Scott Van Voorhis
Sometimes I wonder if we’re all living on the same planet here in Massachusetts.
There’s Planet Reality, of which I am a proud member. On our generally fact- and reason-based planet, we love our beautiful state. But we also we realize that a dire shortage of homes and apartments affordable to the middle class is a major problem. And we know there is only one way to fix the problem: Build more homes and apartments.
Then there’s Planet NIMBY, which is constantly convinced everyone is corrupt and out to screw them, with local officials and developers leading the way. Where the rest of us on Planet Reality see a housing crisis, the residents of Planet NIMBY believe they are battling to protect their towns from the greedy developers whose sole goal in life is to ruin the “character” of their communities by importing hordes of no-good, low-down renters from the big city.
Where Planet Reality sees apartments that might actually be affordable to their kids’ teachers or the DPW guy, Planet NIMBY sees the makings of a crime-ridden public housing project.
The latest carping from Planet NIMBY, though, comes not from Boston’s bustling suburbs, but rather from those hotspots of rampant housing development better known as the little towns of Dennis and Chatham, way up Route 6 on Cape Cod.
You see, neighbors in Dennis are up in arms, as Planet NIMBY members almost always are, about plans for a new apartment project. But this isn’t any old rental project, but rather a new development of monstrous proportions, one that would put up 28 – yes, 28!!!! – new apartments.
The standalone, two-bedroom rental units would take shape on a 5-acre lot in a residential neighborhood of Capes and other modest, single-family homes. Most of the new apartments would be rented out at market rates, with seven set aside as affordable units.
At a recent hearing in Dennis on the proposed Beach Plum Village, neighbors didn’t hold back, arguing the families who would rent units at the new apartment complex would pose a menace to the wellbeing of the otherwise quiet little Cape town.
The local Planet Nimby contingent argued the still-theoretical newcomers would clog Dennis roads, drive up crime in town, increase pollution and bring property values crashing down. Yes, seriously – though I admit I went back a couple times over the account of the meeting in the Cape Cod Times to make sure I wasn’t misreading anything.
One woman feared that headlights from cars coming out of the apartment complex would shine into her house. A single mom who bought her house 20 years ago, she sounded ready to throw in the towel over the prospect of trouble-making renters moving to her neighborhood.
Another neighbor said the idea of an apartment complex being built near him was nothing short of nightmarish. Really, no joke.
“Not in my wildest nightmares did I ever think something like this was going to happen,” the man told town officials at the hearing, according to the Cape Cod Times. “What price do we have to pay for affordable housing? Why do we have to lose the value of our homes?”
Meanwhile in Chatham, No One Likes Their In-Laws
A few miles away in quaint Chatham, a similar debate is taking place over a proposal that would allow homeowners to add in-law apartments.
A proposed zoning amendment would allow homeowners to build “accessory dwelling units” on their properties. These could be attached apartments or small, free-standing units of up to 1,000 square feet with two bedrooms, a kitchen and bath.
The idea is to provide an alternative for young families who make too much to qualify for affordable housing but not enough to buy their own place in a town where the median price is pushing $600,000. It could also help empty-nesters generate some badly needed rental income.
Now not all the objections to the zoning proposal in Chatham were complete cockamamie – there were some concerns that the zoning could create loopholes for builders that would go beyond its intent.
But of course, not everyone was so measured, with complaints about potential overcrowding a bit puzzling given we’re talking about a town of 6,100 or so people where half the homes are seasonal. This is not Manhattan.
One local sage blasted the proposal for what are essentially glorified in-law apartments as “the most unwanted social experiment in Chatham’s history” and a “neighbor’s nightmare,” according to an account in The Cape Cod Chronicle. Oh my, what’s next, a communist takeover?
Of course, if the good folks on the Cape spent a little time on Planet Reality, they might realize how ridiculous some of their fears are – as well as how destructive they are in the long term to the economic and social fabric of the towns they say they love.
A lack of reasonably priced housing is driving away the young families the Cape so desperately needs and in the end, won’t be able to function without.
Schoolteachers, town employees, nurses and restaurant workers are increasingly squeezed off the Cape by a shortage of apartments and homes in middle-class price ranges.
Dennis alone is short more than 1,500 rental units, including a need for nearly 500 affordable units for couples or small families making less than $61,200, according to a Cape Cod Commission report.
As they fume and fuss about the 28 apartments proposed at Beach Plum Village in Dennis, it’s a shame the denizens of Planet NIMBY can’t or simply refuse to see the big picture – or pretty much anything beyond their own driveway.
But, then again, that’s what living on Planet NIMBY does to you.
Scott Van Voorhis is Banker & Tradesman’s columnist; opinions expressed are his own. He may be reached at sbvanvoorhis@hotmail.com.
