary School ballfield. (Photos Ryan Fitzgerald)

    The pledges and available town funds will go to purchase the pond parcel, said town officials, meaning that property tax bills would not be affected by that part of the deal.

    “As proposed, this real estate purchase will have no impact on the resident property tax bills,” said select board member Ned Chatelain at Sunday’s meeting.

    But the purchase of the bay parcel would increase the tax rate by 25 cents per $1,000 of assessed value. Thus, taxes on a property assessed at $500,000 would increase by $125.

    “It’s taken a lot of cooperation and dedication on the sellers’ part and the select board and town,” Brewster resident Katie Miller Jacobus, a member of the school committee, said last week. “The next step will be community engagement and a visioning process. Whatever discussions happen of what comes next, part-time residents are included in that equally.”

    According to the Cape Cod Commission, 44 percent of the town’s housing units are occupied by seasonal residents.

    No Decisions Yet

    Town officials have repeatedly made the point that all residents will be part of deciding what happens to the Sea Camps properties. No decisions have been made yet.

    Select board member Mary Chafee reiterated that at town meeting. She mentioned building a new council on aging building, a community center, a swimming pool, a residents-only beach, and repurposing existing buildings on the bay parcel, which includes dozens of buildings, an outdoor Olympic-size pool, and tennis courts.

    “It’s like being part of a country club at a very low rate,” Brewster resident Anne Moore, director of library services at Eddy Elementary School, said on Sunday.

    Not everyone favored the purchase.

    “Don’t take this personally, but I don’t trust the town,” resident Lisa Doyle said at the meeting. “You guys have made some major mistakes in the 30 years that I’ve lived here, and I think this is too precious a piece of property to make more mistakes.”

    “Brewster voters are not being given the full picture,” said James McGinnis, who spent last week campaigning against the purchase.

    James McGinnis, an 82-year-old part-time resident (his primary residence is in Florida), was also against the purchase. McGinnis could be seen sitting beside Route 6A in front of the Sea Camps parcel all week with a sign that read “Vote No! Sea Camps. Money Pit!”

    McGinnis said the property’s condition is not good and maintenance costs associated will be more than people are expecting.

    “The Brewster voters are not being given the full picture,” he said. “The $26 million is the tip of the iceberg.”

    McGinnis added that he doesn’t think Brewster residents need an Olympic-size swimming pool and that a private developer purchasing the property and building multimillion-dollar homes isn’t such a bad idea.

    “Development is better compared to the burden on the taxpayers,” he said.

    SPECIAL TOWN MEETING

    Move to Alter VFW Plan Fails in Close Vote

    Voters lament ‘Sophie’s choice,’ want both housing and public safety

    By

    PROVINCETOWN — By a margin of just 19 votes, 157 in favor, 176 against, Monday’s special town meeting rejected Fire Chief Mike Trovato’s plan for the former VFW site on Jerome Smith Road.

    The sole article on Monday’s warrant — initiated by Trovato’s petition, signed by 203 citizens — would have designated the town-owned 1.3-acre parcel for a new police station, a fire substation, and an outdoor training facility for firefighters. The site is currently earmarked for about 50 units of affordable housing. Had it been approved, the article would have put an end to that housing initiative.

    Fire Chief Michael Trovato waits his turn to speak a second time at a crowded Dec. 2 special town meeting. Because so many people queued up at other microphones, he never got the chance. (Photo K.C. Myers)

    SPECIAL TOWN MEETING

    New Station or Housing? The VFW Parcel’s Long, Winding Road

    Six years of town meeting votes led to the current moment

    By

    PROVINCETOWN — The 1.3-acre parcel of town-owned land that was the former VFW post is once again the subject of debate. A petitioned article from Fire Chief Mike Trovato and 203 voters has triggered a special town meeting in the town hall auditorium at 6 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 2. The petitioners want the parcel to be reserved for a new police station, a fire and EMS substation, and an outdoor training facility for firefighters.

    VFW Provincetown
    The old VFW building. At this point, “speed bumps” is an understatement. (Photo Paul Benson)

    But an April 2018 town meeting authorized development of the parcel for affordable housing. The clash of these two priorities — police station vs. housing — is something town officials had worked for years to avoid.

    The Independent talked to more than a dozen people and reviewed footage of several meetings to better understand the votes and decisions that led to this juncture. The central episodes are in 2013, when the parcel was purchased; 2015, when the adjacent Winslow Farms parcel was not purchased; 2017, when the select board (split 3-2) and town meeting (206-35) voted to locate the police station across the street from the VFW parcel at 16 Jerome Smith Road; and 2019, when the price of that project rose from $8.6 million to $12.5 million, and the allocation of the extra money failed to win a two-thirds majority.

    2013: Town Buys VFW

    In the years after World War II, the VFW post was one of the great social hubs of the town. Everyone was a veteran, it seemed, and the building at 3 Jerome Smith Road was built entirely by the volunteer labor of post members, according to Paul Mendes, a Vietnam veteran and one of the few remaining post members.

    The post itself had been started in 1934 by Provincetown’s World War I veterans, and the town helped support it in the early years by giving it exclusive use of an old school on Montello Street, eventually selling it to the post for $1, Mendes said. The post sold that property for $20,000 in 1958 and started work on the building at 3 Jerome Smith.

    Fifty years later, membership had aged and was dwindling. Only 10 or 15 veterans came to meetings, there were problems with the septic system, and the post lost its lottery license.  Receipts were not covering expenses. The post made the difficult decision to sell the property.

    “We talked to Dan Hoort, the finance director at the time,” said Mendes. “We asked him what the value of all that early support from the town would be in today’s dollars. Hoort took out a calculator and said that $20,000 plus repairs back then would be $300,000 now. So we decided to sell the property to the town for $300,000 under market value.

    “Market value was $1.2 million,” continued Mendes. “That’s how we came to $900,000 for a purchase price. We wanted to give back that $300,000 gift.

    “We also wanted it to be for a police station,” said Mendes. “A lot of the post members were retired police officers, including myself. We knew how bad the station on Shank Painter was — it was inadequate the day it was opened. There hadn’t been a decent station in the 30 years I was an officer. We thought we could help fix that.”

    A purchase and sale agreement was signed on Oct. 10, 2013, but it said nothing about how the land would be used. An article authorizing the purchase at an Oct. 21, 2013 special town meeting said the land could be used “for general municipal purposes, including, without limitation, for police station and/or affordable housing purposes.”

    Barbara Rushmore offered an amendment on the floor of that meeting that stripped out the words “police station and/or.” The amendment passed, 113 to 84. “Legally, that amendment has no effect,” said David Gardner, the acting town manager. “A police station is a municipal purpose.”

    And indeed, the annual town reports from 2013, 2014, and 2015 make it clear that town government was hoping to build housing and a police station on the site. The VFW parcel is 1.3 acres, whereas the current police station at 26 Shank Painter Road sits on a third of an acre. The largest police station plan the Independent saw involved two-thirds of an acre. Any police station plan would still leave at least half the parcel available for some other use, and affordable housing has been among the town’s highest priorities for two decades.

    2015: Winslow Farms Passed Up

    Plans to put both housing and police at the VFW took a turn, however, when the April 2015 town meeting rejected the purchase of an adjacent lot. Buying the Winslow Farms parcel, owned by developer Jim Savko, would have connected the two parcels, providing access from the back of the VFW lot to Winslow Street.

    The vote was 173-133, short of the two-thirds majority required. Significant opposition came from neighbors, who argued that the character of the neighborhood would be disturbed.

    “Losing the egress at Winslow Street is really what ended the plans for both police and housing at VFW,” select board member Bobby Anthony told the Independent. “It’s not conducive for housing to be wrapped around the police, to have kids and families sharing the roadway with police cruisers. That egress would have let the housing be oriented to Winslow and not have to go through the police area to get in and out.

    “Also, you really need a certain size for the housing development, for a developer to even consider it,” Anthony added. The back half of the VFW lot, without Winslow Farms attached, might not be big enough. If we had Winslow Farms, the VFW would have been the police station and the housing.”

    VFW Provincetown
    The wooded lot on the left is 16 Jerome Smith Road; the VFW parcel includes the blue building on the right. (Photo: Paul Benson)

    2017: 16 Jerome Smith

    The select board appointed a building committee in 2012 to move the police station forward. After more than 50 meetings, they reported four options in January 2017: rebuild the current station site at 26 Shank Painter; purchase the property next door, Dr. Brian O’Malley’s office at 30 Shank Painter; put the police station at the VFW; or build it directly across the street from the VFW on a town-owned parcel at 16 Jerome Smith.

    O’Malley’s office would have to be purchased, said the building committee, making it more expensive than the other choices. A rebuild at the current site would require temporary quarters for the police somewhere else, which would also make it more expensive. The VFW and 16 Jerome Smith were both already owned by the town, and of those two, the committee recommended 16 Jerome Smith.

    At that meeting, building committee chair Tom Coen said “putting mixed use on [the VFW site], because of access and egress issues, the potential for conflict — we were uncomfortable with that. One of our objectives in choosing the 16 Jerome Smith site was: can we resolve the potential conflict between those two uses [police and housing] and accomplish both?”

    The select board accepted the building committee’s recommendation in a 3-2 vote. Board member Cheryl Andrews was one of the no votes, but she told the Independent that it was the O’Malley property that interested her, not the VFW parcel.

    “The wishes of the neighborhood and the wishes of the VFW post I do not think were variables for us at that time,” said Andrews. “I respect that they have an opinion, but I have to look at all the variables — size, aesthetics, appearance, traffic flow, cost, the overall fit for the town. I understood the night we bought it [in 2013] that we were free to decide how to use it.”

    2017: April Town Meeting

    Article 8.1 at the April 2017 town meeting, asking $8.6 million for a police station at 16 Jerome Smith Road, was the subject of extended debate. Not one person spoke in favor of the VFW site, however. The issues were the importance of the “greenway” at 16 Jerome Smith and the impression a police station there would make on visitors to town.

    Five voters, plus Andrews, spoke for building a station at O’Malley’s property at 30 Shank Painter. One, Barbara Rushmore, had a plan to build a station at Duarte’s, where the CVS now stands. Six voters spoke in favor of 16 Jerome Smith, as did selectmen Raphael Richter and Bobby Anthony and building committee member Rick Murray.

    No one said anything about the VFW post or proposed that it be the site of a police station. After a spirited debate, the article passed 206 to 35. The town had officially chosen to build the station at 16 Jerome Smith Road.

    The Independent asked Paul Mendes how the VFW members felt about the decision. “Having to give up the building was hard,” he said. “We were disappointed [with the Rushmore amendment in 2013], and after that, we moved on. Most of the VFW members don’t live in town anymore. A lot of them have moved to Truro.”

    Tom Coen, Rick Murray, and Paul Kelly all confirmed that no one from the VFW post reached out to the building committee or attended any meetings after 2013. “I think Paul Mendes came to one of the very first ones, to congratulate us for moving things forward,” said Murray. “But in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017? Definitely not.”

    2019: ‘Emotionally Draining’

    Andrews described 2019 as “emotionally draining” this week, an assessment doubtless shared by others. The April 2019 town meeting was forced to vote on an extra $3.9 million for the police station at 16 Jerome Smith. What had been settled was now unsettled, and disagreements about the police station’s size, cost, design, financing, and location all came alive again.

    The extra allocation needed a two-thirds vote to pass and got only 62 percent. A motion to reconsider passed, but the second vote on the article failed again, with 64 percent in favor, eight votes short of a two-thirds majority. The debate consumed more than two hours, but the only speaker to mention the VFW parcel was building committee member Paul Kelly, who briefly described the reasons the committee did not recommend that parcel for the station. Several voters spoke in favor of the O’Malley property.

    The original appropriation of $8.6 million for a station at 16 Jerome Smith still stood, Town Manager David Panagore explained at the meeting. “The $8.6 million can’t be spent at a different location without a separate vote,” he said. “It’s actually a debt authorization, not a pile of cash, and that debt authorization remains valid only for that site.”

    Coen confirmed that point last week. “At this point, we’re pretty set on 16 Jerome Smith Road,” he said. “We’re not looking at any other sites. We’ve looked at so many over the years. The truth is, there’s no perfect choice. The vote for $8.6 million and 16 Jerome Smith still stands. It hasn’t been rescinded.”

    Dec. 2, 2019: The Petition

    Dedicating the VFW parcel to a police station, as Chief Trovato’s petitioned article would do, would effectively moot the prior vote. For supporters like Paul Mendes, who signed the petition, that’s precisely the point.

    A view from the back of the 1.3-acre VFW parcel. (Photo: Paul Benson)

    “When the town purchased the VFW lot, they put the obvious immediate need of a police station behind the future need of housing,” said Mendes. “The priority of a working, comfortable police station has become secondary to the idea that housing is the number one priority.”

    Back when the building committee was entertaining multiple locations, the size and cost of a station at the VFW parcel was identical to the size and cost of a station at 16 Jerome Smith. The drawings and cost estimates are for the same facility. If it’s the same station either way, Mendes was asked, does it matter to the veterans which side of the street it’s on?

    “I’ve always been an advocate, as a neighbor and a post member, that it be a police station,” Mendes said. “I’ve been discouraged by these other options. If housing is so important, put the housing across the street at 16 Jerome Smith and put the police and fire where they belong at VFW.”

    the observer

    Sophie’s Choice at a Special Town Meeting

    A fight that does not have to happen now

    By

    I think we all can agree that Sophie’s Choice was a great movie, but no one wants to be Sophie. At Provincetown’s upcoming special town meeting, however, the year-round community will experience something like it. Housing has been a long-standing priority as the town attempts to address the crisis, while the fire department has long had the support of the community. Now we are asked to choose between them.

    The process of developing the town parcel on Jerome Smith Road has been long and somewhat torturous. Public projects are complex and time-consuming. Each effort takes several years, even when there is consensus. If a community changes course, usually because there is no perfect answer and compromise is a dirty word, this alters the path forward and extends the time, money, and effort to get anything accomplished.

    The proposal before this town meeting raises questions that are unlikely to be answered before Dec. 2. At the same time, it should be clear to everyone that changing course now will thwart the development of needed housing at the former VFW and start the clock on a new and complicated process that will take years to resolve.

    The fire department has everyone’s admiration, in both its members and its leadership. I think we all, to a fair degree, agree on that. But questions that should have been raised back in June when the board of fire engineers sent its request to the select board to change course were not raised. The select board has now met with fire engineers. But that was on Oct. 25, four months after the letter was sent, and after the petition for a special town meeting was submitted. I can’t fault the board of fire engineers for raising issues and working, initially, through the proper channels. But it’s clear town leaders have not worked together, and as a result a stark choice has been forced upon town meeting.

    A new police station is estimated to cost around $12 million today. How does everyone feel about a potential $25 million public safety complex with a new fire station and a new police station? Without a study, we can’t make an accurate estimate of the actual cost, and we are only guessing at the scale and scope of the proposed project.

    A study could also review a range of options to determine if this is the most cost-effective solution to the two long-range concerns raised by the fire chief: the need for ambulance space and the need for a bigger bunkhouse. If what’s needed is space for an extra ambulance bay or two, why not look at an addition to the existing station? Surely that would be less costly. If bunkhouse space is needed, would acquiring Dr. O’Malley’s former office across the street be cheaper than replicating a whole new station? A flawed cost estimate proved to be fatal for the last police station plan; the town can’t afford to go down that dead-end road again.

    There are, as well, broader questions. If the need is for more ambulances, what actually is the plan for Lower Cape Ambulance? Are we considering eliminating one of the few regional services by bringing it in house, and at what cost? Then there is the question of a new fire training facility. I believe town meeting will want an update from and the opinion of the county manager on the work being done to locate the facility at Joint Base Cape Cod, which the town, through the town manager’s office and the fire department, helped to sponsor. Is the fire chief’s idea to relocate the not small, not insignificant Cape Cod regional fire training facility to the rear of the VFW parcel a dream or a practical reality?

    This to me feels like a fight that does not need to happen. My concern is that forcing folks to pick sides means everyone will lose. Done this way, this effort creates more questions than it answers and will not bring the town closer together but will drive people further apart.

    Votes have social consequences and create long memories in this community. If there is serious and sufficient interest in the proposed article, then it should be submitted for study and the idea brought back with answers to a later town meeting. Otherwise the plan to create two dozen or more housing units on Jerome Smith Road should immediately proceed.

    The question before this town meeting affects all of us: abutters, home owners, and renters. I encourage everyone to attend if they are able.

    CIVICS

    Fire Chief Triggers Dec. 2 Town Meeting

    Lone article would reserve VFW site for police and fire stations

    By

    Sunset Fishing
    The sunset was reel pretty for the folks fishing off a small dock behind Days Cottages on Route 6A in NorthTruro earlier this month. (Photo Nancy Bloom)

    PROVINCETOWN — Longtime Fire Chief Mike Trovato has turned in a petition with 203 signatures on the future of the VFW site, enough to trigger a special town meeting now set for Monday Dec. 2.

    The meeting will consider a single article, Trovato’s plan to dedicate the former VFW property at 3 Jerome Smith Road to use as a police station, a fire substation with garage bays and bunk space, and an outdoor training facility for the fire department. This threatens to undo plans to use the property for affordable housing. The decision facing voters will wrap several long-running issues into one vote.

    HOUSING

    51 Affordable Units Envisioned for VFW Site

    The last of 3 community meetings will be held on Nov. 13

    By

    PROVINCETOWN — Development of the town-owned VFW site on Jerome Smith Road, long envisioned as a likely spot for affordable housing, appears to be moving forward with a plan for 51 units — primarily rentals for tenants making well below area median income.

    VFW Jerome Smith Road
    An aerial view of the VFW site. (Google satellite map image)

    A series of public meetings have helped town officials narrow the choices of what the income limits should be, what kind of apartments to build, how they should be configured, and how much parking there should be. Those who have participated in these meetings have generally supported a medium level of density, possibly involving one apartment building and six smaller triplexes, and focused on year-round rentals.

    The meetings were designed to help guide the town’s dealings with potential developers and funding agencies, said Michelle Jarusiewicz, Provincetown’s community housing specialist. Writing requests for proposals will be among the next steps.

    Public sentiment at the two meetings held so far has favored affordable rental units over condo ownership, according to survey data compiled by JM Goldson, the consulting company running the meetings. Support was strongest for a medium-density development with about 50 units, split almost evenly among two-bedrooms, one-bedrooms, and studio apartments.

    Participants at both meetings have favored one on-site parking space per apartment. They also indicated a strong desire to house those making 60 to 80 percent of area annual median income — which means $36,000 to $51,000 for a single person, or $55,000 to $73,000 for a family of four.

    VFW Housing Proposal
    A conceptual plan for the proposed affordable housing development at the VFW site, showing approximately 51 units.

    That income bracket falls outside the requirements for the three largest and most recent housing developments to come online in Provincetown: Harbor Hill, Province Landing, and Stable Path. The partly occupied Harbor Hill project offers market-rate apartments to those making 80 percent to 200 percent of area median income — that is, more than $51,000 a year for a single person or $58,400 for a couple.

    At Province Landing, which was built on town-owned land and opened in 2012, 82 percent of the units are for tenants making less than 60 percent of area median income, $36,000 a year for a single person.

    Stable Path, which opened in 2016, uses roughly the same formula as Province Landing: 78 percent of the units are for those making less than 60 percent of area median income.

    It can be hard to create housing for those making just under median income, explained Jarusiewicz. Such households struggle to afford market rates but often earn too much to qualify for federal housing assistance. This could explain why 85 percent of the participants at the most recent meeting on Sept 17 said it was either “very important” or “absolutely essential” to provide housing options for those making 60 to 80 percent of median income in the VFW development.

    The town and its community planning consultant, Jennifer Goldson, will hold one more public meeting at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov 13 at town hall to discuss the results of their fact-finding so far and take further comments. Goldson will then prepare a presentation for the select board, which will likely take place in the first half of December, according to Elisabeth Verde, executive assistant to the acting town manager.

    That presentation is meant to give the select board enough information for them to direct staff in drafting an RFP for developers, explained acting Town Manager David Gardner. That process could happen in January, with an RFP issued in February or March, Gardner said.

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