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Walsh property

    TRURO HOUSING

    Five Years of Fits and Starts for Walsh Property

    A new ad hoc committee is told that water supply is the project’s next major hurdle

    By

    This article was updated on Dec. 10, 2024.

    TRURO — Political roadblocks, infrastructure challenges, and bureaucratic delays have kept the 69.9-acre Walsh property in a kind of limbo since Truro’s voters bought it for $5.1 million in 2019 and overwhelmingly endorsed the development of affordable housing there at town meeting last May.

    While external signs of progress have been few, there have been some recent changes at the parcel. One cottage was moved off the property in February to South Highland Road, where it was to be renovated into workforce housing. (The contractor, Cape Cod Builders, demolished it instead.)

    The other seven cottages on the Walsh property were demolished as planned in October.

    Also in October, a new ad hoc advisory committee for the future development of the parcel — the successor to an earlier Walsh Property Community Planning Committee, whose appointments had expired the previous October — began to meet weekly to chart a path forward.

    The town now aims to identify funding sources and issue a request for proposals from developers by March 2026.

    Achieving that goal, however, will require navigating at least 10 collaborative steps among the ad hoc committee, town staff, and a site engineer yet to be hired — including site planning, zoning evaluations, and traffic studies, according to a list of action items compiled by Assistant Town Manager Kelly Clark.

    One of the most pressing challenges appears to be getting water to the site. Even basic decisions about the number of units that can be built could hinge on resolving the water question, which Town Manager Darrin Tangeman called “the number one issue” facing the project at an ad hoc committee meeting on Nov. 6.

    “It’s going to constrain how we move forward,” Tangeman said.

    The existing public water supply allows for only about 25 percent of the proposed 160 housing units, Tangeman said, and securing the capacity to build the remaining units could take up to eight years.

    The town expects to gain more clarity on water within the next year, pending an analysis of current and future water demands related to other projects requiring public water, like the long-delayed Cloverleaf affordable housing development. A joint meeting of the Truro and Provincetown select boards on water-related issues is scheduled for Feb. 25.

    Constructing a water tower could take three years, while permitting a new well may take up to a decade, according to Health and Conservation Agent Emily Beebe and DPW Director Jarrod Cabral. Cabral told the ad hoc committee on Oct. 21 that he had initiated preliminary discussions with a consultant about a water tower. Beebe said that the water tower and a second phase of housing construction at the Walsh property would need to “come online” together.

    Committee member Todd Schwebel, who works in construction, expressed frustration with the slow pace of progress and said the committee should consider pausing its meetings until more concrete information is available.

    “Forty years I’ve been doing building — you got to know what you’re building,” Schwebel said. “Otherwise, you’re just wasting time.”

    Chair Jeffrey Fischer agreed that resolving the water issue was pivotal, but urged the committee to proceed with planning. “We should design a plan assuming we’re going to get” the water capacity, he said.

    ‘Cans of Worms’

    The ad hoc advisory committee received its mandate from the select board on Aug. 13: oversee development of the Walsh property, work with the housing authority to update Truro’s housing production plan, evaluate development proposals, and report quarterly to the select board.

    The committee’s members include Fischer, vice chair Morgan Clark, clerk Breon Dunigan, Schwebel and Lisbeth Chapman as members, and Anne Greenbaum and Jonathan Winder as alternates.

    Tangeman is an ex-officio member, and select board member Stephanie Rein and zoning task force chair Dave Bannard serve as liaisons.

    Schwebel and Clark both served for two years on the Walsh Property Community Planning Committee, while Fischer was an alternate. At the ad hoc committee’s first meeting, Clark circulated a document that she described as “processing my trauma from the first round of Walsh.” It emphasized the need to set clear expectations for the committee, town staff, and any consultants that might be hired.

    “If there is another consultant that comes in, they need to know what they’re doing, because we wasted so much time before, and you know that,” Clark said to Tangeman. “I want to make sure that this committee has purpose and gets things done.”

    Assistant Town Manager Kelly Clark presented a preliminary task spreadsheet to the committee that included water access, zoning, site planning, and funding, among many other items. “We know that as we open each of these cans of worms, there’s going to be more tasks added,” she said.

    At the Nov. 20 meeting, Greenbaum asked how the ad hoc committee could help implement the previous Walsh committee’s recommendations. “I think it would be very helpful if we could get more concrete,” she said.

    Chapman stressed the importance of educating the public about the complexities of the project. “Few people get to town meeting with a strong understanding of what we’re asking them to vote on,” she said. “I don’t think anybody has any idea how complicated water, wastewater, traffic, zoning, and energy can be when you’re trying to do this right.”

    Despite Tangeman’s warnings about the uncertain water supply, Fischer reiterated the committee’s focus on developing housing on the Walsh land.

    “I don’t think that we can let that hold us back at this point,” Fischer said. “I’m hoping by the new year we can hit the ground running and start doing some real work rather than just figuring out what we’re trying to do.”

    A Walsh Timeline

    2019: The town purchased the 69.9-acre Walsh property for $5.1 million.
    2020: The Walsh Property Community Planning Committee was formed.
    2021: The planning committee toured the property and began meeting in person.
    2022: Consultants from Tighe & Bond assessed the development potential of the property, recommending 35.5 acres of open space and 33.5 developable acres and offering 4 development options.
    2023: In January, the Walsh committee voted 7 to 3 to endorse 252 housing units, with 152 affordable units and 100 units of market-rate housing.
    In March, the committee agreed there should be 40,000 square feet of commercial or nonresidential space.
    In September, responding to public concerns, the committee voted 6-5 to adopt phased development and 9-2 to cut the number of units from 252 to 160.
    In October, the members’ terms expired and the committee dissolved.
    2024: Town meeting endorsed a nonbinding resolution supporting the 18 recommendations laid out by the Walsh committee in 2023 and established a new ad hoc advisory committee that began meeting in October.

    Editor’s note: Because of a reporting error, an earlier version of this article, published in print on Dec. 5, incorrectly reported the likely timelines for constructing a water tower and permitting a new well at the Walsh property. The water tower could take 3 years, not 10, and the new well permitting could take 10 years, not 3.

    DEMOLITION IN TRURO

    Builder Hired to Restore Cottage Tears It Down

    Cottages remaining on Walsh property can go, says commission

    By

    TRURO — Cape Cod Builders Inc., the Bourne company hired by the town to renovate a cottage for employee housing, instead demolished it sometime over the weekend of Oct. 5-6 without consulting local officials or the town’s engineers.

    TRURO TOWN MEETINGS

    DPW Plan Sent Back; Voters OK Walsh Proposal

    A two-day 12-hour marathon showed solid support for housing

    By

    TRURO — Last weekend’s town meeting marathon saw overwhelming support for multi-pronged efforts to build affordable housing. But when it came to plans to upgrade a dept. of public works facility, voters wanted almost none of it.

    THE TALK IN TRURO

    In Winter’s Civics Vortex, Reviewing a Meeting That Might Have Been

    Voters talk about their reactions to a special town meeting that was postponed

    By

    TRURO — The buzz about the special town meeting was not put off until May 4 — even if the meeting itself was. Debate over its two most controversial subjects, a new dept. of public works facility and the development of affordable housing at the Walsh property, has continued, eddying on Facebook and in real life.

    In this town where the post office serves as a kind of town center, a reporter stationed herself there for several hours on Friday, Jan. 19 and Monday, Jan. 29, hoping to tap into this winter’s civic vortex by asking those who came in for their letters and packages what they thought might have happened at the special town meeting if it had taken place in the fall.

    Of the 13 people interviewed, most said they had gone to the Nov. 28 meeting. They wanted to weigh in on plans for the Walsh property and the DPW facility.

    (Initially scheduled for Oct. 21, the meeting was postponed several times, with a fourth and final continuance on Nov. 28 after more than 700 voters turned out — a number beyond the capacity of the spaces at the Truro Central School.)

    Though they offered varied reasons for their guesses, and would have voted differently from one another, most said they thought the Walsh proposal would likely have been approved, while the $35-million proposal for the DPW was destined to be defeated.

    Parameters for development on a portion of the 70-acre Walsh property, which has been in the works since the town bought the land in 2019, comprise three of the meeting warrant’s 15 articles.

    Those 15 special town meeting articles will, come May 4, be considered back-to-back with the new items on the town’s annual town meeting warrant.

    The first of the Walsh articles proposes adoption of 18 recommendations put forward by the Walsh Property Community Planning Committee and consultants. If that resolution passes, the town will use it as a guide for soliciting proposals from developers on construction of affordable housing, asking them to meet the goal of building up to 160 housing units on 28 acres — a number significantly reduced from the committee’s earlier plans.

    A second article calls for the establishment of a six-member ad hoc advisory committee to act as liaison between town officials and the community as development plans get underway. A similar petitioned article is also on the warrant.

    The DPW is the subject of four articles up for consideration: one that would authorize the use of 340 Route 6 — next to the police and fire station — as the site of the new facility, and two mutually exclusive articles for the appropriation of either $35 million or $3.5 million for the project. The larger sum would fund the entire project from engineering through construction; the smaller amount would cover engineering only. There is also a petitioned article aiming to have the existing Town Hall Road facility refurbished according to a plan put forward by a group of volunteers.

    Of the $35-million DPW proposal, “People don’t want to spend that money,” said artist Diane Messinger, who had arrived at the November meeting an hour early and was among the 523 voters who made it inside the school building.

    Apryl Shenk, who is coordinator of the town’s community preservation committee, agreed that the ambitious DPW plan wouldn’t pass muster with voters, though for her the reason was evident before a price tag was attached: “People in town don’t feel the relocation is a necessary change,” said Shenk. “The DPW is a big one and I feel that a lot of people want to go with the existing location.” She cited worry about “detriment to the environment of creating a new space.”

    Truro’s DPW director, Jarrod Cabral, has said the current facility at 17 Town Hall Road is no longer meeting the DPW’s needs.

    “My feeling based on what I heard is the DPW project is a bit too rich,” said Martha Magane, a Truro Public Library trustee who will count votes this spring, as she has for the past six years.

    Of the Walsh property, Magane said it seemed to her that affordable housing “is up there in terms of importance” for people. She wondered, though, if that view held beyond her circle of friends.

    The post office crowd concurred. “The local population showed up and seemed to be very in favor of affordable housing,” said Tim Dickey, a builder and musician. He was among the 200 people waiting outside in the cold when the meeting got postponed. Dickey, who said he showed up specifically to vote in favor of housing development, went to grade school in Truro in the early 1960s.

    “I think there’s a lot of grassroots support for keeping the town viable,” Dickey said. Otherwise, he said, “no one’s going to be able to get anything done.”

    Robert Ross, a retired medical writer who said he made it inside the gymnasium just as the postponement vote was taking place, was hoping to raise his card in support of the Walsh property housing plan — and was expecting to be among the majority.

    “I think that Truro should be a functioning town,” he said. “To live in the town, you need to have housing for people who work in the town. We need teachers to be able to live here.”

    Ross identified himself as “on the side of young people, working people, and we need more of them.”

    Ross had also been planning to vote yes on the more expensive DPW article, though with less certainty. “I’m agnostic on the issue of the DPW,” he said, “but we have to support the government, because otherwise what are we?”

    Messinger thought the Walsh article “might have passed by a slim majority,” though she herself was planning to vote against it. She said she thought that the development at the Cloverleaf in North Truro, now projected to include 43 units, should be enough new housing for the town. She said she could envision a “much smaller” development on the Walsh property.

    Messinger said she doesn’t like it that her being opposed to the Walsh project makes people think she’s against affordable housing. “It’s important to listen to the housing people,” she said. “They have some reasonable thoughts.” She named Betty Gallo, a Walsh committee member who favors the development plan, as someone whose views she holds in high regard.

    Four people interviewed by the Independent who would not give their names said they were against the Walsh development article.

    Donna Turley, an attorney who works on Land Court cases, said she thought the Walsh article was unlikely to pass, given the amount of opposition she’d heard, though she said she’s in favor of it. Like most others, Turley was confident that the $35 million allocation for a new DPW facility wouldn’t pass, though she was going to vote yes.

    Jo Citron, a retired attorney and Wellesley College professor, said inadequate information on both of the big questions in the leadup to the special town meeting was an issue. “I think that the town did a terrible job explaining, publicizing, and rationalizing the reasons for what they wanted,” she said of the siting and plan for the new DPW.

    Citron said she was going to vote against the Walsh article because, without enough information, she was left with “too many questions.”

    Take Back Truro, which describes itself as a “citizens’ movement” whose goals include “keeping Truro rural” did not fill the information gap, Citron said, because she thought the group was “deliberately vague about its origins and agenda. I think their efforts created a lot of dissension.”

    Nor did she feel she could look to the Truro Part-Time Resident Taxpayers Association for clarity.

    “As a long-time member of TPRTA before I moved here full-time, I think it was outrageous for them to urge people to vote knowing, as they must have done, that it was unlawful,” Citron said. “I think that, more than anything else, created confusion, dissension, and bad feeling.”

    Ross and Shenk also raised concerns about the spread of misinformation. When it comes to opinions about the Walsh plans, “conjecture and hearsay are a big part of the problem,” Shenk said.

    Shenk, who declined to say how she would have voted, grew up in Provincetown. “I’ve always said if I were to write a book about growing up in Provincetown, I was going to call it ‘The Grapevine’ because of how word travels,” she said — adding that “word” is not always news. Sometimes, she said, it’s just “assumption.”

    For Eben Tsapis, Tuesday, Nov. 28 was a work night, so he couldn’t make it out to brave the line outside the school. He hopes May will be a different story.

    “I think the youthful generations need to step up,” he said. “We’re either going to be pushed out or make room for ourselves.”

    THE TRURO WARRANT

    Walsh Committee Prepares a Plan for Town Meeting

    Members push back on comments about the size of the project

    By

    TRURO — The 13-member Walsh Property Community Planning Committee has kicked into high gear as it prepares to present its plan for the use of the 70-acre property at an Oct. 21 special town meeting.

    Ruins of a long-ago neighborhood remain on the Walsh Property. (Photo by Hannah Trott)

    The committee has been working on the plan since it first convened in 2021. The town bought the Walsh property in 2019.

    In addition to an online survey and information gathering at tables at the farmers market, the transfer station, and elsewhere in town, the committee held a public forum on Aug. 16 that drew an estimated 150 people.

    Members of the committee and consultants discussed the opinions gathered at that event and other venues at the group’s meeting on Aug. 30.

    “There were certainly comments about the scope and size of the project generally being too large and too much affordable housing in one location,” said consultant Carole Ridley. “People would like to see less housing and more space for public recreation.”

    That would mean “pickleball, tennis, and a pool,” she said.

    The committee’s draft plan proposes the development of 252 units of housing in a 28.5-acre corner of the 70-acre parcel. The committee wants to see a mix of affordable and market-rate housing and proposes that 60 percent of the units be reserved for households earning between 30 and 120 percent of area median income.

    The actual number of units to be built and the economic profile of residents would depend on what a developer proposes. The town won’t build any housing itself but instead will make decisions on proposals that put together complex combinations of funding possibilities.

    Still, the committee will ask developers to meet close to 60 percent of the affordable housing need projected for 2023-2026 in the Truro Housing Authority’s Housing Production Plan.

    As for the feedback heard at the Aug. 16 public forum — that the 252-unit goal is too high — committee members pushed back, saying they had heard different points of view at other venues.

    “That was a lot of people of a very similar demographic,” said committee member Morgan Clark of the forum turnout. “And that has been a problem throughout this process.” Clark said that when she gathered views at Chapel on the Pond, a predominantly Jamaican church in North Truro, she heard community members asking for even more housing.

    Committee member Betty Gallo, who listened to community members at the church and the Truro farmers market, said she had gathered similar feedback. “It was sort of interesting to read what happened at the outreach meeting because it was pretty different from what happened in those two places,” she said.

    At events like the forum, Clark said, “We aren’t talking to the people who work all the time, who probably worked a double or a triple on a Wednesday in August.”

    Committee alternate Raphael Richter agreed, saying the committee should be “very happy that we received a good amount of feedback, but also be a little skeptical that we’re getting a broad cross-section.”

    A Resolution

    The committee’s draft article for town meeting consideration will go first to the select board this month for comments and a recommendation vote.

    The article will take the form of a nonbinding resolution, said Stephanie Rein, the select board’s liaison to the Walsh Committee. The motion is likely to read something like “to see if the town will adopt the recommendations of the Walsh Property Community Planning Committee contained in the report,” Rein said. The report itself will not be included on the warrant.

    Committee member Paul Wisotzky, who is now Truro’s moderator and will preside at the town meeting, asked a question that the committee had heard before: “What does ‘adopt’ actually mean?”

    “I want to be careful here,” said Town Planner Barbara Carboni. “I’m not town counsel.” But she said that a positive vote at town meeting would mean that “these are now the town’s recommendations for what it wants for this property.”

    Town Manager Darrin Tangeman said that, after town meeting, he will develop a request for proposals based on the committee’s report.

    Carboni said that the current deadline for the final version of the article to be printed in the warrant is Oct. 2, with a pre-town meeting scheduled for Oct. 5. With the select board planning to meet on the final three Tuesdays in September, Rein encouraged the committee to have the document prepared before the last minute. “Often there are questions or discussion, and sometimes it takes two meetings,” she said. “And this is such an important document.”

    With time dwindling, the committee discussed how to efficiently analyze about 300 survey responses and incorporate their suggestions into the final report. “Please, no word clouds,” Wisotzky said. “They are so misleading.”

    Rein supported a suggestion by Ridley that a bulleted summary of committee recommendations be included in the warrant in the absence of the full report.

    Gallo asked about the possibility of the article being amended on town meeting floor, which Tangeman confirmed could happen. “It would be amending that language, not the actual report itself,” he said.

    The select board has received a petitioned article from the chair of Truro’s planning board, Anne Greenbaum, that seeks to establish an ad hoc Walsh Property Design and Development Committee.

    Town counsel, however, advised the select board that the citizens’ petition is not in proper legal form. Still, said Rein, “The spirit of the petitioned article is appreciated.” She suggested that the select board might adopt the idea and create its own article for an ad hoc Walsh committee as development gets underway.

    Tangeman said that such a committee could participate in implementing the first development phase, evaluating it, and making recommendations for a second phase.

    The membership terms of the current Walsh Property Community Planning Committee, which has been meeting for more than two years, all expire on the date of fall town meeting.

    HOUSING

    Walsh Committee Readies Plan for Fall Town Meeting

    A website, surveys, and tables at the dump for gathering last-minute input

    By

    TRURO — The 70-acre Walsh property, which has been in the town’s possession since 2019, has been sitting in limbo on the eastern side of Route 6 since it was acquired. Special town meeting voters will get to weigh in on a plan for its use on Oct. 21.

    The Walsh Property Community Planning Committee has spent more than two years working toward a presentation for town meeting. The group’s dozen or so members, down from 17 when it first convened in 2021, have been working with consultants to compile their report.

    “We’re in the process of pulling together the reports to put up on the website,” committee cochair Eileen Breslin said. The committee has also been deciding on survey questions to gather opinions on Walsh-related issues ranging from development to open space, architecture, and traffic. That survey will be put on the website as well, Breslin said.

    The committee’s draft report synthesizes six “planning principles” for use of the site: addressing the need for community housing; environmentally sustainable development; community and recreation spaces; protection of water supplies; efficient land use; and meeting open space and habitat protection requirements.

    The draft lays out plans for the development of 252 housing units, a number the committee decided on in its first-ever vote last January. Of those, 152 units would aim to meet 60 percent of the need laid out in a draft of the town’s housing production plan. The additional 100 units would be market-rate “to help families stay within the community,” according to the draft plan.

    The vote for 252 units was seven to three. Breslin was one of three who voted no. She declined to comment on her thoughts about the committee proceeding with that plan for housing development.

    That housing quotient — and the allocations of land for commercial use (0.23 acres) and open space (40.2 acres) — is one subject on the survey that the committee is putting together. The committee is recommending a combination of townhouses, apartment buildings, single-family homes, and lots where residents can build their own homes. The survey will also solicit feedback about that breakdown of units.

    Respondents will also be prompted to weigh in on traffic concerns. Unsurprisingly, a traffic analysis by the Cape Cod Commission predicted delays for cars exiting the neighborhood during the summer months. An estimate of a three-minute delay was based on winter traffic at intersections abutting the Walsh property, adjusted for winter-summer traffic ratios at the Wellfleet-Truro town line.

    Now, the committee is awaiting real-time summer traffic data from the Cape Cod Commission, according to Town Manager Darrin Tangeman. He said on July 31 that the data are likely to be available sometime in the next 30 days.

    The survey will also ask respondents about wastewater and phasing the construction, stating that “developers have indicated that 40-60 units of housing per phase would be best.”

    The committee is also planning to conduct public outreach by setting up tables at the transfer station and farmers market. It will also hold a public session on Aug. 16, which Breslin said will entail a “brief presentation and an opportunity for the public to engage in conversation.”

    The committee will revise the existing draft of its plan based on the feedback it receives. “We will see how the public responds, and then we will take that under advisement,” Breslin said.

    Cochair Ken Oxtoby could not be reached for comment before press time.

    The committee’s charge is “to engage a wide range of Truro residents in developing plans for the use of the property to be presented at a future town meeting for approval.”

    Tangeman said he thought that the plan would be likely to appear on the warrant as a nonbinding resolution. “The town can’t implement any of these things,” he said. “It’s all going to be up to the developer,” he said.

    Although the warrant closes on Aug. 10, Tangeman said that the deadline is different for articles coming from town committees. “Internal proposals can be sent to the select board up until the time that they can approve it and print it as a warrant article,” Tangeman said.

    The warrant is usually printed two to three weeks before town meeting, he said, adding that the Walsh plan will have to be reviewed by Town Counsel John Giorgio of KP Law to ensure that it is in proper form.

    LAND USE PLANNING

    Traffic Study Does Not Arrest the Walsh Property Plan

    Commission projects an average summertime wait of 3 minutes to exit Walsh Way

    By

    TRURO — A preliminary study analyzing the effects on traffic of development at the 69.9-acre Walsh property did not put a stop sign on the planning committee’s current goal of building 252 housing units there. Summertime delays for people exiting the site, however, are likely.

    The data that Steven Tupper, deputy director of the Cape Cod Commission, presented to the Walsh Property Community Planning Committee on May 31 was based on existing conditions traffic data gathered using a radar unit. The study analyzed six major intersections on Route 6, including the property’s main entrance at Walsh Way.

    The first step was gathering crash data for each of the intersections from 2018 to 2022, Tupper said. The range of five-year crash totals went from zero crashes at the intersection of Cabral Farm Road and Route 6 to nine at an intersection slightly farther south, where Whitmanville Road meets the highway.

    “None of these intersections is considered high-crash from a regional perspective,” Tupper said.

    The study also included an analysis of sight distance, which refers to the length of highway that is visible when vehicles are turning onto it. Tupper used an estimate of 55 miles per hour to gauge a sight-distance minimum, which he said was “conservative,” because radar data showed that 85 percent of drivers travel at or below 53 m.p.h. in that area.

    The sight distance requirement for vehicles moving at 55 m.p.h. is 495 feet. There is more than 500 feet of visibility in each direction at the intersection of Route 6 and Walsh Way.

    “This is a fairly straight stretch of road, so there are really no issues in terms of sight distance currently at this location,” Tupper said.

    Traffic volume varies immensely by season. Because the Cape Cod Commission received the traffic study request in February, it could not include real-time data collection of summer traffic.

    But there happened to be radar units set up on the Wellfleet-Truro town line in February and July of last year, which allowed engineers to create “adjustment factors” to predict summer traffic. Based on that data, the Cape Cod Commission anticipates summer traffic volumes that are double February amounts on summer mornings, and 2.5 times winter numbers in the afternoons.

    The Cape Cod Commission’s forward-looking traffic models were based on 260 housing units and 32,000 square feet of commercial space at the Walsh property.

    The most severe predicted delays were for drivers exiting Walsh Way onto Route 6 on summer days. The average wait time in peak conditions, according to commission data, would be about 196.8 seconds, or just over three minutes.

    “Some would wait longer, some would wait shorter, but on average, that’s the amount of time that they would wait,” Tupper told the Independent. That data point resulted in a “level of service grade” of “F,” which appeared twice in the traffic report.

    “I do want to highlight that ‘A’ is not the goal,” Tupper told the committee. “Unlike a report card where you’d like to get an ‘A,’ here ‘A’ just means there’s no congestion and everyone’s free-flowing.” Tupper said that major highway intersections often reach E and F levels. “If you go up to a C, D, and even an F, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s problematic,” he said.

    Nonetheless, the scores drew some concern, including in public comments at the Walsh committee’s meeting on June 14.

    Tupper declined to comment on the feasibility implications of that specific predicted wait time. Whether it affects project plans “is something that the town will have to determine,” he said.

    At the June 14 meeting the committee also discussed other possible changes to its current development plans, including adjustments to the number of each housing type and the addition of market-rate home ownership units. Committee Co-Chair Eileen Breslin also proposed a reduction in the amount of commercial space from 32,000 to 10,000 square feet.

    Based on the committee’s current schedule, a draft master plan will be available for public comment from July 7 to Aug. 11.

    Finally, a concern from last month about continued consultant funding appears to have been resolved. Town Manager Darrin Tangeman told the committee on June 14 that “I can’t get into details, but I’m thankful to [Town Planner] Barb [Carboni] that she was able to garner a grant that will fund the entirety of the work plan.”

    Using internal, reserve, and grant funding, Tangeman said, “We have all the funds that we will need to fund the remainder of the work plan until Oct. 21.”

    WALSH PROPERTY

    Walsh Committee Stands by Its Housing Unit Vote

    A water tower may also be constructed northeast of the Walsh property

    By

    TRURO — When Tighe & Bond consultant Gordon Leedy presented a draft conceptual plan for 224 housing units at the Walsh Property Community Planning Committee’s April 19 meeting, the plan and Leedy’s comments alarmed several committee members.

    The committee, which has been meeting since 2020, voted in January to plan for the construction of 252 housing units on the 69.9-acre property that the town acquired in 2019. Of those, 152 would be affordable, meeting 60 percent of the need laid out in Truro’s Housing Production Plan; the other 100 units would be market-rate.

    A conceptual draft for the Walsh property’s 28.5-acre “Area A” presented at the committee’s April 19 meeting laid out plans for 224 housing units, falling short of the previously agreed-on 252 units.

    All of those units would be built on a part of the Walsh property marked “Area A,” 28.5 acres at the southwest corner of the tract that is topographically suitable for development.

    Leedy’s draft proposal, which entailed a combination of single-family homes, townhouses, flats, and two-story live-work units, fell short of the committee’s housing target by 28 units.

    “The scale of this plan is consistent with what Truro is generally,” Leedy said, adding that “I am not convinced that this site can carry even 224 units.

    “The denser you get,” Leedy continued, “involves more and more modifications to the site in terms of earthwork.”

    Leedy compared Truro to southern California, where “they go in with big earth movers and they carve out terraces for things to sit on. I don’t think that’s what Truro wants,” he said.

    Committee members expressed dismay at Leedy’s comments.

    “I do similar consulting, and I’m blown away by some of your comments, Gordon,” said committee member Morgan Clark. “I feel like they were overtly political.”

    Clark told the Independent that Leedy’s remark about what Truro wants was “a big leap.” She added that “it’s not appropriate for a consultant to make those assumptions.”

    Committee members pushed back against modifications to the ground as a meaningful deterrent to building housing.

    “I personally thought that was a misinformed opinion,” said alternate member Raphael Richter about Leedy’s interpretation of Truro’s wishes.

    Richter said housing has been the committee’s priority. “We have expressed a very strong desire several times to have a certain amount of density, and there is no fact presented so far that suggests that we cannot” do that, he said.

    Leedy also said he recalled the number 260 being water consultant Scott Horsley’s “absolute outside limit” for the number of units on the property. “I think the jury’s still out on whether this site can support that, given the proximity to the wells and given the cost of any kind of advanced sewage disposal system,” Leedy said.

    Committee member Paul Wisotzky said he recalled Horsley’s stance to be: “You could do as much as you want — it’s just a matter of building a system that has that capacity.” Wisotzky suggested asking Horsley directly.

    In September, Horsley presented the results of a hydrological study to the select board. It showed that “cluster wastewater treatment,” which would hook up community housing on the Walsh property with Truro Central School and several neighboring homes, would improve water quality over current conditions.

    Wisotzky questioned whether topography was necessarily an obstacle. “I wonder if there’s a way to actually use topography to our advantage,” he said, citing the multistory housing under construction as part of the town’s Cloverleaf project. “Density is both vertical and horizontal,” he said.

    Leedy ultimately said that the site could potentially accommodate more flats, although “there may be some parking issues. We haven’t really looked at the sewage disposal issues that exist on the site,” he added.

    “I think we would want to see a revised plan that shows the amount of housing units that we voted for,” Richter said, “or a reduction in the other uses, since we did not want to see other uses take away from housing.”

    Leedy’s plan included 10,000 square feet of commercial space as well as 15 live-work units; at its meeting two weeks earlier, the committee voted to explore up to 40,000 square feet of commercial space.

    Clark told the Independent that managing the scope of consultant guidance is not a responsibility that should fall on the Walsh committee. “A question is, where are staff to supervise the consultants?” she said. “That’s not a volunteer committee’s job.”

    A New Water Tank

    At the same meeting, Dept. of Public Works Director Jarrod Cabral presented a memo from the Horsley Witten Group about the siting of a new water storage tank to supply Truro.

    According to the memo, which estimates per capita water demand at 65 gallons per day, Truro used a total of 21 million gallons of water in 2022.

    The new tank is largely intended to supply water to residents of housing that hasn’t yet been constructed. “In evaluating a suitable location and design for a tank, the Town requested the addition of the future water demand for the proposed Walsh property and the additional buildout of 250 homes in Truro to the model,” the report says. The storage tank, which would also supply the Cloverleaf development, plans for up to 260 units to be built on the Walsh parcel.

    The proposed tank would have a capacity of either 750,000 gallons or 1 million gallons, with total costs of $9.3 million or $11.7 million respectively.

    The memo lays out two potential locations for the tank — one at the police station and another demarcated as “Walsh Property” on an attached map, which is actually situated on an adjacent parcel owned by Provincetown, Cabral said.

    “We had concerns in the past about other conceptual drawings that showed a potential water tower site in development area A,” Wisotzky said, “so I think it’s important to note that that is not the case.” Cabral confirmed that.

    The proposed spot is just northeast of the Walsh property and next to the North Union Field wellheads, which have surrounding “zone 1” and “zone 2” protection areas with radii of 100 and 400 feet. The water tower would be located in the zone 1 protection area. Committee members had questions, but Cabral said, “They assured us that this is something we can do.”

    Next Steps

    Based on the committee’s objections in March to the pace of Tighe & Bond’s proposed work plan, consultants Carole Ridley and Sharon Rooney presented an accelerated schedule.

    “We’re planning about a month of outreach through the month of June to give folks an opportunity to learn about the draft and weigh in,” Ridley said. Outreach will involve a combination of educating the public about the property and gathering input about community hopes for the site.

    The revised work plan would produce a “recommended master plan” in time for a special town meeting in the fall, likely in October. “It’s fairly compact,” Ridley said.

    “I think that given where we are, this is a good goal,” said committee member Russ Braun. “I think we need to push this thing forward. If it is tight, then so be it.”

    WALSH PROPERTY

    Panel Agrees on 40,000 ‘Non-Residential’ Square Feet

    Space for trade is at least twice what consultants brought to the table

    By

    TRURO — The Walsh Property Community Planning Committee was enthusiastic about allocating space for trade and other “non-residential” uses at its March 29 meeting, the group’s first in four weeks.

    It was also the first session under new co-chairs Eileen Breslin and Kenneth Oxtoby. Former co-chairs Fred Gaechter and Paul Wisotzky stepped down on March 1 after more than two years of service.

    At community focus groups on March 20 and 22, participants had advocated for workshop spaces, a food pantry, an early childhood center linked to Truro Central School, artist studios, and a commercial kitchen, among other possibilities.

    Committee members wanted as much space as possible for such uses without taking away from the future housing development that is the group’s priority for the 70-acre site. The committee voted in January to set 252 units of housing as an “interim number” for traffic and water studies, all of which would go on 28.5 acres of developable land at the southwest edge of the property.

    The committee’s consultants, Carole Ridley and Sharon Rooney of Tighe & Bond, brought two options to the March 29 meeting: one for 12,500 feet of commercial or non-residential space, and one for 20,000.

    Committee members wanted more.

    “I am a firm believer that economic development drives everything,” said Russell Braun. “Yes, housing is an important part of economic development, but I believe that 20,000 square feet of commercial space could get absorbed in this town in a heartbeat. I would start there.”

    “Can we do this and still have space for the housing that we talked about?” alternate member Jeffrey Fischer asked. “I’m concerned about squeezing out the housing to fit in other things that I don’t think are as important.”

    “I’ve come around from what I’ve heard from the community on the issue of small trade spaces for folks living there,” said alternate member Raphael Richter, who had previously opposed commercial development as a distraction from housing. “I think it’s very important that those spaces be tied to folks living there and not occupied by outside entities,” he said.

    Committee member Morgan Clark pushed back against restricting the non-residential spaces to Walsh property residents, saying the entire community should have a chance to use them.

    Clark suggested 40,000 square feet for non-residential space, but “never at the cost of eliminating housing.” She advocated for two larger areas — an early childhood center and a community kitchen or grocery store — in addition to smaller office and trade spaces.

    The committee eventually came to consensus on 40,000 square feet, and Ridley said that would be factored into further iterations of the master plan.

    During the discussion of commercial uses, member Christine Markowski expressed concerns about housing density.

    “You’re taking our most vulnerable people and stacking them up like books we’ve already read,” Markowski said. “They deserve individual homes where they can have a barbecue, a garden, a pet, and swings for their kids,” she said, adding, “This just feels like white privilege to me, not equity.”

    Markowski has frequently spoken out against larger numbers of housing units at the Walsh property. She was one of three members who voted against the interim number of 252 units in January, saying it “would change the entire complexion of this town.”

    Braun countered Markowski’s statements. “As a retired real estate developer and architect who has had experience developing ‘big A’ and ‘little a’ affordable housing, I can point out a project that I was involved in with 284 units of housing on roughly the same area,” he said. “If I showed it to you, you would think, ‘This has got more open space and places for gardens, swing sets, and barbecues than most of the places we live in here.’

    “You can’t bring your own visualization to this process,” Braun continued. “There are ways of doing these things that are going to provide all the amenities that people are looking for, and I’m talking about people that are vulnerable. We can do this on this parcel. I strongly believe that.”

    The 252 units on 28.5 acres would be about nine units per acre — slightly less than the recently funded Cloverleaf project 1.5 miles to the north, which has 39 units on 3.9 acres or 10 units per acre. The Cloverleaf project was hotly contested for years, and its density was a target for some critics, but the project was funded by the state last December and construction should begin this summer.

    An End in Sight

    The consultants also gave the committee a work plan that outlines steps to be taken to have a final master plan in time for a fall special town meeting, which according to the work plan, would be in November.

    This raised committee members’ concerns.

    “There’s a crisis in the community, and our pace needs to reflect that,” Richter said. He advocated that the committee seek to have a master plan ready by the end of September at the latest.

    Other members echoed the need for a faster pace.

    “The more time we give ourselves, we’re just going to fill it up,” Gaechter said. “I think we ought to be as aggressive as we can and expect that the town meeting is going to be September or October.”

    Rooney said the Local Comprehensive Planning Committee, which also has a contract with Tighe & Bond, is aiming to be ready by October. “September is probably unrealistic for them,” Rooney said.

    HYDROLOGY

    Water Quality at Center Stage on Walsh Property

    Three consultants have different takes on Truro’s 70-acre parcel

    By

    TRURO — Three and a half years after the town purchased the 69.9-acre Walsh property for $5.1 million, the long-delayed discussion of its potential use for community housing is starting to move forward. On Sept. 27, the select board heard water resources consultant Scott Horsley summarize the conclusions of his hydrological study: that a “cluster/neighborhood wastewater treatment facility” serving new housing on the Walsh land, the nearby Truro Central School, and some existing neighborhood residences “would result in a net water quality improvement compared to existing conditions.”

    Cottages 7A and 7B on the Walsh property in Truro. (Photo by Paul Benson)

    A report commissioned by the town from the engineering and environmental consulting firm Tighe & Bond and delivered in January 2022 identified 19.7 “developable acres” and recommended preserving 41 undeveloped acres as open space. The remaining acres have structures on them and are already considered to be developed.

    Tighe & Bond reported that, based on the site’s contours and elevation, groundwater would be expected to flow northeast to southwest, away from the two North Union Field wells at the northeast corner of the property, which supply 45 percent of Provincetown’s water. “The Project Site’s development potential is affected by the site’s steep topography, location within mapped rare species habitat, and location within a wellhead protection area,” the consultants wrote. The 19.7 acres identified as developable took these considerations into account.

    But a third consultant, Thomas Cambareri of Sole Source Consulting in Centerville, has produced his own report, dated Aug. 24, 2022, in which he contests Tighe & Bond’s hydrogeologic analysis. According to Cambareri, “Groundwater from the entirety of the Walsh property flows to the North Union Field wells, in large part due to the pressure exerted on the water table by these high production-rate wells.” His report emphasizes the importance of protecting the Walsh property as a source of water, noting that the Cape Cod Commission has identified it as a “future water supply site for protection under the Regional Policy Plan.”

    Cambareri’s report concluded: “Because of the vital reliance on the NUF wellfield for drinking water, the Walsh Master Plan must prioritize the goal of groundwater protection.” It did not include recommendations about developable acreage at the property.

    A New ‘Defense Fund’

    Unlike Horsley and Tighe & Bond, Cambareri was not hired by the town. He was retained by an organization called the Truro Environmental Defense Fund, which was incorporated in April 2021 and whose website states that it is “a group of concerned Truro citizens” who want to “take action to preserve Truro’s unique environment in the years ahead.” No names of officers, directors, or members are listed on the website.

    A map from the January 2022 Tighe & Bond report shows a 12-acre subdivision in the southwest corner and a large “developable area” adjacent to it. Another 41 acres are marked “open space.” The Truro Central School is to the west. (Map courtesy Town of Truro)

    Documents filed with the Mass. secretary of state’s office show that the president of the Truro Environmental Defense Fund is Joanne Hollander, who was one of the people who sued the zoning board of appeals and developer Ted Malone in an effort to stop the so-called Cloverleaf affordable housing project in North Truro. The treasurer of the group is Laura Kelly of North Eastham, a landscaper who also founded a group called Protect Our Cape Cod Aquifer. The clerk is David Morine of Great Falls, Va. Other directors are Cheryl Best of Truro, a former member of the charter review committee and a vocal opponent of spending town resources on affordable housing, and Daniel W. Holt of New York City. Karen Tosh, a former member of the Truro Planning Board, is listed as the organization’s legal counsel.

    Morine is the former head of land acquisition for the Nature Conservancy. He told the Independent this week that, contrary to the documents on file with the state, Brian Boyle is actually the president of the Truro Environmental Defense Fund. “The guy on top of all of this is Brian Boyle,” said Morine. Kelly also confirmed that Boyle was involved. “I originated it with Brian,” she said.

    Boyle is an electrical engineer and one of the “Docs for Truro Safe Water,” a group that has aggressively promoted misinformation about water quality standards, particularly those of the Cape Cod Commission. Its members have refused to answer questions from the Independent.

    When asked about the Truro Environmental Defense Fund’s motives for hiring its own consultant to evaluate the Walsh property, Morine said, “Fresh water is the biggest issue facing this country at this time.” He added that “this pro-growth attitude without putting water at the top of the list is insane.” Morine said that he has visited Truro “about five times.”

    “Is this really what the town wants to do with the property, put more town buildings on it?” said Kelly. “Of course, the town’s going to say yes.” She said putting affordable housing on the site was a question of logistics and of water being “hurt or contaminated — or able to flow.”

    Cluster Treatment

    The 69.9 acres of the Walsh property include flat uplands on its northern and southern portions; the land is bisected by a steeply sloping ravine. In the southwest corner of the property lies the primary road access, Walsh Way, and a subdivision of eight parcels containing eight cottages, five sheds, and three garages, all built between 1919 and 1940 and not regularly inhabited. The eight smaller parcels contain 12.6 acres between them and adjoin the Truro Central School, which lies on 7.9-acre parcel northwest of the Walsh property.

    The Cape Cod Commission and Mass. Dept. of Environmental Protection cap the nitrate-nitrogen concentration in groundwater in wellhead protection areas at 5 milligrams per liter, Horsley told the select board. The current concentration under the Walsh property, according to Cambareri’s report, is between 0.3 and 0.5 milligrams per liter.

    Horsley identified the Truro Central School as an ideal site to be hooked into a cluster wastewater system, given that its Title 5 system has a design flow of 3,500 gallons per day. Some nearby residences could also be included in the filtration system.

    Horsley served as the consultant for Wellfleet’s 95 Lawrence Road affordable housing development, which was approved by the town’s ZBA on Sept. 22. That project includes a cluster wastewater treatment system that will also treat the Wellfleet Elementary School’s sewage. Horsley describes 95 Lawrence Road as “not only a very needed affordable housing project, but a significant water quality improvement.”

    Truro select board Chair Kristen Reed told the Independent that “you can care about housing and water quality at the same time. Some think they’re mutually exclusive.”

    TRURO HOUSE HUNT

    Summer Employees Will Get a Cottage in 2023

    Walsh cottage will be moved to S. Highland Rd.

    By

    TRURO — Town staff plan to move a cottage from the Walsh property onto a town-owned lot where lifeguards, beach attendants, camp counselors, and other seasonal employees can live next summer.

    Cottage 10 has three bedrooms and one bathroom. (Photos by K.C. Myers)

    The select board on Aug. 23 approved moving either Cottage 10 or Cottage 13 on the Walsh land from its current location on a 70-acre swath of town land to a much smaller lot at 25 South Highland Road. The South Highland parcel is near the town’s former burn dump. Water testing there found no contaminants. A single-family home with an accessory dwelling unit (ADU) can be placed there “by right,” that is, without requiring a special permit or variance from the zoning bylaw, according to Dept. of Public Works Director Jarrod Cabral.

    The cottages are among eight cabins on the Walsh property, which the town purchased in 2019 for $5.1 million. The Walsh Property Community Planning Committee (WPCPC) members, who are now brainstorming a master plan for use of the property, concluded that that they did not want the town to use any of the cottages onsite, WPCPC Co-chair Fred Gaechter told the Independent on Aug. 30.

    “We felt the use would restrict the planning for the entirety of the property,” Gaechter said. “It would have restricted the master plan. We want to view the property as a blank slate.”

    The cottages are in various states of disrepair; they were used by the Walsh family after being rented out as part of a seasonal cottage colony during the 1940s and 1950s. Cottages 10 and 13 are in the best condition, Gaechter said, which explains why they are being eyed for town staff in 2023.

    At 881 square feet, Cottage 10 has three bedrooms and a single bath, according to a Weston & Sampson report on the Walsh property. Cottage 13 is a Sears, Roebuck kit home constructed in 1940 containing three bedrooms, a living room, kitchen, and a single bathroom. It was occupied seasonally until 2007, the report stated.

    Officials scoped out the cost of moving one of the cottages to South Highland Road and determined it could be done for $361,000, Cabral told the select board on Aug. 23. That includes a new foundation, septic system, and renovations, Cabral added.

    Cottage 13 is a Sears, Roebuck kit house built in 1940.

    Town Manager Darrin Tangeman told the select board the town must now formalize the cost with contingencies and seek funding from the Truro Housing Trust, which has $500,000, according to Kevin Grunwald of the Truro Housing Authority.

    “We do have a deadline to do this,” Tangeman said on Aug. 23, adding he would like to have the summer staff be able to occupy the cottage and an ADU next summer. Tangeman referred to a house that may be donated to the town as the ADU, but he was not available to explain further before the Independent’s deadline.

    Finding housing for summer employees has been a major challenge in Truro and throughout the Outer Cape. This summer, Truro offered $2,500 signing bonuses for camp counselors and lifeguards if they stayed through August. While that measure did bring in enough staff to run a summer camp, only 25 to 35 campers could sign up, as opposed to 100 in prior years.

    “We had hired staff and lifeguards who had to decline the offer because they couldn’t find anywhere to live that wasn’t too expensive,” Recreation Director Damion Clements told the Independent in June.

    Eastham had to cancel its popular swimming lessons, which once attracted 200 students, because the town could not attract lifeguards or swim instructors.

    The Truro Select Board had instructed town staff to research all town-owned property for potential “workforce” housing. The terminology applies to homes rentable to those earning between 60 and 120 percent of area median income, said Truro Principal Assessor Jon Nahas. Grunwald, however, said a better term is “community housing,” since it is more respectful of people living in affordable housing. They too, he said, are part of the workforce.

    Nahas presented two other properties where homes could be erected (or moved) without zoning variances. There is 340 Route 6, next to the town’s public safety facility. That 2.7-acre property is also being considered for a new DPW headquarters, Nahas said.

    The town owns 9.4 acres at 0 Quail Ridge Road, which is next to the Walsh property and the Cape Cod National Seashore. “We do need to work on access to that property,” Nahas said. It has the potential for many homes, he added.

    TRURO: WALSH WATCH

    ‘Hands-Off’ Approach to Planning Sows Confusion

    Town staff and Walsh committee members struggle to get on the same page

    By

    TRURO — “Am I crazy?” Steve Wynne remarked to his colleagues on the Walsh Property Community Planning Committee. “We’ve never discussed this, and now we’re seeing a conceptual site plan with the DPW smacked on the Walsh property.”

    It was March 16 and Jarrod Cabral, the Truro Dept. of Public Works director, had just run through a series of conceptual maps charting out possible configurations for a new DPW facility on the 70 acres of undeveloped town-owned land adjacent to the Truro Central School. The Walsh property is one of three locations under consideration for the expanded facility, alongside a spot beside the Public Safety Facility on Route 6 and the DPW’s current site near town hall.

    Town staff heard a series of objections from the Walsh committee members, who appeared to be blindsided by the proposal.

    Todd Schwebel, a builder and member of the committee, wanted to determine, right then and there, whether siting the DPW facility on the Walsh property should be considered at all. He called for a vote on placing the facility there, saying, “If we do, frankly, I’m going to get off the committee.” Two other members of the group supported Schwebel’s position.

    While affordable housing, recreation, and open space have been frequent discussion topics at committee meetings, Town Manager Darrin Tangeman maintained that other municipal uses, including sites for the DPW and for a water tower, were fair game when it came to Walsh.

    “It shouldn’t come as a surprise to anybody on the committee that there would be a proposal for a municipal use,” he told the committee. Identifying these uses, he reminded the members, was their charge, after all.

    The committee operates by consensus, and Morgan Clark sank Schwebel’s motion with an objection. “I am not consensus-ing with the rest of my committee,” she said. “This is not because I love the idea of having the DPW on Walsh, but I do recognize that when a town acquires 70 acres, you probably need to think about other things.”

    The confusion among the members stemmed from the lack of a “deliberate process” in proposing municipal uses to the committee, Tangeman told the Independent. The absence of such a process is tied to what Stephanie Rein, the select board’s liaison on the Walsh committee, calls the “hands-off” approach the select board has adopted to honor the terms of Article 11 at the 2019 annual town meeting. That article authorized the purchase of the Walsh property for $5.1 million and declared that a “working group of stakeholders” would decide on uses for the land. Town staff and the select board, meanwhile, have taken a back seat in the decision-making process.

    This hands-off approach has “created this environment where nobody’s talking to each other,” Rein remarked at the committee meeting.

    The Walsh committee is currently composed of 15 Truro residents, including one nonvoting student liaison. The group has been charged with gathering public opinion and then drafting a master plan to be presented at a future town meeting for approval.

    Although both Tangeman and committee members expressed frustrations at the March 16 meeting, Tangeman “saw the discussion that we had as being a productive one that will allow for more realistic conversations about future uses for the property,” he told the Independent.

    The committee agreed to consider hiring a master planner for the Walsh property. “We would expect that then we would have some leadership to take us down the path to coming to technical conclusions and getting our discussion focused on how to come up with a master plan,” Fred Gaechter, the committee co-chair, told the Independent.

    Tangeman anticipates that a master planner would also “help facilitate a comprehensive and coordinated planning process that would allow for a more synchronized proposal for the town,” he wrote in an email.

    In the next few weeks, the committee will be receiving the results of a town survey developed to inform Walsh planning, the Local Comprehensive Plan, and efforts by the Truro Housing Authority.

    AFTERMATH

    Kline House Cash Pays Walsh Land Interest

    Select board wants ‘freedom’ to direct future use of settlement money

    By

    TRURO — When the drawn-out legal battle over a modern mansion on Stephens Way ended in 2016 with a settlement giving the town $3 million, it was called “dirty money” and a capitulation to wealthy land owners.

    Now, that money is going to pay the principal and interest on the town’s short-term loan for the $5.1-million purchase of the 70-acre Walsh property adjacent to the Truro Central School.

    The settlement money is now titled the Dennis Family Gift Fund in the Truro budget, named for Thomas Dennis and Kathleen Westhead-Dennis, who agreed to pay more than $2.5 million over 10 years in exchange for an occupancy permit for a house that was built illegally. In addition, they paid $468,000 in fines and fees.

    The town spent about $250,000 in legal fees resulting from the dispute.

    One of several cottages on the 70-acre Walsh property now owned by the town. (Photo Nancy Bloom)

    The Dennis house has 8,333 square feet, with views of Cape Cod Bay, on nine acres. It was built in 2012. But because of litigation disputing the legality of the building permit, the house was not lived in for the first six years of its existence. It was, during that time, subject to a town-issued demolition order. The original owners, Donald and Andrea Kline, and subsequent owners Kit and Tom Dennis fought the town in court until the 2016 settlement.

    When the select board announced the settlement, they said town meeting voters would determine the best use of the money. But so far, no specific purpose has been set, said Assistant Town Manager Kelly Clark.

    Rather, payments have been made out of the Dennis fund for the Walsh borrowing: $116,847.22 was approved at the 2019 annual town meeting, and $124,550 was approved at the 2020 annual town meeting last September. A third payment of $275,750 is on the warrant for the 2021 annual town meeting in June. The first two amounts paid interest on the short-term borrowing. The third payment, if approved at town meeting, will cover interest and also pay down the principal for the Walsh property acquisition, Clark said.

    The Dennises agreed to make 10 equal payments of about $250,000 a year through 2026, she said.

    While the money could be used to pay down the Walsh loan every year, the select board doesn’t want to commit to that ahead of time. “The select board wants the freedom and flexibility in case something else comes up,” said Town Manager Darrin Tangeman.

    What the town does with the Walsh property, purchased in 2019, is undecided. From 30 to 40 single-family homes could be built there, according to a preliminary study by the Truro Conservation Trust. Possible uses that have been proposed include recreation, open space, affordable housing, or some combination of those. The Walsh Property Community Planning Committee has met twice so far, and will on April 28 appoint a chair or co-chairs, said Stacie Nicole Smith, managing director of the Consensus Building Institute, the committee’s consultant.

    When the town settled with the Dennises, neighborhood resident Joan Holt called the payoff “dirty money.” The Independent asked her if its use for the Walsh land had changed her view.

    “No, I have not changed my mind that it was, in some ways, a corruption of the system,” she said. “But it is water under the bridge. My big issue is climate change. I don’t want to comment on how it gets used.”

    CIVICS

    Consultants Will Help Decide Who Is on Walsh Land Panel

    Housing and environmental preservation are seen as competing interests

    By

    TRURO — Town officials have hired a Cambridge consulting firm to help figure out what to do with the 70-acre Walsh property, whose purchase for $5.1 million was approved by town meeting in May.

    The Consensus Building Institute (CBI) of Cambridge will set up a process to guide the Walsh property plan. Stacie Nicole Smith, managing director of CBI, wrote a nine-page draft on how to proceed. She “specializes in facilitating highly complex and contentious multi-party disputes around substantively challenging technical issues, where identities, values, and interests intertwine,” according to the CBI website.

    Smith was in Truro on Nov. 12 to go over the draft of the plan with the select board. At the board’s meeting that day many questions were asked about who will be picked for the Walsh Property Community Planning Committee and exactly who will do the picking.

    The committee will have 8 to 12 members. Those who wish to be appointed will apply to a “neutral facilitation team,” Smith’s draft plan states. This team will not be anyone from town, but from another consulting firm that has not yet been hired, according to Town Manager Rae Ann Palmer.

    Smith’s CBI was contracted to help officials begin the process. But the neutral facilitation team will be part of a new contract, which must go through a competitive procurement process, Palmer said.

    Truro Assessors Map
    The red area on this map shows all the lots that constitute the 70-acre Walsh property, the fate of which will be decided by a committee yet to be appointed. (Map courtesy Truro Assessor’s Office)

    The Walsh property, located behind Truro Central School, includes at least 40 acres of buildable land. According to an appraiser hired by the Truro Conservation Trust, the land’s “best and highest use,” a phrase used to determine the property’s market value, would be the development of 30 to 40 single-family homes.

    At least part of the Walsh land will likely be preserved as open space, since the Truro Conservation Trust kicked in $500,000 towards the purchase, said Palmer.

    It’s clear that housing and the environment will be competing interests in the coming debate over the property, and that seats on the planning committee will be highly prized, even though many vacancies exist on Truro’s other town boards and committees.

    “We have so much interest in this committee, it’s been heartening,” said select board member Sue Areson.

    The neutral facilitation team will review the applications, which have not yet been drawn up, and make recommendations to the select board, which will then appoint the planning committee members. (At this point, even the committee name is not final. Smith recommended calling it the Walsh Community Planning Committee, without the word “property.” But select board member Robert Weinstein said that sounded a bit too much like the “Jim Jones community.”)

    The next step is reviewing the application for committee membership, which Smith is drafting. There is no timeline for this review, Palmer said. No further meetings are planned. Palmer guessed that the select board will have something on its agenda in the new year.

    Asked if this process was proceeding too slowly, Palmer said no. “People wanted to be deliberate in the process,” she said.

    The select board is charged with picking a “balanced and broad range of perspectives, preferences, and demographics,” Smith wrote. These include part-time residents, tradespeople, youth, families, seniors, business owners, “housing/affordable advocates,” and “land conservation and open space advocates.”

    Cheryl Best, a citizen, strongly favored the latter. She told the select board on Nov. 12 that environmental concerns should not be relegated to a mere “interest group.”

    “We’re looking at a tract of land that is 70 acres, and somewhere it should state no harm should be done to that ecosystem,” Best said, adding that the very definition of success with the Walsh property should be the preservation of its ecosystem.

    “Do you think the residents of Truro agree that is a measure of success?” Smith asked.

    “I don’t know, but I speak for the trees,” Best replied. “I speak only for myself.”

    The draft community process for the Walsh property plan is posted on the town website at bit.ly/35Atevv.

    civics

    Provincetown’s Planner Heads to Truro for New Job

    Ribeiro sees opportunities in Truro to address problems both towns share

    By

    Jeffrey Ribeiro
    Jeffrey Ribeiro says the Walsh property in Truro offers a unique opportunity to work on conservation-based affordable housing. (Photo Paul Benson)

    PROVINCETOWN — Town Planner Jeffrey Ribeiro is resigning from his job this week to become the Truro town planner next week.

    The Truro position offers slightly more money, but according to Ribeiro that’s not the reason he’s moving — it’s that there are more interesting opportunities coming up in Truro. The Provincetown planner’s time is so completely consumed by the demands of permitting and development, he said, that there’s little left for the rest of his duties.

    The town planner is liaison and technical adviser to the zoning board of appeals, the planning board, and the historic district commission, and in a town with as much ongoing development as Provincetown, Ribeiro said, that aspect of the job tends to box out all other work.

    “The staff here in Provincetown is great — it’s not just a job for anyone here,” Ribeiro said. “People are really interested in the work they’re doing, and that doesn’t happen everywhere. We have a lot of Leslie Knopeses here,” said Ribeiro, referring to the amusingly overcommitted star of the NBC sitcom “Parks and Rec.”

    “And we have great boards,” he added, “the amount of work they do, and the degree to which they care about the underlying issues — it makes it hard to leave. I’m not paying lip service here. They’re authentically great.”

    But, he continued, he has little time for working on housing issues, developing the local comprehensive plan, or hearing from the public.

    “I was able to do more of that kind of work at the Cape Cod Commission, where I was before, and I’ll be able to do more of that in Truro,” he said. “It’s part of the job description here, too, but there is so much permitting work coming in, and it’s got to happen first. It’s urgent. The important but not urgent stuff just hasn’t been possible.”

    Ribeiro is excited about working in Truro because of both the land available and the people.

    “There’s a great group of younger people in Truro who are starting to get involved in a bigger way,” he said. “A lot of them grew up there, and they’re really engaged. In fact, there’s a lot of opportunity in Truro to address problems that both towns share. Provincetown couldn’t have businesses without water from Truro, but Truro also wouldn’t be so attractive without all those restaurants nearby in Provincetown. The workforce, the communities are tied together in a lot of ways. They’re shared communities with shared problems, and there’s a lot of room to work together.”

    Because of Truro’s larger lot sizes, the town could make good use of its accessory dwelling bylaw, Ribeiro said.

    “There are areas that could become vibrant villages, and that’s a discussion the town is having,” he said. “The Walsh property is an almost unparalleled opportunity. I worked on something at the commission called conservation-based affordable housing. The idea is, with a large property, you don’t have to make it into all one or all the other. The Community Preservation Act sets it up so you can do some of both.”

    Both Provincetown and Truro have had trouble getting their local comprehensive plan revisions off the ground. Provincetown finished its last LCP in 2000, and the rewrite that was begun in 2016 and then revived in 2018 is now “in a holding pattern,” Ribeiro said. “The Cape Cod Commission has just promulgated some new rules that make the process easier for towns to move through. There are several towns on the Cape that are struggling with this.”

    Writing a local comprehensive plan involves multiple community meetings on a half-dozen major subjects, such as economic development, affordable housing, open space, community services, and historic preservation. This kind of work is catnip to an urban planner, but this is also the work that Ribeiro wasn’t able to do in Provincetown, due to the steady demands of permitting.

    Asked if the position had grown too daunting for one person, Ribeiro hesitated.

    “I don’t want to say that,” he said. “I will say this though: I think one amazing thing about Provincetown is the scale at which it’s willing to tackle problems. The Year-Round Rental Housing Trust is innovative, outside-the-box, and it’s going to last. On climate adaptation, I think we are way ahead. As a town, we want to do big things that other communities don’t do. We don’t always have enough people to do all of those things. People here in this office encounter that every day.”

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