Meetings are held remotely. Go to truro-ma.gov, click on the meeting you want to watch, and open its agenda for instructions on how to watch or take part online.

Thursday, April 22

• Climate Action Committee, 10:30 a.m.

Monday, April 26

• Zoning Board of Appeals, 5:30 p.m.

Tuesday, April 27

• Select Board, 5 p.m.

Wednesday, April 28

• Planning Board, 5 p.m.

Thursday, April 29

• Climate Action Committee, 10:30 a.m.

Conversation Starters

Accessory Dwellings Not Recommended

Planning board chair Anne Greenbaum started off an April 7 meeting by saying her board “is not anti-affordable housing despite what some people are saying.”

Then they voted unanimously against a petitioned article by Chris Lucy that would allow home owners to add accessory dwellings to property “by right” rather than going to the planning board for approval.

The dwellings, sometimes referred to as “mother-in-law apartments,” are already allowed in town; they must meet septic, setback, and other requirements. They are one of the tools recommended by the Cape Cod Commission to create more year-round affordable homes for Cape Codders who cannot otherwise find a place to live.

The major difference between what is allowed now and what is proposed by Lucy’s article is the process. Instead of going before a board, the applicant would simply apply for a building permit and the project would be reviewed by the building department.

The planning board voted against it for two main reasons. Greenbaum said it would eliminate notifications to abutters. Neighbors get notified only when projects go before regulatory boards.

Board member Jack Riemer said Lucy’s change would make every lot in town into a two-dwelling lot.

Lucy said that wasn’t true and that only four accessory dwelling units (ADUs) have been built in four years. Greenbaum said that by her count there are seven.

Even in communities where they are allowed by right, Lucy continued, there has not been a flood of applicants. Orleans has only eight, he said. Limitations for septic systems and lot size are barriers. Also, many people have no desire to add them.

But, Lucy said, there are 77 studios in the homes built in the Cape Cod National Seashore. On these large, three-acre lots which contain mansions, these studios can have bedrooms but not kitchens. If owners decided to convert these studios to ADUs it would not harm the environment, he argued.

Steve Sollog of the planning board said he wanted to first see the long-term effects of the six other changes to the ADU bylaws, which the planning had just voted to send to town meeting. Those changes focus on simplifying parking and other requirements.

Lucy said the effect is already easy to see. “We’ve seen the young people leaving,” he said.

Quoting an article in the Independent, he said, Truro has just 35 residents between the ages of 20 and 34.

“So, the long-term effect is here, folks,” Lucy said. “There are businesses that haven’t been open in months because of a lack of people who have come here to work.” —K.C. Myers