Residents Take Prence Worries To Select Board

ORLEANS – The property at 66 and 76 Route 6A has for years been a hollowed shell of what it once was. Today, little more than the bones of what was the Governor Prence Inn still stand off the busy stretch of road leading to Town Cove.

But as dilapidated as the former inn has become, for some in Orleans, there’s fear of what might be coming in its place. The zoning board of appeals is entering its third month of review on a plan to transform the 5.5-acre parcel into a 78-unit mixed housing project jointly proposed by Housing Assistance Corporation, Preservation of Affordable Housing and Habitat for Humanity Cape Cod. The board is scheduled to continue its hearing on the project on Aug. 18.

As the cost of housing continues to outpace what local workers and families can afford, advocates are hoping that the project, which includes 61 rental units at the rear of the property, 10 ownership units across two townhouses fronting Route 6A and seven single-family homes to be managed by Habitat, will provide the housing Orleans needs to keep people in town. But residents last week continued to raise concerns about not only the size of the project, but also the manner in which the project has unfolded.

The zoning board and residents have been critical of the project design, particularly plans for a large three-story building that would help house the project’s 61 rental units. Orleans resident Scott Zenke said that the building would “dwarf” the abutting Cape Cod Rail Trail behind it and eliminate bike access points to nearby businesses.

“It is atrocious,” he told the select board during the public comment portion of the board’s Aug. 5 meeting. “It’s going to be massive. Five full acres of development, looking up at it.”

Zenke was one of several residents who raised concerns during public comment about plans for the Prence property, which voters authorized spending $2.9 million to purchase in May 2021. Alice Thomason said she’s disappointed in what she saw as the lack of public feedback sought by the town on the proposed design. She also questioned the process by which the project has been reviewed by local boards, and said the proposed design strays from what the public intended when voters supported the purchase in 2021.

“I ask that the select board contemplate these issues and seek remedy,” she said.

Zoning board members have also raised concerns over the review process, which they say gives the board limited authority to make changes to the project. As a 40B comprehensive permit development, the applicants are allowed to seek waivers from various aspects of local zoning and town regulations in exchange for making at least 25 percent of the project units affordable.

Mark Norgeot said that the massing of the project goes against the look and feel of what many people have come to expect from the town over decades.

“What sort of gets at me a whole lot is what brought people to Orleans, vacationers who have been here 40 or 50 years now, came here for what Orleans used to be,” he said. “This project is going to twist that whole thing around.”

Others had questions about who the proposed 78 units will ultimately be rented to. Ron Conte, a 33-year Orleans resident, suggested that “Section 8” tenants that the Prence project might attract will upend the “delicate” nature of the town. The project does not call for any Section 8 housing, which is operated through a state voucher program.

Peter Haig, a local architect, said he was upset to learn that the local preference that would guarantee that up to 70 percent of the Prence units will go to Orleans residents will not exist in perpetuity. Instead, the local preference only applies to the first round of tenancy. After those units are turned over, all potential tenants from Barnstable County and the broader public are eligible.

“We were told, we thought, at town meeting that this was primarily for our young people, kids who have left the Cape because they couldn’t afford to be here, and that this would be an option,” he said.

Still others expressed concern over the direction the town is taking in the creation of housing in general. A total of 76 units came online in Orleans last year between the Pennrose/Phare development on West Road and HAC’s 14-unit affordable housing development on Main Street. Meanwhile, an additional 29 units of housing are currently under construction at the site of the former Underground Mall.

Orleans resident Stephanie Gaskill also pointed to HAC’s recent $2.9 million purchase of land on Cardinal Way, suggesting that still more housing development could be on the horizon.

“So that is another whole element of housing that may be coming into Orleans,” she said. 

But do the concerns raised to the zoning and select boards in recent weeks point to a broader shift away from supporting the development of more affordable and attainable housing in Orleans?

Select board Chair Mefford Runyon, speaking after his board’s Aug. 5 meeting, said he doesn’t believe so. While he said there are some in the community who might be against more housing, he believes concerns about the project design are driving much of the debate around the Prence project.

“In this case, and I honestly do believe it, I think that most people who are concerned about the aesthetics are largely in support of the housing effort,” he said. “So I don’t really want to view what’s going on as a referendum on support for housing.”

Some who spoke during the Aug. 5 public comment period directly appealed to the select board to reconsider or table the project currently before the zoning board. But Runyon said that’s unlikely to happen.

“From my perspective, it’s too late to stop it,” he said. “There’s all sorts of agreements between the town and the developer, and there’s a fair amount of money that’s already been spent on both sides. So finding a way to legally stop this would be, I think, impossible.”

What may transpire, however, is a renewed effort to educate residents on the project’s history. Among the public discussion that has arisen around the project have been questions about how plans for the Prence property originated.

“My question is, who made the decision that it was going to be housing, and when did that happen,” Mary Little asked the select board last week.

After the town meeting vote from 2021 to purchase the Prence property, the town explored different options for how to use the parcel. In addition to housing, options such as a community center, retail space and a theater were considered.

A planning committee charged with exploring those options and determining the best use of the property concluded in October 2022 that housing was the most desirable use. Specifically, the committee in its final report to the select board identified the need for a variety of housing, including affordable and attainable workforce rentals and options for homeownership. In June 2024, the town awarded a contract to HAC, POAH and Habitat for Humanity to develop the property over Pennrose. 

Runyon said there's been a "concerted effort" to gain public input on the project, from the initial decision to develop housing on the property through to project design. “So it shouldn’t be a surprise,” he said. But Runyon also said there's always room for more education. 

While he said he believes there’s broad support for the continued creation of more housing in town, Runyon said pushback over the Prence design could be evidence that the town needs to “pivot” away from traditional, large-scale state-funded housing. But that in turn will require the town to get creative in how smaller projects are financed without state funding.

“All of the projects that we’ve done have been of the traditional state-monitored and income-guidelined housing,” he said. “It has not really provided a housing outlet for the people that a lot of people in town really want to help. Public safety people, teachers, nurses, town workers, all those people who have been left out of this because they don’t qualify.”

The select board on Aug. 5 entered into executive session to discuss plans for demolishing the existing inn on the Prence property.

The  zoning board on Aug. 18 is expected to review specific waivers requested by the project applicants as part of the 78-unit proposal.