Zoning Board Nixes Single-Family Homes On Crowell Road, Would Rather See Affordable Or Attainable Housing

CHATHAM – A proposal to build three single-family homes on commercial property on Crowell Road has been shot down by the zoning board of appeals.

 At an Aug. 13 hearing, the board voted 3-2 against awarding special permits to Chatham Max Holdings to construct houses at 104, 114 and 124 Crowell Rd., property formerly occupied by the Meservey Accounting commercial building. The property is in a commercial zoning district, where special permits are required to build single-family homes.

 Board members said the property was better suited to affordable or attainable housing rather than individual homes.

 The location is “potentially very good for both workforce housing and, potentially, affordable housing,” said board member Paul Semple. Added chair David Nixon, the three, three-bedroom homes being proposed “are not going to be even vaguely affordable” and is not what the town “wants or needs.”

 Attorney William Riley, representing owner Ronald Rudnick, said the cost of the land and restrictions in the town’s zoning bylaw work against affordable or attainable housing on the property. Although Rudnick has built workforce housing — he developed the Stone Horse dorms in Harwich that house local workers — Chatham’s requirement that there be 3,000 square feet of land for each bedroom precludes similar development at this location. 

 “It’s the land area requirement that makes it uneconomical,” he said. To override the bylaw requirement would require a variance, which Riley said the zoning board has been reluctant to grant in the past.

 However, the budget bill signed by Gov. Maura Healey last month included a change to the state law governing zoning that eases the requirements for granting variances. While not making a commitment, zoning board members said they would be willing to entertain a variance that would allow workforce or affordable housing on the Crowell Road property.

 “It’s pretty clear what we would like to do,” said Semple, “and we would prefer not to have three houses going in there.”

 Although the property is zoned commercial, there is “simply no marketplace for commercial construction in this area,” Riley said, adding that the zoning board has allowed several single-family homes in the Crowell Road business district, including three on Hydrangea Lane and more recently a large home near the Crowell Road-Route 28 intersection. 

 “All the demand for commercial space is along the Route 28 corridor and Main Street,” Riley said.

 Crowell Road resident Betsy Bray disagreed, noting that there is limited commercial property in town “and we must protect the remaining, limited commercial areas.”

 “Once we give it up, we’ll never get it back,” she said.

 Rudnick pushed for a decision from the board, saying he needed to turn his attention to two other projects he is working on that may provide workforce housing. He said he had two sites under agreement, one of which was in an area allowing flexible zoning. Flexible zoning districts are located in West and North Chatham and allow the planning board to grant a special permit for multi-family and mixed-use development. Rudnick cited Seacrest Village, off Route 28 across from The Cornfield complex, as an example of a flexible zoning project he had developed.

 Rudnick said land costs are the biggest impediment to building workforce or affordable housing in town. 

 Expanding areas where flexible housing is allowed should be considered, Select Board Chair Jeffrey Dykens said.

 “It’s going to take a stretch, going to take some work from the planning board, but going forward I think the town has been screaming for attractive, attainable housing, and the only way we can possible pull it off in town is to increase density and have smaller lots, flexible zoning, so we can have multiple homes on a lot,” Dykens said.

 The board’s vote rejecting the special permit request covered all three proposed houses. Plans showed the lots ranging from 16,000 to 20,000 square feet, with the two-story houses running approximately 4,000 square feet each.