Meetings are held remotely. To watch live, go to truro-ma.gov and follow the “helpful link” to Truro Channel 18.
- Town Hall will be closed Thursday, Dec. 24 and Friday, Dec. 25 and again on Thursday Dec. 31 in observance of the holidays. As of Dec. 22, there were no posted meetings for the upcoming week of Dec. 24 to Dec. 31.
Conversation Starters
Covid-19 Update
As of Dec. 17, Truro had 3 active cases of Covid-19 and 18 total cases to date, according to the state Dept. of Public Health.
Threatened by Erosion, Peretz Wants to Move
When she built her home at the end of North Pamet Road in 1991, it was 175 feet from the edge of the dune. Today, just six feet remain of Anne Peretz’s back yard, she said in a phone interview on Dec. 22. For the first time, she is staying there all winter.
“I started off with 3.1 acres and I have 2.5 acres now, more or less,” said Peretz.
Peretz is asking the planning board if she can demolish the home. She wants to have a smaller structure rebuilt on the same lot, but 130 feet away from the edge of the dune.
The planning board is in the midst of a site plan review; the next hearing is Jan. 6 at 5 p.m. The zoning board of appeals will take up Peretz’s request for a special permit and a variance from setback requirements on Jan. 25.
“I hope they say yes,” Peretz said. “There is not a lot of time left here.”
Three years ago the zoning board rejected a similar request. But she hopes the year 2021 will be the charm. The house has 3,167 square feet. No square footage for the proposed new house was listed on the plans before the planning board. Peretz said it would be smaller than the existing house, but she did not have the exact number of square feet.
When it was constructed in 1991, the house at 112 North Pamet Road was controversial, an example of how homes within the Truro part of the Cape Cod National Seashore could be greatly enlarged.
But Peretz said she did follow the Seashore’s guidelines. The lot had an 800-square-foot cottage on the property for years. To comply with federal guidelines, Peretz added to the original size by 50 percent to get 1,200 square feet. And then she added an attached studio of 600 square feet. This followed all the rules, she said, although the rules did not include basement space, and much of the home is “underground,” she said.
The new home will use the materials and much of the design of the first home.
“We’re going to take all the floors. They are old barn floors,” she said. “And we’ll take all internal doors and some of the external doors — not any on the east because they are so worn out with sand and grit — and all the fixtures. So hopefully it will look like this house.”
—K.C. Myers
