Wellfleet lags in promoting accessory dwelling units
http://wellfleet.wickedlocal.com/news/20181129/wellfleet-lags-in-promoting-accessory-dwelling-units
November 29, 2018
WELLFLEET— Local experts say the easiest way to increase the amount of affordable year-round housing is for towns to loosen restrictions on accessory dwelling units (ADUs). Provincetown and Truro have done just that in the last two years. But Wellfleet has not — yet.
The Cape Cod Commission, the Housing Assistance Corporation, and the Smarter Cape Partnership, a coalition working to increase year-round housing, all recommend simplifying the rules governing ADUs.
“This bylaw change will add to the supply of market-rate housing, without costing taxpayer dollars, changing community character, damaging the environment, or eating up open space,” according to the Housing Assistance Corporation’s report “Housing on Cape Cod: The High Cost of Doing Nothing,” which was released last month.
Every town on Cape Cod has a bylaw allowing for accessory units, which can be either attached to the primary residence or stand as separate structures on the same lot, as long as the total number of bedrooms doesn’t exceed the Title 5 septic limits. Most of these bylaws, however, come with onerous restrictions that intimidate home owners, said Stefanie Coxe, a consultant and co-author of the HAC study.
So a model bylaw developed by the Cape Cod Commission is designed to remove the biggest hurdles. The commission recommends eliminating income requirements, which dictate that the units must be rented only to those meeting state income limits and thus qualifying for low-income housing. Most working people earn too much and are excluded from participation — even though they can’t afford to buy a house on the Outer Cape.
In the last two years, Provincetown and Truro voters adopted versions of the commission’s model bylaw, including getting rid of the income limit.
But Wellfleet’s planning board has resisted the change. Gerald Parent, the planning board chair, said lifting the income limit could pave the way for the ADUs to be rented out to vacationers, thwarting the purpose for allowing the units in the first place.
Truro’s and Provincetown’s bylaws both require that ADUs be rented year-round. In Truro, the bylaw requires that a lease and a signed affidavit be submitted annually to the building commissioner to ensure year-round occupancy. In Provincetown, the year-round requirement is written into the deed; violations would be enforced through civil court action, said Provincetown planner Jeffrey Ribeiro.
Parent said he’s skeptical that a year-round rental stipulation would be enforced, particularly in homes far from neighbors.
“Who monitors that?” Parent asked.
This year the Wellfleet Planning Board proposed other zoning bylaw amendments to encourage affordable housing, including one that gives a density bonus to developers who construct affordable units mixed in with market-rate properties. The measures were approved at town meeting.
Now, Parent said, the board will “slowly” look again at the accessory dwelling bylaw. Progress may indeed be slow because the board currently has three vacancies. It’s supposed to have seven members but has only four.
“I’m at the point where I’m having trouble operating,” Parent said.
Elaine McIlroy, chair of the Wellfleet Housing Authority, said her group agrees with removing the income requirement. But the housing authority does not want to be the ones to sponsor the change, because it would not specifically help low- or moderate-income residents.
“We would support it, if another board brought it forward with a year-round restriction,” she said.
The current Wellfleet ADU bylaw provides a tax break for the home owner. The value of the accessory dwelling is exempted from the tax assessment to encourage development of the units, McIlroy said. She suggested that a new provision based on the Cape Cod Commission model could be added to the town’s bylaws rather than replacing the current provisions — so they could both be offered.
A change in the ADU bylaw could still happen in time for the 2019 annual town meeting, said Joseph Powers, who is Wellfleet’s assistant town administrator and town clerk.
“It’s on my radar,” he said.
Wellfleet’s accessory dwelling program was promoted by the late Rex Peterson when he was the assistant town administrator; Wellfleet currently has 10 to 15 units that are rented out as accessory dwellings, but Powers said the bylaw is underused.
“The program is not anywhere near where it should be,” Powers said. “It will be my role to update the planning board. I understand their skittishness. The challenge is balancing their concerns with more opportunities.”
Wellfleet Affordable Housing 