Experts say Cape Cod has too much nitrogen and not enough housing. But officials in Truro may have struck a balance for a housing project planned for what's known in town as the Walsh property.
That's according to Paul Benson of the Provincetown Independent.
CAI's Gilda Geist spoke to Paul to learn more.
Gilda Geist For folks not on the Outer Cape, can you remind us what the Walsh property is and what is planned for that space?
Paul Benson This is a 70-acre undeveloped parcel, sort of right in the middle of Truro near the elementary school, that the town is planning on using for a pretty significant housing development—affordable housing of up to 160 units. Truro, of course, has a housing crisis, just like all the other towns on the Outer Cape. Median prices are north of $1 million, and people on ordinary incomes really can't afford anywhere to live. So, there's both affordable ownership and affordable rentals planned for the Walsh property.
GG Clean water and housing are issues on the Cape that are often pitted against each other, but from reading your story, it seems as though both are being achieved here. How did that happen?
PB Truro's consultants have a wastewater plan that involves hooking up these 160 new homes and the existing Truro Elementary School and about 30 homes that are nearby. And by hooking all of those up to a state-of-the-art wastewater system, you have less nitrogen going in the ground, less other contaminants going in the ground than are currently coming out of these Title V systems, especially from the elementary school. The wastewater would just be treated to a sufficiently higher degree. The 160 units and this new wastewater system would achieve a net reduction in all of the things that people worry about going into the groundwater.
GG What obstacles still exist for this planned housing, especially as it relates to clean water?
PB The big discussion point right now between Provincetown and Truro is that the Walsh property is so big—70 acres—that it's also one of a very few sites that are owned by the towns, not by the National Seashore, that could host the 11.5-acre circle that you need to make a new public well. And it's very hard to site new freshwater well infrastructure. There are very complex state rules governing it. And so even though there is plenty of water in the aquifer, finding a well site is a serious limiting factor. And the Walsh property and its 70 acres can host a very productive well. And Provincetown is arguing that the system—since it serves both Provincetown and significant parts of North Truro, and the future growth in Provincetown and North Truro in Provincetown's view—depends on putting a well pretty much right in the center of the Walsh property where the housing was supposed to go. Truro is very much not on board with that. They said this property was bought by town meeting voters specifically for housing. Truro owns it, Provincetown does not, and they believe Provincetown has inappropriately fixated on this property as the solution to a well problem when it's already been dedicated by the voters at town meeting for housing.
GG Are there any other possible sites for Provincetown to use for that well?
PB So a study was done. The results were presented in January. There are some other sites. [For] the best one, the ownership is unclear. Both Truro and the National Seashore claim to own it. There's another site very far south near the Wellfleet town line, but that's a lot of piping infrastructure to get to that, so it's pretty expensive. And that leaves the Walsh property as the best site that is currently owned by one of the two towns for an 11.5-acre circle. Now, Truro has argued that they can engineer a land swap with the Seashore, that the new superintendent is a much more willing negotiating partner than people who have come previous to her. So Truro says there's other land that we can secure that we don't currently own. Provincetown is sort of focused on what currently exists on the ledger, and they're saying Walsh is the most economical and also the most readily achievable property. It's right next to existing parts of the water system. It's easy to hook up.
GG Okay, so that's kind of the dispute going on, but what's actually going to happen next?
PB Well, Truro's moving forward with drilling a much smaller well just for the 160 homes at the Walsh property and about 36 bedrooms to be rebuilt at the old Truro Motor Inn site, and they signed the contract for that a week or two ago. A test well is going to move forward. The pipe will go in the ground about 170 feet. There will then be a lot of testing, a lot of engineering [and] a lot of permitting work to establish that it's safe for the other water supplies around it to be pulling from that spot. But Truro is moving forward with the $300,000 contract to begin getting its own water for the Walsh property instead of waiting on the Provincetown water system and the Provincetown select board to give gallons for those housing units.
