Prence Housing Project Begins Local Review

ORLEANS – One of the town’s most long-discussed and anticipated housing developments began the local review process earlier this month.

The site plan review committee on April 1 gave its preliminary review to the proposed 78-unit mixed housing development planned for the site of the former Governor Prence Inn on Route 6A. The project, which is being advanced collaboratively by Housing Assistance Corporation, Preservation of Affordable Housing and Habitat for Humanity Cape Cod, seeks to transform the 5.5-acre site at 66 and 76 Route 6A in a mix of rental and ownership housing.

The review committee had few notes on the project, which is next set to go before the zoning board of appeals for a special permit next month.

Plans to redevelop the former inn property go back a number of years. Voters at the May 2021 annual town meeting authorized spending $2.9 million to purchase the property with the hope of converting into affordable and attainable housing. Funding for the purchase came from both the town and the town’’s affordable housing trust fund.

In June 2024, the town awarded a contract to HAC, POAH and Habitat to develop the property. David Quinn, vice president of real estate for HAC, told the review committee that the project has been undergoing review at the state level to be approved as a 40B development.

“We just got that approval back,” he said.

Plans presented to the site plan review committee show the 78 units across two large buildings, two townhouses and seven single-family homes on the property. The large buildings will hold a total of 61 rental units, with 40 in the first building and 21 in the second. The townhouses, referred to as buildings three and four, will each house five ownership units fronting Route 6A. 

At the rear of the property, Habitat for Humanity will develop seven single-family homes that will also be available for ownership.

There will be a total of 122 parking spaces on the property; 88 for the two large rental buildings and 20 for the townhouses. Each single-family home meanwhile, will have a driveway with space for up to two vehicles, according to Tarja McGrail of Tighe and Bond, the firm that is engineering the project.

Plans also call for two curb cuts allowing for traffic to enter and exit the property from Route 6A. Because 6A is a state road, McGrail said the curb cuts need approval from the state Department of Transportation. A new septic system and water system is planned for the property, which will also be serviced by underground electricity, McGrail said. 

Joe Ficociello, the project’s landscape designer with Halverson Tighe and Bond, said that a common area will be situated in the middle of the development, complete with lawn space and an area for paved seating. There also will be a handicap accessible walkway linking to the nearby Cape Cod Rail Trail, he said.

Ficociello showed renderings that showed walkways around the development surrounded by native plantings, something that was not lost on Conservation Agent John Jannell, a member of the review committee.

“This is an excellent planting plan,” he said. “Normally I’d be asking for natives, but it’s come in 100 percent native, even down to the herbaceous material.”

George Meservey, the town’s director of planning and community development who chairs the review committee, also praised the project’s outdoor lighting as “completely compliant and totally appropriate” for the development. He also asked that a final plan be presented to the review committee ahead of the developers’ hearing before the zoning board.

 “This is probably the biggest wholesale redevelopment for housing the town has seen since the 1980s, let’s just say,” he said. “So I think having a final plan set would be appropriate here.”

McGrail said that the project will seek a number of waivers from the zoning board, including those related to front setbacks, building heights and the number of allowable units in some of the buildings.

Building Commissioner Davis Walters said in an email Monday that the project could be listed on the agenda for the zoning board’s next meeting on May 20.