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- Building
Boom
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- Read the whole thing before
you call me. My phone number is in the book.
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- Years ago, a group of preservation-minded
Cape Codders took it upon themselves to sponsor
the formation of a county-level planning and regulatory
agency. It evolved into the Cape Cod Commission.
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- The noble aim of the Commission
and its supporters was to maintain the rural
quality of the Cape and not let it devalue itself
by over-intense development. Designed to cover
new subdivisions of residential land and commercial
development only, residential construction on existing,
subdivided lots was not placed under its
jurisdiction. A fatal flaw. That means that all
those plans for all those lots that were filed
on paper years ago are still legal to build on.
And they are being built on rapidly.
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- The net effect of the Commission
so far has been to scare away a few large commercial
enterprises. This did nothing to reduce the traffic
flow on the Cape but it made everyone feel as though
something was being done to address the problem.
Now heres the point - Commercial Plazas and
business centers are routinely shackled with expensive
traffic mitigation, and an array of other costly
tributes to satisfy the regulations. But are these
plazas the cause of the traffic ? Do they actually
create traffic or do they simply attract it ?
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- Now that the market is active
again, its become sorely apparent that the
major source of over-development and traffic, on
the Cape is residential, not commercial, construction.
More homes make more traffic. More homes make less
woodland habitats. More homes burden municipal
resources of all kinds.
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- Unfortunately, the Commission
is unable to regulate the ongoing rush to build
homes on these lots.
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- The Land Bank, a sort of
aftermarket response to the building boom, is designed
to produce a feeble $4 M to $5 M per year to buy
land across the 15 towns of Cape Cod. That may
sound like a lot of dough until you know that the
Barnstable County Registry of Deeds handles roughly
$900,000,000 in transfers in a normal year. Does
that give you a better idea of the scale we are
dealing with ?
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- The Land Bank is a squirt
gun aimed at a tank. It cant possibly have
enough of an impact quick enough to stop the onslaught
of new residential construction. Do the math. It
works out to about 8 or 10 lots in each town per
year.
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- It was quite a notable achievement
for the preservationist community to have launched
the Cape Cod Commission and the Land Bank. Again,
the magnitude of the present building boom was
unforeseen when both of those were created. Given
their success, it seems likely that they same people
would be able to generate something that actually
addresses the problem.
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- Certain types of building
has been banned outright in some towns. Moratoriums
have been placed in other towns. Restrictions on
new residential construction could be placed.
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- As Abe Lincoln said, you
cant help the wage-earner by burdening the
wage-payer. You cant help the poor by encumbering
the rich. Perhaps if he had lived in Hyannis he
would have said that you cant reduce the
traffic on the Cape by hindering the commercial
properties.
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- We need to treat the disease,
not the symptom.
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