Select Board Gets Behind Proposed Old Tote Road Project

ORLEANS – A property on Old Tote Road could soon house four rental units, two of them affordable.

That’s the hope of the affordable housing trust fund board, which is ready to work out a purchase and sale agreement with the owners of the building at 22 Old Tote Rd. While four units currently exist in the building, only two of them are residential. The other two are commercial.

The select board on May 7 unanimously voted in support of the trust’s pursuit of the agreement. Under its charter, the trust needs the board’s approval in order to transfer or purchase real estate.

The board’s approval comes with a condition that spending on the parcel be capped at $500,000. That includes $480,000 for the purchase of the property as well as the cost of connecting to sewer. The property was connected to town sewer in February, said Kevin Galligan of the select board.

“We have two underperforming commercial units now connected to sewer,” said Elizabeth Jenkins, the town’s assistant director of planning and community development. “Old Tote is the exact type of neighborhood in which we would want to think about creating these missing middle housing types, and having the trust involved will ensure that they’re affordable in the future.”

The property is owned by Robert and Majorie Sparrow. Jenkins said that the Sparrows approached the town about the sale in an effort to secure deed restricted housing in one of the units for one of their employees at the Hot Chocolate Sparrow.

According to a letter of intent that was included in the packet for the select board’s May 7 meeting, rent on the deed restricted unit would be capped at $1,000 a month. The lease would only be able to be terminated at the tenant’s request, and the lease would not be transferable. The Hot Chocolate Sparrow would be a subleasee, and would be able to “sublease the unit for the purposes of employee housing,” according to the letter.

Hot Chocolate Sparrow would also have right of first refusal for four years on a second unit in which rent would be capped at $1,500 a month, the letter reads. The remaining two units would be rented at market rate.

Matt Cole, chair of the affordable housing trust fund board, said that the trust ultimately hopes to sell the property to a developer or other third party.

“The goal remains to find that partner so we are not in the title chain, but we have to be prepared to do so if we don’t find a developer in such time,” he said.

Select board members had questions about the trust’s ability to oversee a project that is only partially residential. Jenkins told board member Andrea Reed that the trust is allowed to take ownership of mixed-use properties.

“Essentially the rule of thumb is that the investment in the project has to be concomitant with the amount of affordability that is coming out,” she said.

“Will the restrictions placed on some of the units make the project less enticing to a developer?” asked Select Board Chair Mark Mathison.

“We’re going to find out,” Cole said. He said the “fallback” if a developer does not purchase the property will be for the trust to take title and ownership in the short term.

“That will buy us more time to again look at different ways of making the project more attractive in the marketplace,” he said.

The trust hopes to close on the property by July 15. The project marks the town’s latest effort to bring more affordable housing to Orleans, coming on the heels of the Pennrose development on West Road and the 14-unit affordable housing project at 107 Main St., which is currently under construction.

“This is excellent to roll into town meeting with as an example of the different types of ways that we are addressing this,” Town Manager Kim Newman said.

Email Ryan Bray at ryan@capecodchronicle.com