Our View: A Poor Decision

Currently, Chatham has 175 housing units listed on the state’s subsidized housing inventory. That’s approximately 4.7 percent of the 3,698 housing units occupied year round as of the 2020 census. That percentage may be lower today; no doubt more homes have either been built or occupied by year-round residents since then, while no new subsidized units have been added. 

That’s significantly less than the 10 percent goal set by the state, the point at which a community reaches a “safe harbor” and can reject Chapter 40B comprehensive permit applications. Under Chapter 40B, as long as a town is below that 10 percent threshold, a developer can apply to the zoning board of appeals for waivers from certain town regulations and bylaws — increased density, for instance — if at least 25 percent of the proposed units are deed restricted as affordable under state guidelines.

If Pennrose builds the 98 units of affordable rental housing proposed for sites in West Chatham and South Chatham, the town’s percentage would rise to 7.1, still below the 10 percent threshold, but progress nonetheless. Last week the zoning board denied the company’s request for a comprehensive permit for the 42 units proposed off Meetinghouse Road, endangering that progress.

The reason for the denial — Pennrose’s rejection of building a sidewalk along Meetinghouse Road — is capricious and will most likely be overturned by the state housing appeals committee. It is also inconsistent with the ZBA’s approval of Pennrose’s 48-unit project on the former Buckley property along Route 28 in West Chatham. In that decision, the board required that a signaled crosswalk be built so that tenants could reach the sidewalk on the north side of Route 28. But they provided a caveat that should the company be unable to secure permission to do so from the state, which controls Route 28, they don’t have to put in the crosswalk.

The same language could have been added to the Meetinghouse Road decision, requiring that Pennrose work with the town to develop plans and cost estimates for a sidewalk, which a majority of ZBA members said was necessary for the safety of tenants. The path Pennrose proposed through the development to the Old Colony Bike Path — which then connects with a crosswalk to a sidewalk Pennrose agreed to build to the sidewalk on Route 28 — was not good enough for three board members. By this same logic, the Buckley property proposal should also have been rejected; there’s no guarantee a crosswalk will be installed, and Route 28 is significantly more dangerous to cross or walk along than Meetinghouse Road (a resident was killed earlier this summer while crossing Route 28 not far from the Buckley site).

The ZBA’s decision will further delay construction of both projects, which Pennrose has stated it planned to do in tandem to save on mobilization costs. It also puts Chatham further from a “safe harbor” under Chapter 40B and leaves the town open to other comprehensive permit developments. While some said the Meetinghouse Road site was not a good one for housing, it’s the only option on the table now. While not perfect, Pennrose’s plan for the property — sold to the town at a discount by the Diocese of Fall River specifically for affordable housing — was as good as it could be, given the challenges of the site. A sidewalk would be nice, but without having a detailed study, its viability is questionable.

Chatham is far from alone in not meeting the Chapter 40B “safe harbor” percentage. According to a 2025 matrix from the Massachusetts Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities, the only Cape towns to reach that goal are Falmouth and Orleans, and with recently approved projects, Harwich is closing in on it. Chatham isn’t the lowest, but it’s near the bottom of the list. Whether Chapter 40B is fair or not (an attempt to repeal it failed in 2010) really matters little; it’s the law, and inconsistent, unsupportable decisions will only make it harder to reject future comprehensive permits, as it shows an unwillingness on the part of the town to be open to affordable housing.