Too Much Of A Good Thing? Housing Plans Too Dense, Critics Say

CHATHAM – There’s strong agreement that Chatham is behind in its efforts to create housing, but critics say conceptual plans to create between 90 and 100 housing units on two town-owned parcels goes too far.

That was the message from the majority of people who spoke at last Wednesday’s forum on housing plans for the three-acre former Buckley property and the 3.5-acre Meetinghouse Road land. The town is concluding a year-long process to gauge public opinion on the best ways to develop the properties for housing before inviting potential developers to submit plans.

“I think it’s too crowded,” resident Elaine Gibbs said. “It seems like you’re jamming too many people here.” The conceptual design scenarios prepared by consultants Barrett Planning Group propose building 50 or 60 units on the Buckley property, arranged in townhouses, stacked flats or apartments. The Meetinghouse Road land would host 40 units in townhouses and stacked flats. The designs include common green spaces and parking areas with 1.5 spaces for each unit. All of the houses on the Meetinghouse Road land would be classified as affordable, as would around 70 percent of the units on the Buckley property; the remaining would be available as workforce housing. Half of all the units would be one-bedroom apartments.

“This plan attempts to solve all of Chatham’s housing needs that have been neglected for decades, in one fell swoop,” abutter Ella Leavitt said.

Those needs are acute, however, said Bill Bogdanovich. His company, Broad Reach Healthcare, employs more than 300 people.

“About five years ago we recognized housing as an ever-increasing barrier to the ability to retain and recruit front-line employees,” he said. Bogdanovich is also the board chair for the Housing Assistance Corporation, and said the lack of housing is leading to a shortage of medical professionals, teachers, public safety workers and those in the service industries. “The severity of this issue is only growing,” he said. He urged the town not to reject a good housing development in its quest to build the perfect one, “because there’s no time to wait.”

George Myers noted that a project undergoing review by the planning board would be allowed only 12 units per acre, far fewer than are proposed. “Compatibility with the surrounding neighborhood is a key housing concept in the Cape Cod Commission’s regional housing strategy,” he said. But the projects will be exempt from those limitations because they will be developed under a Chapter 40B comprehensive permit, bypassing most town regulatory boards.

“I guess you guys call it a ‘friendly 40B,’ but I don’t know how friendly it’s going to be,” Frank Messina said. The density of units will also impact vehicle and pedestrian traffic in the area, particularly around the dangerous intersection of Meetinghouse Road and Route 28, he said. He urged proponents to come up with a plan that is more acceptable to area residents.

“We could be setting ourselves up for some days in the courtroom, which means it’s going to be five years before anything happens. You’ve got to seriously think about what you’re doing,” Messina said. “There’s a lot of opposition to the density.”

A number of abutters raised concerns that the large townhouse and apartment buildings will be too close to their property and inadequately screened by trees. Resident Roland Martin said he believes respondents to a survey about the properties signaled a desire for less dense housing.

“It’s just not going to fit with Chatham,” he said. “We’re trying to get too much on too little land.”

“It’s not just a place to sleep. It’s a place to live, it’s a place for children to play with a playground with their own family patios where they can barbecue,” Gibbs said. The current proposals don’t have room for those amenities, nor are there sufficient parking spaces for working families, she said. “They should not be expected to take a public bus to go food shopping,” she said.

The town and its consultants expect to issue a request for proposals from potential developers, describing in broad terms the types of housing preferred for each site. It will then be up to developers to propose specific plans for the town to review, likely between six months and a year in the future. Units would likely be awarded by lottery, reserving a certain number of units for people with ties to Chatham, and the housing developments would be managed and maintained by the developer, acting as landlord.

The parcels were purchased with a combination of affordable housing trust fund money and town meeting appropriations, and no further town meeting vote is required for the projects.

Resident Stephen Buckley, whose family sold the Main Street parcel to the town for housing, urged organizers to hold another meeting to refine the plan.

“Another month or two is not going to make much difference,” he said. “Haste can make waste.”