Return to Affordable Housing	Provincetown Affordable/ Community Housing Action Plan
	Final
	Approved at December 7^th Summit by Participants in the Housing Summit Work Groups
Review Report as PDF file	With Technical Assistance from John Ryan, Consultant Development Cycles Amherst, MA 01002
View appendices	December 7, 2006

Acknowledgements

The consultant John Ryan would like to express his heartfelt appreciation for all of the Provincetown residents, local employees and interested persons who participated in the creation of this draft Provincetown Affordable/ Community Housing Action Plan. This work product includes the ideas of the more than 150 participants who attended the initial Housing Summit on September 21,2006 and the following volunteers who participated in working groups from September to November, 2006 in order to consider and propose the Action Plan recommendations. In addition, the consultant would like to thank the Board of Selectmen for initiating the Affordable/ Community Housing Action Plan effort; the Local Housing Partnership and Community Preservation Committee for providing funding for these activities; Town Manager Keith Bergman and Town Manager Secretary Pam Hudson for facilitating the consultant’s frequent visits to the community; and to the Provincetown Inn and the Provincetown Fine Arts Work center for providing the facilities to hold the large summit gatherings.

The Affordable/ Community Housing Action Plan work group participants, included:

Existing Structures: Michelle Couture, Jane Evans, Lisa Gledhill, Ted Malone, Patrick Patrick, Pam Parmakian, Molly Perdue, Cathy Reno, Meg Stewart, Doug Taylor, Ben Thornberry, Betty Villari, Maureen Wilson

New Construction: Elaine Anderson, Len Bowen, Gary Delius, Austin Knight, Dave Krohn, Emily Loomis, Bob McCandless, Stephen Milkewicz, Pat Moss, Delwyn Trent

Financing: Jerry Ananthan, J.D. Bower, Jim McCollum, Robert O’Malley, Mike Peregon, Mary Rose, Steve Tait, and Jim Turner,

Regional Cooperation: Cheryl Andrews, Keith Bergman, Bill Doherty, Charleen Greenhalgh, Polly Hemstock, Paula Hudson, Susan Kadar, Jacqueline Rozza

Community Support: Jasmine Benjova, Robert Gaston, Jill Geier, Khristine Hopkins, Stephen Manning, Tracy Primavera, and Lynn Stanley

Implementation: Elizabeth Bridgewater, Candice Collins-Boden, Bill Dougal, Michelle Jarusiewicz, Maria Kuliopolis, Elaine LaChapelle, Patrick Manning, Chuck Silva

Year-Round Economic Development: Bonnie Adams, Jim Bakker, Cid Bolduc, Lisa Bowden, Gail Browne, Darlene Flores, Peter Hertzog, Melissa Jones, Michael Leger, Janet Prolman, Barbara Rushmore

Table of Contents

Introduction 3

1. Existing Structures 5
2. New Construction 6
3. Financing 8
4. Regional Cooperation 9
5. Community Support 10
6. Implementation 11
7. Year-Round Economic Development 12

Next Steps 14

Town Meeting Actions 15

Appendices

App. A. Matrix of Proposed Housing Actions

App. B. Review of Possible Land Development Parcels

App. C. Projected Revenue from Various Funding Sources

App. D. Non-Exclusive List of Groups to Involve in Community Support Dialogue

App. E. Estimated Budget for New Housing Office

Introduction

The following Affordable/ Community Housing Action Plan represents the work of more than 60 town residents who met throughout the Fall of 2006 to discuss specific ways for the community to address the challenges of year-round housing for its residents and workforce. This grass root effort met on December 7, 2006 and recommended a total of 29 specific actions which make up this Plan, each identifying a priority, a responsible party, a time line, and preliminary cost implications (see Appendix A).

This Plan stems from a community recognition that a Housing Crisis exists in Provincetown. Three factors have converged to place extraordinary pressures on the town’s low, moderate and median income renter households who constitute half of the community’s year-round residents. These factors include the loss of year-round rental stock to seasonal residents, the extraordinarily high costs of home ownership, and the lack of year-round, living wage jobs. The resulting loss of basic housing security, the absence of even a hope of ownership, and limited job prospects are causing an increasing number of valued community members to leave Provincetown. The year-round population that supports the year-round economy, the school-age population, even participation in civic life is declining. It is increasing hard to deny that Provincetown’s attractiveness as a second home destination is eroding its viability as a year-round community. Such an unwanted direction impacts the whole community, including those who are fortunate enough to own a home already, and even those who have invested in seasonal property. This Plan recognizes that secure year-round housing is a basic building block of a viable community.

A Housing Needs Assessment completed in August 2006 quantified Provincetown’s year-round housing need at 200-250 units of year-round rental housing; 25-30 units per year of ownership housing reserved for the community’s workforce; and 24 units of independent senior housing. Meeting those needs over the next ten years may be seen as the overall goal of this Plan.

The Plan that follows refers to this as an Action Plan for Affordable/ Community Housing. Affordable Housing typically refers to housing that is reserved for households earning less than 80 percent of the Area Median Income (AMI); in Provincetown community housing is intended to serve a population earning between 80 and 120 percent of AMI. Combining them in the title is meant to demonstrate that this Plan is intends to serve a wide range of the community’s population in need, from very low-income individuals to families earning up to 120 percent of AMI. In other contexts, the Town has referred to a need for Workforce Housing. Workforce Housing conveys the sense that the housing is meant for both working residents and those who are currently commuting to jobs in the community. While serving this population is a critical focus of the Plan, it is not exclusive. Throughout, the working groups expressed the importance of creating housing opportunity for those who contribute to the life of the community, whether they are currently in the labor force or not.

A. Existing Structures

The Existing Structures Work Group focused on ways to create more affordable/ community housing opportunities without building new structures and to stem the loss of existing year-round housing. Their first focus was to apply the Town’s growth management bylaw to commercial properties when they change use from commercial to residential. In the past decade, more than 200 commercial properties have converted use, adding several hundred market-only condominiums but no affordable/ community housing. By contrast, any new housing development must provide a minimum of 33 percent affordable/community units in order to meet the Town’s growth management standards. The Existing Structures Work Group spearheaded efforts by the Local Housing Partnership to pass Article 12 at this year’s Fall Town Meeting. Beyond that, this work group looked at ways to get greater utilization of the Town’s existing incentives to create accessory dwellings and provide year-round rentals. They also propose utilizing new capacity in Phase II of the sewer expansion to promote residential use of second story commercial properties along Commercial Street (many now serve as storage because of inability to secure additional gallons of wastewater use). The group proposes an ad hoc working group evaluate a number of publicly and privately owned buildings to determine if they can be successfully converted to year-round affordable/ community housing. Finally, the group encourages creating a fund that allows town residents and employees to purchase existing homes at below market prices in exchange for deed restrictions that keep the homes affordable to the next buyer when those home changes hands.

The following represent the Existing Structures Work Group’s specific recommendations:

1. Explore and develop specific actions to address the role of condominium conversions in contributing to the lack of year-round affordable/community housing

2. Amend the zoning bylaw to require an affordable and community housing component as part of all change of use special permits that result in additional housing units (action completed)

3. Establish a technical and financial assistance program to individual property owners to utilize existing incentives and simplify the process needed to convert dwellings to community workforce housing and to encourage use of the accessory dwelling and amnesty bylaws

4. Encourage the rigorous enforcement of the existing requirements of short term rentals

5. Promote greater utilization of the accessory dwelling by-law by:

a. Amending the current by-law so that the deed restriction that requires an accessory dwelling remain affordable rental housing in perpetuity change to a 20-year commitment (at which time the accessory dwelling becomes unrestricted); and

b. Naming the Building Commissioner as the special permit granting authority provided that the applicant meets a specific set of clear requirements

6. Allow for a more flexible administration of the property exemption by-law in order to encourage property owners to rent year-round by giving owners the option to:

a. Provide rents affordable to households earning 60% of Area Median Income (AMI) and receive 100 percent exemption (the current practice) or

b. Provide rents affordable to households earning 80% of AMI at some reduction in the percent of property tax exempted

7. Identify, evaluate, and prioritize potential public and private existing structures that could be converted to community housing

8. Reallocate additional sewer capacity to promote development of underutilized space along Commercial Street and other suitable locations, to create additional affordable/community housing

9. Create a fund that buys down the cost of existing properties so that they are affordable to year-round residents at various income levels in return for affordability covenants on the properties purchased

Unanimously Approved 12/7/06

B. New Construction

The New Construction Work Group focused on identifying publicly and privately owned parcels that had at least some chance of being developed successfully as affordable/ community housing. The stark reality in Provincetown is that open land parcels large enough to support a concentration of 5 to 40 units of housing are both scarce and extremely expensive. All the same, the work group identified a number of parcels that have at least some potential for creating a core of housing that does not trade in a housing market that has systematically excluded low and middle income households from gaining a foothold and a long term stake in the life of the community. None of these options are without significant challenges. Nearly all are certain to have their detractors. As the group deliberated, they acknowledged that while perhaps the “easy” developments may be a thing of the past, the need for this housing still remains. They set a goal of finding enough new development sites to create at least 125 units of affordable/ community housing over the next several years.

Appendix B of this report provides a brief outline of 20 properties the group considered to have at least some direct or indirect capacity for development as affordable/ community housing. The list is by no means complete. Private landowners are encouraged to come forward to the Local Housing Partnership (or the Housing Office once it is created) to suggest approaches that can create more housing to match the community’s needs. The list of reviewed properties includes eight town-owned properties that have direct development potential, two town owned conservation properties that might be traded to the state’s Department of Fisheries & Wildlife for land they own in town with greater development potential. Finally, there are seven privately owned properties, some of which have owners interested in creating affordable/ community housing; others for which the level of interest is not yet known.

This work group has recognized the need to streamline the development process to reduce both cost and delays. Like the Existing Properties work group they also focused on how to utilize the Town’s sewer expansion to access more sites for affordable/ community housing. They suggest further exploration of how to develop housing above the Grace Hall Parking Lot without losing any parking spaces. Finally, they reiterate the importance of focusing the town’s future new development on year-round rental housing to serve households earn less than the area median income and on ownership housing that remains affordable to residents earning up to 120 percent of AMI. The specific recommendations of the New Construction Work Group include:

1. Continue to identify and explore key potential public and private development sites (initial assessment completed; see Appendix B)

2. Continue to actively pursue development of Shank Painter Road (Parcel 8-1-4-A) and DPW Garage (9-1-8) sites for 40+/- units of affordable/ community housing each

3. Actively explore the development feasibility of the High Priority parcels recommended by the New Construction Work Group (see Appendix B), including the following:

a. Utilize and develop a roughly 3.5 acre portion of the Town’s cemetery parcel (12-1-61), leaving a one-acre buffer for future cemetery expansion, in order to create 20-35 affordable/ community housing units

b. Negotiate with the Commonwealth of MA Department of Fisheries & Wildlife to trade one or more town-owned properties (including the .30 acre Sandy Hill parcel (9-1-1) and the 40.1 acre Clapp Pond parcel (8-1-5) for the 3.0 acre parcel off Conwell Street (13-1-27) in order to develop 15-20 affordable/ community housing units on that property

c. Exchange a suitable town-owned or private parcel for the Conservation Trust’s one-acre property at 56 Creek Road, and develop that site with 4-8 units of affordable/ community housing.

d. Identify an alternative site for tour bus parking in order to develop the 4.1 acre, Town-owned Jerome Street site (8-1-13) for 10-15 units of affordable/ community housing

e. Support the current proposal by WK Red Clay LLC to develop the 4.13 acre 21 Bradford Street Extension parcel (5-3-23) to add 6 units of mixed income development containing at least 3 affordable/ community housing units

f. Work with the Miller Hill Realty Corp to develop a 4.3 acre parcel on Harry Kemp Way (13-2-33) to create a 7-8 unit mixed income development including year-round housing for artists

g. Sell the Town-owned .29 Acre property at 951-R Commercial Street (19-2-3) and transfer the proceeds to the Affordable Housing Trust Fund

4. Modify regulatory process to streamline new development of affordable/ community housing

5. Fully utilize the future expansion of town sewer capacity to promote affordable/ community housing development

6. Prioritize the town’s support for new construction projects to those which: a) provide the greatest number of rental units aimed at those earning median income or less and (b) homeownership units that serve a population earning up to 120 percent of median income (c) prioritize sites with the least impact on the natural environment

7. Further explore opportunities to utilize the air rights of the Grace Hall parking lot for affordable/ community housing development without reducing the number of available parking spaces Consultant’s Note: because of an inconsistency between the written report and the matrix, it is not clear that the 12/7/06 Summit included this item when the participants approved the New Construction recommendations

Unanimously Approved 12/7/06

C. Financing

The Finance Work Group focused on ways to bring in the money needed to address the community’s housing crisis. To begin to reverse the trends in Provincetown and provide significantly more affordable/ community rental and ownership housing will take a great deal of money. The Finance Work Group estimates that the total level of subsidy required to meet the identified housing need will be in the range of $30 to $50 million dollars over ten years. While a significant share of that subsidy can come without direct cost to the Town (such as zoning incentives and requirements to produce affordable/ community housing, utilization of town-owned land or buildings, or state and federal subsidies), a significant portion will have to come in the form of new local revenue. This work group explored a number of approaches to raise new revenues in support of affordable/ community housing needs. These included a transfer fee; a split tax rate for year-round and seasonal property owners; a change in the distribution of Land Bank Funds; application of the room tax to weekly rentals; continuation of Community Preservation Act funding; and fundraising from the year-round and summer community. Appendix C summarizes the range of funds various approaches could hope to generate. In the end, the Finance Work Group focused on three potential new income sources: 1) an effort to obtain local and state authorization to collect a 1.5 percent transfer fee on the sale of all property (with limits and exemptions); 2) a concerted effort to maximize state funding dollars for housing; and 3) an effort to collect room taxes from weekly rentals and apply the additional general fund revenue to support affordable/ community housing efforts. After discussions with the Town Assessor, the work group determined that it was not really feasible for a two-tiered levy approach to raise money that could be earmarked for housing efforts. Nor was it feasible to change the percentage of Land Tax revenue because the Town’s existing conservation commitments require a flow of funding from the Land Tax fees to cover the annual payments for funds borrowed. Finally, the work group was not optimistic about the community’s ability to raise much money from the local philanthropic community, though this effort was included as part of the job description for the proposed new Housing Office function. The planning effort envisioned the Housing Office having the responsibility for developing a financial plan that indicates the most appropriate sources of funding for diverse projects and indicates the most appropriate method for using the available sources of local funding that this Plan’s actions create. The three specific action recommendations of the Finance Work Group include:

1. Pursue Town Meeting and MA General Court Approval for a transfer fee equal to 1.5 percent and paid by the seller on the sale of all property, providing that: a) all primary residences be allowed to first exempt from the fee an amount equal to the median price of a home sold in Barnstable County for the previous calendar year ($360,000 in 2005); b) there be public accountability to insure that the funds collected shall be dedicated effectively to the creation and preservation of affordable/community housing opportunity serving a population earning up to 120 percent of AMI and c) the transfer fee cease ten years after its initial implementation

2. Identify and pursue all existing state, federal and private funding sources including a specific request for earmarked funding from the MA Department of Housing & Community Development (DHCD) and the Massachusetts housing Partnership Fund (MHP)

3. Support the current Cape-wide Home Rule effort that would make short-term rentals (less than ninety days) subject to the collection of a room occupancy tax. Further to advocate within the Town that whatever additional revenue accrue to the general fund from these additional collections (based on the allocation of room tax revenues by Town Meeting) be made available on a yearly basis for a period of ten years to support affordable/ community housing initiatives

Approved with one vote opposed 12/7/06

D. Regional Cooperation

The Regional Cooperation Work Group included members from Provincetown, Wellfleet and Truro, as well the Cape Cod National Seashore, and the Cape Cod Commission. From the outset, the members present recognized that many characteristics of the current housing crisis in Provincetown are shared by all of the communities on the Outer Cape. At a minimum, the group felt that there should be a roundtable forum for the communities of Provincetown, Truro, Wellfleet, and Eastham, along with the CCNSS to discuss their approaches to this common problem. Much of the discussion for this work group focused on ways to share resources so that each community could make progress in an efficient and effective manner. Though this group and the Implementation Work Group did not come to a consensus on a regional implementation strategy, it is clear that room exists for a more regionalized approach to evolve from the creation of a Housing Office for Provincetown with capacity to address a range of affordable/ community housing issues common to the Outer Cape. In time, the other communities in the Roundtable could choose to contract for additional services from the same entity providing the Housing Office functions for Provincetown. The commitment to a regional roundtable on affordable/ community housing provides a mechanism for these four communities to share best practices, organize joint funding applications, contract for some regional functions like qualifying applicants and enforcing deed restrictions, and consider new ways for the communities to work together to best utilize each Town’s unique housing assets. The following represents the key recommendation developed by the Regional Cooperation working group:

1. Establish the Outer Cape Affordable Housing Roundtable patterned after the Renewable Fuels Partnership and including the Towns of Provincetown, Truro, Wellfleet, and Eastham, and the CCNSS to meet regularly to develop a regional approach to workforce housing and establish clear guidelines to balance local and regional solutions.

Unanimously Approved 12/7/06

E. Community Support

The Community Support Work Group saw their job as primarily finding methods to educate the Provincetown community about the needs, challenges, successes, and process of creating a core of affordable/ community housing. The work group focuses on three basic messages to communicate as part of this educational process:

v The housing action plan is all about “Preserving our Community.” Whether the manifestation of that community is saving a year-round rental property, or keeping the school open, or retaining a valued community member, this effort to create a core of affordable/ community housing is about preserving the human connection that makes Provincetown special

v Provincetown’s numerous groups, including businesses, artists, young people, summer community, seniors, churches, town government non-profits, families, singles, straight and gay populations all feel the impact of this housing crisis. Only by working together can we overcome the resistance, the power of external market forces, and the inertia of how things have always been done. That is the essence of community support

v Residents need assurance that the housing opportunities created by these actions are serving those people who need it and who contribute something back to the community. The Work Group focused one of its Action Plan recommendations on developing a transparent process for defining the “local preference” category that insures that the lion’s share of any newly created housing opportunity goes to local residents and key workers

The Community Support work group proposed the following four Action Plan recommendations:

1. Initiate regular communications and meetings between the various community groups to work together to build trust and support for community housing and economic development actions (see Appendix D for a non-exclusive list of community groups to involve)

2. Communicate community housing activity, needs, and successes on a regular basis through the Banner and the Town’s website

3.