Wellfleet National Seashore Homeowners Association

In his blog reporting on Wellfleet’s Annual Town Meeting on April 28, 2008, in Cape Cod Today, Peter Robbins cites WNSHA as a “NIMBY group” that is “trying to establish their own building rules within the park, paying no attention to existing ones”. He forecasts “fireworks” at the Zoning Board of Appeals hearing on the Blasch case, which he describes as “a hole [sic] new can of worms”. Robbins describes himself as “Confronting and resolving difficult issues throughout the country and abroad”.

Wellfleet voters approved spending $100,000 to restore the 1950s Modernist “Kugel/Gips House” in a vote at Annual Town Meeting on April 28, 2008, the Cape Cod Times reported. The house is owned by the Cape Cod National Seashore but the Park does not have funds to restore or operate it. There are other CCNS-owned Modernist houses of architectural significance which the Cape Cod Modern House Trust seeks to repair and maintain. “Mid-Century Modern” houses on the Outer Cape are getting attention from preservationist groups like Cape Cod Modern and Modern Cape Cod, as well as the Provincetown Art Association and Museum.

In a well-attended meeting at the Wellfleet Senior Center on April 2, 2008, the Wellfleet Planning Board had a lengthy discussion of “large houses” and what to do about them. The Board first reviewed Eastham’s Site Plan Review process, heard comments from the public, and ended with an open discussion of possible zoning changes. At the meeting were Board Chairman Dennis O’Connell, Barbara Gray, Stephen Oliver, Gerald Parent, Alfred Pickard, and David Rowell (also of WNSHA’s Executive Committee), plus Assistant Town Administrator Rex Peterson. Minutes of the meeting on this topic follow:

Discussion of Large Structures
[Chairman] O’Connell introduced invited representative from the Eastham Planning Board, Mike Cole, who explained their use Site Plan Review for large houses. Cole gave an overview and history of Eastham’s Residential Site Plan Review. He said there were triggers of size and floor area ratio of livable space that send a building plan to Planning Board for review. It’s an attempt to quantify massing, Cole said. Their Planning Board has criteria on neighborhood character, and view sheds. Eastham Planning Board meets once a month and usually deals with around three Site Plan Reviews and often with continuances at each meeting, Cole said.

Mr. Cole explained about their lot coverage, which includes all finished and enclosed areas of the structures. He said farmer’s porches were excluded because they alleviate solid massing. Eastham does not have provisions for impervious surfaces, Cole said. Architectural review is another consideration that Eastham does not make, according to Cole. He also answered questions from Planning Board members regarding Eastham’s Water Protection District. Cole said their bylaw had provisions for visual impact with regard to steep slopes, flood plains, hilltops, dunes, scenic views and wetlands. (more…)

A proposed 5,700 sq. ft. house on a prominent hillside at “The Gut” on Griffin Island has upset many residents because it would dominate the view of the dunes, the narrow neck of land leading to Great Island, and the Bay beyond as seen from long stretches of Chequessett Neck Road, the Herring River, and part of the Harbor. The site is in the Cape Cod National Seashore. The “Billboard House” at the site was an illegal replacement of a smaller house there at the time of the creation of the Seashore.

Here are overlay images of the project at its site (click on a photo to enlarge):

Here are satellite photos of Wellfleet Harbor with the site circled (click on photo to enlarge).

Status of the Project:  The “Billboard House” has been torn down and removed.  Appeals of the building permit by the Wellfleet Selectmen, the CCNS, and Bound Brook Island homeowners were rejected by the Zoning Board of Appeals on June 26, 2008.  For detailed reporting on the ZBA hearing, see “Wellfleet Backs Decision for Disputed Building Permit”, D. Fraser, Cape Cod Times, June 27, 2008; and on prior ZBA hearings, see “ZBA Begins Deliberation over Trophy Home Proposal”, M. Miller, Provincetown Banner, May 8, 2008, or “‘Billboard’ House Draws Crowd at Appeal Hearing”, M. Miller, Wicked Local: Wellfleet, May 8, 2008.  The United States appealed the ZBA decision to Massachusetts Land Court on July 23, 2008.

News articles and commentary on the project and residents’ and officials’ responses to it include:

“Supersized Home Design Has Wellfleet Couple in Doghouse“, S. Ebbert, Boston Globe, Sept. 1, 2008 (review of Blasch house dispute, zoning proposals)

“It’s Wellfleet AGAIN!”, Cape Cod Today, May 1, 2008 (blogger questions Selectmens’ appeal of Blasch building permit to Zoning Board of Appeal; mentions Selectmens’ legal claims and includes Town correspondence on notice requirements for amending zoning by-laws)

“Work has started at ‘Billboard’ House”, The Cape Codder, April 21, 2008 (work on septic system begins while building permit appeal is pending)

“Zoning changes eyed for trophy homes”, The Cape Codder, April 3, 2008 (Wellfleet Community Forum discussion on zoning and trophy homes)

“Historic Opportunity for Wellfleet“, B. Harold, Cape Cod Times, March 25, 2008 (opinion columnist applauds Selectmen for calling on Planning Board to protect the town and the Park)

“Blasch house permit appealed”, Banner Online, March 13, 2008 (Wellfleet Board of Selectment, CCNS Superintendent appeal building permit to Zoning Board of Appeals)

“Blasch house is flashpoint for Seashore”, Banner Online, February 28, 2008 (CCNS Advisory Board discussion on scenic and environmental impacts)

“Selectmen Rescind Vote to Refer Big House to Cape Cod Commission,” The Cape Codder, February 28, 2008

“‘Shoebox House’ Revamp Worries Selectmen“, The Cape Codder, February 15, 2008 (Selectmen review two projects for large houses in Seashore, refer one to Cape Cod Commission)

Ownership of the Project:  The property being developed is owned by a Delaware limited liability corporation, Blasch Del Mar, LLC.

Effect of the Project on Scenic Views:  The U.S. Senate Committee Report on the bill which created the Cape Cod National Seashore wrote about the views from and of this area:

Jeremy Point, Great Beach Hill, and Great Island, containing approximately 500 acres, were once separated from the Cape but are now connected to it by a narrow sand barrier called the Gut.  Aside from their intrinsic scenic qualities, these islands give one the feeling of isolation, not as a remote wilderness but as being separated from the rest of the peninsula.  From points on these islands one can view the traditional life and activity of the Cape–clam diggers along the beach, fishing boats in Wellfleet Harbor, sails in the cove, the north shore, and distant Provincetown.  (S. Rep. 87-428, 1961 U.S. Code Congr. and Admin. News p. 2212-2238 at 2214)

Do you think large-scale houses like this one, another one twice as large planned for a bayside site in the dunes on Bound Brook Island, and similar ones that could follow, will change the character of Wellfleet and the Seashore?

Please add your comments by using the “Comment” link below!

Some communities and states protect their dunes, sand cliffs, coasts, and shorelines from being built on by using zoning overlay districts to protect scenic vistas.  For example, on Martha’s Vineyard there is the Chilmark coastal zone overlay district (see “Other Cape & Islands Towns’ Zoning & Regulations“).

Would this approach work and be desirable in Wellfleet and the Seashore District?

There seems to be no alternative to going into the Mass. FAIR plan and having very large deductibles, because private insurers are not writing policies at all on the Cape.  Is there going to be any legislative or regulatory relief, or change of the insurance companies’ practices?

For a Lower Cape citizens’ group that is seeking reform, see Citizens for Homeowners Insurance Reform.

WNSHA members Susanna Deiss Chivian, Peter Watts, and Tony Sager wrote to the Wellfleet Planning Board before its April 16, 2008, meeting:

Re: Large Houses – “Site Plan Review Plus”

We are Wellfleet homeowners in the Seashore who support the Planning Board’s efforts to address the problem of large houses.

Excessively large houses in the Seashore detract from the traditional character of Wellfleet, the natural environment of the Park, and the ways of life grounded in both of these, which our families have enjoyed for decades.

In hopes of aiding the Planning Board, we respectfully submit the following as “Site Plan Review Plus” intended to give the Board more effective tools for achieving its goals in the Seashore District:

1) Limit the scale and mass of new or altered houses by adopting a Site Plan Review process (like Eastham’s but with criteria designed for the specifics of Wellfleet’s Seashore District) AND by adopting tightened standards for lot coverage, height, setbacks, and the like in the Seashore District.

2) Protect scenic views and the environmental, scientific, historic, and cultural values of the Seashore District’s dunes, bays, ponds, and waterways by the use of Overlay Districts AND by use of Site Plan Review.

We believe that a package of layered standards and procedures, such as those suggested in paragraphs 1 and 2 above, would be more effective than SPR alone and would be explicitly flexible and fair so as to permit, for example, the addition of two bedrooms to a small house in the woods but prevent the construction of McMansions on highly visible dunes or shores.

If it is more feasible and practical, we would support, as a first step, amending the zoning provisions affecting the Seashore District in the ways suggested above, even before amending zoning for the entire Town, so as to gain experience with how the new provisions work in practice.

Please let us know what other topics you would like information about, or would like to tell us your opinion about, as well as anything else you think we should be doing.  Test page.

WNSHA was formed because of unfairly high taxation of Seashore District properties.  Now, by Massachusetts law, all property assessments have to be at or very near full and fair market value.

The Town Assessor’s information on assessments, abatements, and exemptions is here.  We wrote about the Wellfleet assessing procedure in a publication WNSHA on Wellfleet assessments (2003).

Residential property sales in Wellfleet may be viewed on the Massachusetts Department of Revenue’s website (select “Wellfleet” as “Town”, “101-Single Family” as “Type”, click on “Search” for data results and map locations).

On more than one occasion, WNSHA has advocated with the CCNS and the U.S. Department of the Interior that, having approved Wellfleet’s Zoning By-Laws as in conformity with the Department’s regulations on minimum zoning standards, they cannot lawfully threaten to revoke certificates in order to put pressure on Wellfleet to revise its Zoning By-Laws.

Some people would like to see tightened zoning to prevent Wellfleet from turning into an upscale suburb of large-scale ‘trophy’ houses.  Should this apply to the whole town or, first, to the Seashore District?  Should there be stricter standards for the Seashore District?

The Wellfleet Community Forum sponsored a discussion of the impact of “trophy” homes on Wellfleet. The Cape Codder, April 3, 2008.

The CCNS Advisory Board discussed the history of zoning in the Park and current issues arising from proposals to build large or enlarged houses on private properties in the Park at its meeting on December 11, 2007. Advisory Board member from Wellfleet Peter Watts, who is also a founder of WNSHA and on its Executive Committee, added historical background on zoning issues and the origins of WNSHA. CCNS Superintendent George Price spoke of the Park’s original understanding that zoning would be shaped in conjunction with the towns, and of the Park’s right as an abutter to appeal a building permit in an appropriate case. See CCNS Advisory Board Minutes 12/11/07, especially pp. 6-30.

In a zoning case decided January 7, 2008, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court said it “recognizes that many municipalities do not welcome the building of structures that represent the popular trend of ‘mansionization’. This is especially so when the structures involve reconstruction on nonconforming lots.” The Court’s decision interpreted the Massachusetts Zoning Act as treating the large-scale alteration of a conforming house on a lot smaller than the zoning district’s minimum size as an increase of a non-conforming use, which requires a special permit under the Act. (Bjorklund v. Zoning Board of Appeals of Norwood, 450 Mass. 357 (2008).) This special permit may be issued only if the zoning official or board makes a factual determination “that such change, extension or alteration shall not be substantially more detrimental than the existing nonconforming use to the neighborhood”. (The Zoning Act, Mass. G.L. ch. 40A, sec. 6.) Thus, town zoning officials have legal tools to prevent a neighborhood’s smaller houses being replaced by “McMansions”, wrote The Boston Globe’s Kimberly Blanton in “Top Court Backs Towns in Curbing McMansions“, January 8, 2008.

Out-of-scale or “trophy” homes may be few, so far, in a small town like Wellfleet, but their growing numbers and impact are a national problem, according to the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which has published “Teardowns by State and Community” and “What’s Wrong with Teardowns: A Visual Analysis” and offers a “Teardowns and McMansions Resource Guide“.

The Massachusetts Zoning Act defines “zoning”, states its purpose, and empowers a town to adopt zoning regulations:

“Zoning”, ordinances and by-laws, adopted by cities and towns to regulate the use of land, buildings and structures to the full extent of the independent constitutional powers of cities and towns to protect the health, safety and general welfare of their present and future inhabitants.

For an overview of zoning options in Massachusetts, see the Commonwealth’s “Smart Growth / Smart Energy Toolkit: Zoning Decisions“.

Here is a concise summary of zoning in the U.S.:

“First, zoning is a regulatory tool for implementation of a plan. The plan may be nothing more than a desire to reinforce existing patterns of uses, a general notion about separating incompatible uses or, ideally, a comprehensive plan for desired future conditions based on an understanding of the value and carrying capacity of natural resources, economic trends, growth projections, societal needs, capacity of infrastructure, interrelationships among uses and activities, etc.

“The second basic feature of zoning is the division of a community into uniform districts or zones. Third, within each zone certain uses are permitted and others are not. This is the essence of zoning: the segregation of incompatible uses so that different uses do not have an adverse affect on each other. (more…)