Housing Trust Gets An Earful On Pine Oaks Village Plan

HARWICH – Pine Oaks Village IV may have won its comprehensive permit from the town, but it still faces stern opposition from a group of citizens who spoke out at last week’s meeting of the affordable housing trust. 

For more than two hours, the trust heard almost exclusively from opponents of the planned 242-unit development in North Harwich, who urged the trust not to grant the project the $1.8 million it is requesting for the first phase of construction.

 Trust Chair Larry Ballantine began the Dec. 22 meeting by attempting to limit discussion to the issue of whether his panel should endorse the project, whether to support it financially, and to what degree.

 “We’re not going to try and re-litigate the [zoning board’s decision],” he said.

 But most of the citizens who spoke at the meeting raised familiar concerns about the size of the housing project, the environmentally sensitive location it will occupy, and the impacts it will likely have on area roads and other town resources. Resident Louis Urbano urged the trust to seek outside counsel, including independent legal advice, on whether by helping to fund the project, it might face legal exposure for the project’s impact on the schools and other local resources — both as a town committee “and potentially [as] individual trustees,” he said. The trust must perform its due diligence in investigating the project completely, Urbano said.

 “We have a 50-year history now of bringing housing to Harwich,” said Bob Doane of Mid-Cape Church Homes, the nonprofit developer of the Pine Oaks Village properties. “As of today, we supply half of the affordable housing in Harwich,” he said. Consultant Jim Perrine, working with Mid-Cape Church Homes, said Pine Oaks IV will have a density of eight units per acre, with the 242 apartments clustered on the 38-acre site between Queen Anne Road and Main Street. The project will be built in phases, and will include a sophisticated wastewater treatment plant designed to eliminate septic nutrient loading to the sensitive Herring River watershed.

 “We will be providing really comprehensive wastewater treatment starting from the beginning,” he said. The on-site treatment system will remove enough nitrogen to bring the entire development to the expected nitrogen load coming from one single-family house on a traditional septic system, he said.

 The apartments — 72 percent of which are classified as affordable housing, with the remainder described as workforce housing — will be built in three-story “lodge” buildings and smaller townhouses. In all, the project is expected to cost nearly $37.9 million, with most of the planned funding coming from private equity, a mortgage and the state. In order to make the case that local tenants be given priority, state officials prefer to see that the local community has contributed financially to the project, Perrine said. The project team is seeking $1.8 million from the affordable housing trust for the first phase of construction, and could seek more funding for future phases, as well as additional town funding from the community preservation committee.

 A number of citizens expressed concerns that the development will overtax local resources, including water. Resident Ann Howe noted that the Cape has a limited aquifer for its drinking water. “This is a lot of straws going into our very limited punchbowl,” she said.

 Resident Noreen Donahue noted that Harwich has big bills coming for its wastewater project and various other capital projects. “This is not the time to be spending money on this project,” she said. When the affordable housing trust was funded by town meeting, “we didn’t intend this,” she said.

 Local planning committee Chair Joyce McIntyre said it’s true that the town has a commitment to affordable housing, but said she doesn’t favor putting a large housing development on a sensitive environmental tract. “You can be for affordable housing and not be for this project,” she said.

 Former select board member Michael MacAskill derided the “sales pitch” provided by Mid-Cape Church Homes. “This is a conglomerate disguised as a church,” he said. Under Chapter 40B, the development is “something that’s been rammed down our throats by the state,” he said. MacAskill urged the trust not to spend money on the project, which he said will continue to cost taxpayers. “We are going to be burdened with this over and over again,” he said.

 Queen Anne Road resident Mary Nickerson said it’s clear to her that the town will need to significantly improve the roads around the area to accommodate the increased traffic from Pine Oaks IV, “with significant property takings. Does everybody here want to give up some land?” she asked the group.

 North Harwich resident Teresa Johnson warned that the developers will continue coming back to the town for additional Community Preservation Act funds as new phases of Pine Oaks IV are built. “Our taxpayers should not be asked to put this incredible amount of money into one devastating project,” she said. “There are so many other smaller projects that would actually preserve, create and acquire open space and/or restore historical resources rather than permanently destroy our town.” She urged the trust to decline the applicants’ request for funds. “They clearly are not our friends and neighbors because they don’t live in North Harwich and won’t deal with the aftermath of this project every day, like we will.”

 Speaking in favor of the project was Art Bowden, who acknowledged that development has caused Cape Cod to change. “It just is what it is. We want something that doesn't exist anymore,” he said. Bowden urged his neighbors to consider what they need versus what they want. “We want Cape Cod as it used to be. But what we need, we need housing for people that are making Cape Cod what it is today,” he said.

 Trust member Jeffrey Handler, a select board member, said he understands the housing crisis as a father of kids who find it difficult to live on Cape Cod. He said he’s in favor of housing, “but not at any cost to the community. Not without limits,” he said. Handler said he doesn’t believe that Pine Oaks IV needs the $1.8 million from the affordable housing trust, except to demonstrate that the project has local support. 

 “When this trust has the opportunity to vote, I’ll make my position clear right now,” he said. “I will not vote to support the funds that you have asked for.”

 Ballantine said the group will schedule additional meetings to consider the application and will hold a session at 5:30 p.m. instead of 1 p.m. in order to allow more working people to take part.