Housing Articles Proposed For Town Meeting

CHATHAM – Once again this year, housing is likely to be a major topic at the annual town meeting.

 The town’s community housing partnership has asked the select board to include two housing-related articles on the warrant. The group is also recommending a home rule petition be filed with the legislature to include fishermen among the groups eligible for affordable and attainable housing under the seasonal communities section of the Affordable Homes Act.

 One of the articles would ask town meeting to accept a seasonal community designation under the law, while the second seeks to authorize the select board to use funds in the attainable housing special revenue account. The account receives 1 percent of the revenue from the town’s tax on short-term rentals.

Community housing partnership chair Karolyn McClelland said the committee unanimously endorsed the recommendations at its Jan. 27 meeting. She asked select board members Jan. 28 to place the requests on an upcoming agenda for discussion. 

 It’s unclear if the town will have to accept the seasonal community designation under the Affordable Homes Act, sweeping legislation signed by Gov. Maura Healey last year that is aimed at providing communities with tools to combat the housing crisis. Barnstable County towns where more than 35 percent of housing is seasonal qualify for the designation, which provides communities with additional tools to develop both attainable and affordable housing. Chatham was one of nine Cape towns to receive the seasonal community designation from the state in December.

 But the Massachusetts Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities has yet to issue guidance as to whether the designation is automatic or requires acceptance by town meeting, McClelland said. The Nantucket Select Board recently endorsed an article for the town’s spring annual town meeting warrant asking voters to accept the designation, she said.

 “We just don’t want to miss the opportunity,” she said. If the state says a town meeting vote on the seasonal community designation is not necessary, the article would not be acted on, she added.

 The attainable housing special revenue account was set up in 2022 to collect 1 percent of the town’s short-term rental tax. The account currently totals $1,916,861, according to Finance Director Carrie Mazerolle, and its use requires a town meeting vote. The housing partnership request seeks to use the funds for attainable housing projects proposed for town-owned land on Stepping Stones Road and at 127 Old Harbor Rd. 

 While no specific plans have been approved for the properties, officials have sought preliminary plans for single-family homes on the Stepping Stones Road land and either apartments or houses on the Old Harbor Road parcel. Discussions have focused on both projects being focused on attainable housing for those who earn too much for income-restricted affordable housing but not enough to afford current market rate housing prices.

 Authorizing the select board to access the money would mean that officials could tap the funds for planning and other project needs, McClelland said. 

 “They can’t be spent on anything else,” she noted, and with a general consensus that both properties should host attainable housing, it makes sense to have the money available to facilitate the projects.

 Towns that receive the seasonal communities designation under the Affordable Homes Act are allowed to give preference to “public employees that are necessary to the health and safety of maintaining a year-round community,” including teachers, public works employees, public safety employees, first responders, town administrators and other employees essential for municipal operations. Commercial fishermen are not included, McClelland said, even though the industry is integral to the local economy and the town’s heritage.

“I’ve had fishermen say to me ‘you never do anything for us,’” she said, adding that in Chatham, year-round residency is required in order to obtain a commercial shellfishing permit. Adding commercial fishermen to the law could require special legislation, but buy-in from the advisory committee set up to develop regulations under the seasonal communities designation could be all that’s required, she added.

At the Jan. 28 meeting, Select Board Chair Michael Schell asked McClelland to submit language for the town meeting articles. She agreed to work on the wording with Housing and Sustainability Director Gloria McPherson.

Noting that voters at last May’s annual town meeting were tepid in their support for affordable housing funding, McClelland said members of the community housing partnership are committed to listening to the concerns of residents.

“There’s no way to make everyone happy,” she said, “but to get the broadest consensus to move forward, that’s the best we can do.”