Wellfleet National Seashore Homeowners Association

Read the latest working draft of the Site Plan Review zoning amendment as revised by the Planning Board on June 18, 2008.

At its June 18, 2008, meeting, the Wellfleet Planning Board rejected Seashore District-specific provisions in the Site Plan Review draft bylaw it has been revising.  (See Minutes here.)

After the Board made further changes to its working draft, Chairman O’Connell said the Board should get the draft out to public hearing, add references to the NSP District, and let the Town discuss it.  For discussion purposes, he passed around a Seashore homeowner’s suggested Seashore-related additions to the Purposes, Applicability, Standards & Criteria, and other sections of the SPR draft.

Board member Stephen Oliver said he didn’t like “separating the Town and the Seashore”.  Alfred Pickard said, “The Park wants us to follow their Guidelines, but it delays responding to us.”  Gerald Parent said he didn’t like any part of these suggestions, and that the Board already had a draft.  O’Connell responded that he liked the suggested language on purpose and SPR trigger.  (more…)

The Blasch Del Mar LLC building permit was upheld by the Wellfleet Board of Zoning Appeals in a 4-1 decision on June 26, 2008.  The Board rejected the appeals of the Board of Selectmen, Cape Cod National Seashore, and a group of homeowners.  It is not yet known whether court review of the decision will be pursued by the U.S. Department of the Interior or others.  See details in “Wellfleet Backs Decision for Disputed Building Permit”, D. Fraser, Cape Cod Times, June 27, 2008, and “Zoning Board Upholds Trophy House Plan”, M. Miller, Wicked Local: Wellfleet, June 28, 2008.

In her blog article “A Short Summary of Building in Wellfleet“, Wellfleet writer and year-round B&B owner Alexandra Grabbe laments:

“Times have changed again and more property is up for sale, including some of the original summer cottages.  The term “tear down” has crashed into our vocabulary, as has “McMansion.”  With the construction of these mega houses, Cape Cod will change forever….

“The change will destroy the very quality that attracts people from all over the world.  The McMansion craze has reached such proportions that the town and the National Seashore are joining forces to oppose a house on a dune across from the Herring River Dike.  The Zoning Board of Appeals meeting on the subject will take place tonight [June 26, 2008].  The McMansion in question is a large, sprawling edifice that will replace the torn down “Billboard House” and sully the incredible view of National Seashore wilderness, precious to Wellfleetians.”

Seashore homeowner Tony Sager has urged the Planning Board to include specific provisions tailored to the Seashore zoning district in its Site Plan Review bylaw amendment:

“The Planning Board has labored long and, it appears, successfully to draft a Site Plan Review bylaw. As a taxpayer who observed the Board’s work, I am very appreciative of the Board’s members’ effort, time, and input in achieving this result.

As a homeowner in the National Seashore, however, I am concerned that the draft does not contain specific provisions relating to the character of the Park and improved properties within it.

There have not been any convincing justifications stated for excluding NSP District-specific provisions. On the contrary, there are clear reasons to include them:

Strengthen the Bylaw - Findings and decisions under SPR regarding an NSP District lot would be bolstered in further legal proceedings if the courts could refer to NSP-specific provisions in addition to the Town-wide provisions.

Protect Seashore Homeowners - Inclusion of NSP District-specific provisions would increase the likelihood of the bylaw’s approval by the U.S. Secretary of the Interior as conforming to federal regulations regarding preservation and development of the Seashore, thus protecting homeowners from condemnation and taking of their properties under the Seashore statute.   (more…)

Seashore homeowner Griswold “Gooz” Draz has proposed additions to the Planning Board’s working draft bylaw for Site Plan Review that pertain to Seashore properties.

He proposes Site Plan Review to be applicable to “Any property within the Cape Cod National Seashore that proposes to tear down, build anew, make additions, or relocations of existing buildings, and/or add new permanent ones that exceed the National Park Service’s 50% guideline regulation”.

He would also include in the “Standards and Criteria” section of the bylaw the provision that “For proposed projects in the CCNS District entailing new accessory buildings, rebuilds and/or additions to existing structures, the National Park Service’s 50% guideline regulation will be taken into consideration as a factor of evaluation”.

His full SPR bylaw version is here.

On June 4 and 11, 2008, the Wellfleet Planning Board made a line-by-line analysis of Assistant Town Administrator Rex Peterson’s revised Residential Site Plan Review bylaw of June 4.  The Board’s completed revision will be sent to Town Counsel for review. The Board hopes to consider Counsel’s legal review at its scheduled meeting on June 18, 2008. (The bylaw amendment as further revised by the Board will be made available on this site when it becomes public.)  Minutes of the Board’s June 4 and June 11, 2008, meetings are available.

Accompanying this SPR draft was a proposed sliding scale of maximum lot coverage that would reduce currently permitted coverage amounts in Residential Zones outside the Seashore and, in the Seashore District, would allow greater coverage on lots smaller than 2 acres.

Introducing this revised draft, Peterson wrote:

“Why Site Coverage? It seems that the issue we are really trying to address is size and more specifically volume. Two dimensional measurements like lot coverage, setbacks and height restrictions simply cannot address the three dimensional issue of volume. The Eastham site coverage definition very clearly states what is included and what is not. It also allows a three dimensional calculation to be made using two dimensional floor plans. We quite easily determine who meets the threshold …

“Why SPR? There has been much discussion about whether or not SPR is the appropriate zoning mechanism to control the size of houses. Because MGL c.40A, §3 seems to prohibit regulating the interior area of a single family home, regulations to limit the size of dwellings have generally been related to a ratio between lot size and structure size (floor area ratio or FAR) or have been subject to SPR. FAR has been challenged for regulating interior area. The advantage to SPR is that it does not prohibit or control any specific amount of interior space. The difficulty comes in trying to describe and evaluate the criteria that will be used to review a project. In essence, we are establishing a community standard for what is acceptable in our Town… Projects can be reviewed, conditioned and denied based on whether or not they meet the standards outlined in [SPR’s Review Standards & Criteria].”

Writing in Cape Cod Times, Doug Fraser reviews the mixed success of Eastham, Truro, and Wellfleet zoning laws in restraining out-of-scale homes that dominate scenic views and threaten the character of the National Seashore. Eastham’s rules keep houses in scale with their neighbors. Wellfleet’s zoning rules have been interpreted to allow large-footprint houses (but their proper interpretation is subject of zoning appeals board review in the Blasch case).

Both Wellfleet and Truro’s Planning Board’s are now looking for ways to control out-of-scale houses, looking to Eastham’s rules as a model. Eastham has been able to “allow the inevitable expansions to happen, but keep the scale down to the point where a new home or renovation doesn’t dwarf everything else in the neighborhood or diminish a scenic view,” according to its Planning Board chairman.

Whether stricter lot coverage limits alone, or Planning Board review alone, or both together is what is needed to stem the overscale house challenge is the question facing Wellfleet and Truro. And whether new town-wide rules will be adequate, as Wellfleet Planning Board Chairman Dennis O’Connell believes, without ones addressing the specific qualities of the Seashore, is also at issue.

Read Fraser’s full article here.

The Wellfleet Planning Board heard extensive public comment and had a working session on Site Plan Review at its May 21, 2008, meeting. Following comments by Seashore homeowner “Gooz” Draz in support of SPR and by Town officials regarding the April 14 SPR draft, the Board canvassed the specifics and pros and cons of SPR:

Planning Board members revisited their ideas on the parameters of a Site Plan Review (SPR) bylaw; the possible approaches to SPR; the advantages and disadvantages; and alternatives to SPR. Most members expressed their interest in having a set of Site Plan Review bylaws that covered the entire town, not just the Seashore District. The possible approaches to follow included: sliding scale; lot coverage with floor-area ratio; architectural review (This was not viewed favorably.); height-width ratio (an idea introduced by Harper); and conditioning to give strength to SPR.

The advantages of using Site Plan Review have been often reported by Eastham’s Planning Board, who already use this method. It helps in reducing height and massing; it takes into consideration steep slopes, flood plains, hilltops, dunes, scenic vies and wetlands; it sometimes makes incentives available for lowering height; and it takes into consideration what is appropriate for a neighborhood. (more…)

Wellfleet resident and Seashore homeowner Griswold “Gooz” Draz analyzed the building permits issued by the Town of Wellfleet in 2005, 2006, and 2007, and concluded:

“Ultimately, what this study suggests is that a Site Plan Review work load for the Planning Board would not have been an overwhelming task for the years 2005 to 2007.” (Read the full study here.)

In a second study, Draz compared the areas covered by the definition of “Net Living Area” used by Wellfleet’s Assessors’ Office with the definition of “Site Coverage” used in the Town of Eastham’s Site Plan Review (SPR) zoning regulations.   His analytical conclusion, regarding single family buildings, is that Wellfleet’s “Net Living Area definition is virtually the same as Eastham’s Site Coverage definition”, except that Wellfleet excludes roofed decks, screened porches, garages, and accessory structures.  His overall conclusion is “that a Site Plan Review process, one based upon a 3,000 sq.ft. Site Coverage trigger threshold, could readily serve the needs and desires of the Town of Wellfleet and its citizens to amend our zoning by-laws for the betterment of us all.”  (Read the full study here.)