Housing Proposals Remain Secret; Select Board, Trust Wrangle Over Authority

CHATHAM – Town officials opened responses last Thursday from developers seeking to build housing units at the former Buckley property and the Meetinghouse Road land, though the details of those proposals remain secret for the time being.

Responding to the town’s request for proposals (RFP) for the Meetinghouse Road property were the Community Development Partnership and Pennrose. Both developers also submitted proposals for the Buckley land at 1533 Main St., along with the Housing Assistance Corporation.

Town officials are not releasing the details of the submittals, including the types of housing and number of units being proposed, saying that doing so could run afoul of the state’s procurement laws.

The affordable housing trust met to review the proposals in executive session Monday, and the trust and select board held a joint, closed-door session on Tuesday. No comments were made following the sessions. The trust was scheduled to meet again Wednesday, when members were expected to hear from representatives of the companies that submitted proposals. That meeting was posted as an executive session as well. Should the boards vote to recommend one of the proposals, the vote would have to be taken in public session. There is no indication when that will happen.

Boston-based Pennrose is currently redeveloping the former Cape Cod 5 headquarters in Orleans into 62 housing units, and may be chosen to develop the former Governor Prence property in Orleans. The Community Development Partnership, based in Orleans, built and operates Thankful Chase’s Pathway in North Harwich, 12 rental units that are part of some 92 rental homes it operates. Hyannis-based Housing Assistance Corporation built or helped with two rental housing developments in Brewster, Well’s Court and Brewster Woods, two of around a dozen developments on Cape Cod. While Pennrose is a for-profit developer, the CDP and HAC are both nonprofits.

The select board and the affordable housing trust continue to debate who will have the ultimate say over which proposals to select for the properties. After meeting with select board Chair Cory Metters and affordable housing trust Chair Michael Schell (who is also a select board member), Town Counsel Pat Costello recommended that one of the two boards be chosen to lead the process. That recommendation is a practical one, not a legal one, with the goal of having “a centralized and direct chain of command for project activity, such that outside interference and issues don’t become involved and bog the project down,” he said. The goal is to streamline the decision-making process for efficiency, Costello added.

Town staff recommended that, if it agrees with that approach, the select board should delegate project development oversight and review authority to the affordable housing trust. The trustees would make its final recommendation to the select board, which would execute the land disposition agreements and other contracts needed to authorize the development deal.

But last week, the select board was divided on that approach, and ultimately decided it was premature to delegate its authority — at least until its members learned the details of the particular development proposals.

“I’m not looking for a power struggle, but I feel an obligation to maintain our independence to some level in this process,” Metters said.

“So why then did we appoint an affordable housing trust?” board member Jeffrey Dykens countered. “And why did town meeting approve it, times three? Why did we seek applicants that are smart and talented, if not to negotiate with developers?”

Board member Dean Nicastro asked how he could be expected to delegate the decision to the trust without knowing the details of the development proposals. “I don’t even know what’s been offered to the town,” he said. “I can’t vote something blindly like that. I don’t think it’s responsible on my part.”

The select board took no action on delegating the authority for the projects, but said it would meet jointly with the affordable housing trust this Tuesday to review the submissions in executive session.

Nicastro asked whether it’s necessary for the review to take place behind closed doors.

“I read the newspapers all the time. Orleans, Brewster, Harwich, they’re discussing these proposals for affordable housing all over the papers,” he said. “How is it that the public can be engaged in that process if these deliberations have to happen in executive session?”

Costello said the law requires the details of proposals to remain confidential until town officials have completed their evaluation or until the date the town announced it would make its selection.

“Does that mean the board can’t say anything publicly whatsoever about the scope, nature or extent of the proposals? I would suggest not,” Costello said. But the board would be precluded from disclosing details that would create an uneven playing field for competing bidders, he said.

Despite having concerns about “the optics” of a joint, closed-door review of the proposals, Metters said he supports a simultaneous briefing of both select board members and housing trustees so both groups receive the same information at the same time.

“And then we take that information and figure out what the following steps are,” he said.