Wellfleet National Seashore Homeowners Association

The Wellfleet National Seashore Homeowners’ Association’s annual meeting on July 27, 2008, concentrated on zoning issues raised by the large Blasch del Mar, LLC, house planned for a much-viewed Bay dune in the National Seashore.

A crowded meeting room at the Wellfleet Public Library applauded CCNS Superintendent George Price, Jr., when he entered and later heard Price, Wellfleet Planning Board chairman Dennis O’Connell, and Wellfleet resident and Blasch attorney Ben Zehnder discuss the legal framework for zoning in the Seashore and possibilities for amending it.

Many homeowners in attendence signed a petition calling for strengthened zoning to preserve the character and values of the Seashore.

For an article, with photos, on the meeting, see “Park Homeowners Applaud Blasch Appeal”, Marilyn Miller, WickedLocal:Wellfleet, July 30, 2008.

PETITION

We, the undersigned Wellfleet Seashore homeowners, believing that “mansionization” presents a serious and irreparable threat to the character of the Seashore and the community, urge the Planning Board and Board of Selectmen to propose Zoning Bylaw amendments which would specifically and effectively protect the character and values of the Seashore.

Dan Arons, MD
Susan Stahl
Paul Conor
Mary C. Jones
Susanna Chivian
Joan Shapiro
Sharon Dunn
Paula Kotis
Deborah W. Lajoie
Laura Hewitt
John Clayton
Penelope Jencks
Geoff Palmer
Peggy Gilson
Peter Watts
Peter W. Gilson
Catherine Shainberg
Herbert Gstalder
Leonora Hall Williams
Agnes Wolf
John Taylor Williams
Dorothy Altman
Maria S. Brown
Patricia Cohen
Helen James
Kathryn Weill
Bryden C. Brown
Anthony P. Sager
Joe Ferrer
Miriam Dickinson, MD
Pat Bartlett
Robert Wood
R. Bartlett
Jane Mansbridge
Sidney Hurwitz
Christopher Jencks

July 27, 2008

In a joint meeting on July 23, 2008, members of the Wellfleet Board of Selectmen and the Planning Board followed Selectman Ira Wood’s proposal that they air their views as to whether there are zoning problems facing Wellfleet, what these are, and what are solutions to them.

Wood began the meeting by noting the Selectmen’s March 11, 2008, tasking of the Planning Board, with assistance from the Cape Cod Commission and the CCNS, to prepare Zoning Bylaw amendments for Town Meeting.  He acknowedged that the problem to be addressed was never defined.  However, it was clear to all at the time that the problem was teardowns and large-scale houses in the Seashore, such as the 1440 Chequessett Neck Road project (frequently referred to by Planning Board members as “that house”).

Since March the Planning Board has drafted a “by right” Site Plan Review amendment for the entire town, having rejected specific provisions for the Seashore District; begun discussions of lot coverage percentage changes; heard from Town Counsel on weaknesses of its SPR draft and problems in the current ZBL; and aired its own members’ doubts about the utility of its SPR proposal.

Prior to the meeting the Planning Board received a 5-page letter from CCNS Superintendent George Price, Jr.,  detailing the views of CCNS staff of how best to craft zoning language to address problems of housing scale and mass in the Seashore.  The Board also received a memorandum from Wellfleet Town Counsel Betsy Lane on “options for control of reconstruction after teardown of single-family and two-family structures”.

By the end of the meeting it was clear to the Selectmen that they would have to act themselves to develop zoning amendments to deal with what Selectman Dale Donovan called “the more immediate and glaring problem” [of teardowns and large-scale buildings] in the Seashore District”, and would leave the Planning Board to work on zoning amendments for town-wide problems of house mass and scale.

A ZBL amendment by the Selectmen would go to the Planning Board for a report.  Any ZBL amendment by the Selectmen or Planning Board must be published and presented for public comment at a public hearing before being presented to the Town’s voters at a Special Town Meeting set for October 27, 2008.

Read the Minutes of the meeting here.

The Cape Cod Commission prepared two maps of Wellfleet for the Community Forum meeting on July 21, 2008.

“Wellfleet Residential Properties - Building Square Footage” shows the size of current houses (using the Assessors’ 2007 “net living area” data) and where they are located in Wellfleet.  Houses of different sizes are represented by different color pentagons on the map.  The map thus shows the scale of Wellfleet’s current housing stock mapped to individual land parcels.  The map identifies the Seashore portion of town.

View the map “Wellfleet Residential Properties - Building Square Footage”.

“Wellfleet Residential Properties - Site Coverage and Development Potential” shows the “build-out” potential that is allowed by Wellfleet’s current Zoning Bylaw.  Residential land parcels are individually colored to show the percent of the lot that is covered by the current house on the lot.  Parcels where the current house covers less than permitted by zoning — 5% in the Seashore District — are colored red; i.e., houses on these parcels can be built-out in the future to the maximum permitted.  Observers at the Forum noted the usefulness of the map in depicting how many properties in the Seashore, as well as in other parts of Wellfleet, could have larger houses built on them.

View the map  “Wellfleet Residential Properties - Site Coverage and Development Potential”.

To visualize “megamansions” on these parcels, see “Future of Wellfleet’s Seashore?  Megamansions Allowed under Current Zoning“.

The U.S. Attorney filed an appeal of the Wellfleet Zoning Board of Appeals decision rejecting the CCNS appeal of the Blasch del Mar, LLC building permit.  The appeal was filed in the Land Court Division of the Massachusetts Trial Court on July 23, 2008.

In a press release dated July 25, 2008, the National Park Service said:

“In the appeal, the United States requests that state Land Court rule on the authority of the ZBA to approve the building permit issued to Blasch del Mar, annul the permit, and enjoin all construction of the residence that is the subject of the permit. It further requests that the court remand the matter to the Town of Wellfleet for further proceedings, which would entail a Special Permit review process by the Zoning Board of Appeals on the intensification and increased volume proposed on a non-conforming property.”

Read the Complaint filed by the United States here.

See also “U.S. Challenges Wellfleet Zoning Ruling”, Doug Fraser, CapeCodTimes.com, July 24, 2008.

Congressman William Delahunt (D. Mass.) wrote to U.S. Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne urging the Department to appeal the Zoning Board of Appeal’s decision upholding the Blasch del Mar, LLC building permit for 1440 Chequessett Neck Road.  “If the department fails to act — and if the construction of this home is left unchallenged — it will open the door to additional large-scale construction projects that will significantly erode the character of the Seashore,” wrote Delahunt.  The dealine for filing an appeal in Land Court is July 25, 2008.  For the full story, see “Appeal urged on park construction permit”, Douglas Fraser, CapeCodTimes.com, July 24, 2008.

The Wellfleet Board of Selectmen have taken three steps to advance zoning reform proposals in time for voter consideration at a Special Town Meeting in the fall.  Since at least March, 2008, they have sought to have the Planning Board propose Zoning Bylaw amendments to prevent “mansionization” in the Seashore.

The Planning Board has produced a draft procedure for Site Plan Review which would recommend conditions on, but not prevent, building projects such as “teardowns” which are replaced by “McMansions”.  This draft lacks specific standards for the Seashore District as well as the “teeth” of Special Permit authority.

On June 24 the Selectmen voted to replace one member of the Planning Board with Griswold Draz, a Seashore homeowner, with the likely effect of altering the Planning Board’s 4-3 majority from one opposing effective Seashore protections to one favoring these.

At the Planning Board’s July 9 meeting, Town Counsel Betsy Lane informed the Board about the ineffectiveness of its SPR proposal, ways that Zoning Bylaws amendments adding Use conditions or performance specifications could achieve the desired results, and several Zoning Bylaw provisions in need of correction.  She gave the Board annotated comments on its SPR draft (see Lane’s cover note to these, explaining how the SPR draft’s objectives might be met by ZBL amendments.)  She also said she would provide the Board, at the Selectmen’s request, with a “menu” of options for ZBL amendments.  Which to adopt, she added, would be policy decisions for the Board to make, but first it would have to define the problem and decide on the goals.

The Board of Selectmen also advised the Planning Board that the Selectmen wanted a joint meeting with them on July 23, with the aim of having Zoning Bylaw amendments regarding the Seashore for voter decision at a Special Town Meeting on October 27, 2008.

Under Wellfleet’s current Zoning Bylaws, 84 existing houses in the Seashore can be replaced by:

 58 Megamansions of at least 13,068 sq. ft. interior area (6,534 sq. ft. lot coverage)

 like this   or this 

11 Megamansions of at least 10,890 sq. ft. interior area (5,445 sq. ft. lot coverage)

  larger than this   or this

15 Megamansions of at least 8,712 sq. ft. interior area (4,356 sq. ft. lot coverage)

   larger than this    or this 

Wellfleet’s present zoning allows for a house twice the square footage of Town Hall to be built on any 3-acre lot in the National Seashore that has an existing building to tear down. This is not an exaggeration. Town Hall is 5,000 square feet, [while] a footprint of 6,500 square feet and a 28-foot height is allowed on 3-acre lots in the park.

Wellfleet has over 55 such lots and using the nonconforming lot loophole the Blasches took advantage of, the number of such lots is much larger.

The Blasch house, at the mouth of the Herring River, passed the Wellfleet Zoning Board of Appeals this week. Grotesque as it will be, sadly, this house could have been twice as large without triggering any review by the town as to its size.

We have given the green light to corporate speculators and developers to build their dream houses here.

The time has passed when the role of our boards was to make it as easy as possible for people to build whatever they want.

Since lawyers for large house builders discovered that the park’s guidelines were not enforceable, it has fallen to the towns to enact zoning that protects this fragile resource. We have failed to do so. We have an opportunity now to pass sensible zoning bylaws, before our park starts to look like the Jersey shore.

-  Peter McMahon, Executive Director, Cape Cod Modern House Trust (ccmht.org), South Wellfleet

This was published as a Letter to the Editor, Wicked Local:Provincetown, July 11, 2008.  Cape Cod Modern House Trust preserves significant examples of Mid-Century Modern architecture on the Cape.

 Wellfleet Town Hall  

 The Gull Pond Area Conservation Association (GUPACA) urges its members to have their well water tested annually.  This is something all Seashore homeowners should do.  From the Summer 2008 GUPACA Newsletter:

We continue to urge all members and friends to have their well water tested annually for their personal interest and to help GUPACA build our well water quality data base. 

Bottles for testing well water may be picked up Monday through Friday from 8:00am to noon and 1:00pm to 4:00pm at the Health/Conservation office at 220 West Main Street (in the Department of Public Works building).  The Health/Conservation telephone number is 508 349-0308.  Water should be drawn on Wednesday mornings and dropped off at the Health/Conservation office by 9:30am that day.  (more…)

SCORECARD

Wellfleet Planning Board

as of Oct. 16, 2008

 Yes =  Board has proposed zoning to do this

 No  =  Board has rejected zoning to do this

 Maybe = Board’s proposal is ambiguous

 Nothing Yet = Board has not done anything