The song "Old Cape Cod," which Patti Page made famous with her husky voice, describes the sleepy peninsula with fitting imagery – the lobster stew, the ocean views, the salt air and sand dunes.

But there’s one thing the lyrics don’t take into account: the Cape Cod Commission, the regulatory body charged, essentially, with keeping the Cape looking like the Cape described in the ballad.

The Cape Cod Commission was created by the commonwealth in 1990 after a veritable development explosion on the Cape in the 1980s. The body’s mission is to regulate and guide land use on the 15-town stretch of land jutting into the Atlantic like a bodybuilder’s flexing arm.

But sometimes, it acts more like a heavy hand, swatting away would-be developments and/or making them prohibitively – and some would say unnecessarily – expensive.

For all intents and purposes, the commission regulates all commercial development projects of more than 10,000 square feet. And while a regime change took place at the commission in 2007, the body is still decidedly anti-development, according to industry sources that asked for anonymity due to conflicts of interest.

Pay To Play

First, there are the fees developers pay as a result of the impacts of projects. According to the Cape Cod Regional Policy Plan, each town may prepare a "local comprehensive plan" certified by the commission as consistent with its Regional Policy Plan (RPP). The Cape Cod Commission Act, which created the body, empowers municipalities to enter into development agreements and to impose impact fees on new developments. In Massachusetts, only Cape Cod has this legislative authorization for certified local comprehensive plans.

Paul Niedzwiecki, executive director of the commission, did not return calls seeking comment for this story.

Those impact fees that developers pay to a municipality are designed "to offset the adverse impacts of new development," according to the RPP. The fees may be imposed for the creation or improvement of town roads and bike paths; storm drainage, sewer system mains and treatment plants; water supply infrastructure including wells, mains and treatment plants; town parks and beaches; affordable housing; public schools; and libraries.

And the bill ads up fast. The fees can run from, say, $20,000 for a small project, to "$150,000 or $200,000 for a large development," said one Cape-based development consultant.

"The Cape Cod Commission makes development on Cape Cod much more expensive than it would be without the commission, and more expensive than other regions given all the fees," the consultant told Banker & Tradesman. "The commission makes it more difficult to do any kind of development on Cape Cod. And that’s their job. And there are a lot of people on the Cape that probably think that’s a good idea. But they’re not very popular among the development community. As a developer that’s gone in as an applicant, it’s a bloated and inefficient bureaucracy at times that’s somewhat tied to its own rules and makes mistakes a lot."

Weapons In The Arsenal

One example of the commission’s ability – if not propensity – to make life difficult for developers involved a 2007 effort to construct a property for now-defunct retailer Circuit City in Hyannis.

After almost a year of negotiations, the commission gave Springfield-based developer Berkshire Development the green light to build on Route 132, near the Barnstable Municipal Airport.

The project was contentious to say the least, and town officials braced themselves for a fight. When he was still assistant town manager in Barnstable, the commission’s Niedzwiecki was quoted in the Cape Cod Times as telling the developer the project would face "whatever weapons we have in the arsenal."

Requirement after requirement followed. Berkshire was forced to obtain a variance and special permit from the town of Barnstable, a condition set by the commission. Then the firm needed to submit a three-year landscape maintenance contract for the property and get approved by the commission for signage plans, as well as provide a report on the number of new jobs the store and its construction would create.

Then, after only a year in business, Circuit City would have been required to report to the commission how many employees received job training through Cape Cod Community College, and to supply a local vendor purchasing report, the Times reported.

Berkshire also agreed to provide $800,000 in cash to the town of Barnstable to help acquire a former Chili’s restaurant property and land in front of a Wendy’s restaurant on Route 132, generosity that played a significant part in the commission’s decision to allow the Circuit City.

Good Results

But for some town planners, the commission’s mission is right in line with their own. Falmouth Town Planner Brian Currie said the town is very active in acquiring undeveloped land to preserve as open space with passive recreational uses.

"I think they do a very good job … but by its very nature it’s a more protracted process than what you might find outside the region," Currie said. "There are certain environmental and ecological assets of the commonwealth that need some additional scrutiny. The process can be protracted, but the results are usually good."

Currently, Teledyne Benthos, which created imaging and acoustic technology used by a team from the Falmouth-based Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution to help discover the sunken remains of the Titanic, is planning to expand its North Falmouth facility by 44,000 square feet. The process has taken a while, but the commission finally approved the expansion plan, Currie said.

Another project, Forestdale Village, which is planned for Route 130 near the western side of Peters Pond in Sandwich, is in the midst of seeking final approvals from the commission. The project includes 148 single-family homes and approximately 120,000 square feet of commercial space. In design, it is similar to the Mashpee Commons development, with a small neighborhood grocer, restaurants, retail, professional and medical offices, said Christopher Bailey, the lead commercial broker for the project.

Bailey said he hopes construction will start in the fall after more than a year and a half of working with the Cape Cod Commission staff on approvals.

"We’ve been told we have full staff support," Bailey said.