14 new year-round rental homes in Yarmouth for Cape residents? Here's what to know.
YARMOUTH — Fourteen single-family homes in Yarmouth Port should be on the rental market exclusively for Cape Cod residents by next year if Davenport Companies finishes construction.
Clearing for the 14-lot cluster subdivision off Route 6A is underway, two years after plans were initiated, according to Davenport Companies Communications Director Matt Pitta.
The town’s population was 25,000, according to the 2020 U.S. Census, and there were 17,299 total housing units. One in three homes are unavailable for year-round occupancy, according to the Yarmouth housing production plan.
“Basically, it’s providing housing for people who need housing on the Cape,” Pitta said
Davenport Companies filed an application to the Planning Board for a special permit for the single-family cluster development in October 2022. The board gave unanimous approval February 2023.
No summer, short-term rentals planned
The two-bedroom homes will be year-round rentals strictly for Cape Cod residents, Pitta said. Davenport, which will manage the property, will not allow summer rentals or use as an Airbnb.
The homes will be on lots ranging from one-third of an acre to half an acre, according to planning documents submitted to Yarmouth. More than five acres of open space are scattered throughout the 15.3-acre parcel. The land is across from Hockanum Road and between Kencomsett Circle and Outward Reach.
Davenport Realty Trust purchased the parcel for $1,100,000 from the Bishop of Fall River in March 2023, according to the Barnstable County Registry of Deeds. Davenport will call the development Bishop’s Landing in recognition of the diocese’s stewardship of the land, Pitta said. The access to Route 6A will be called Miracle Way with Faith Street an offshoot. Both roads will end in cul-de-sacs within the parcel.
“We put together names we thought were appropriate,” Pitta said.
The vacant land is assessed at $368,800, according to Yarmouth town records.
Homeowners association documentation is being written and registered with the Barnstable County Register of Deeds, according to town records, but renters will not have to pay homeowners association fees, Pitta said.
Who is Davenport?
Davenport is a fourth-generation family business of 12 companies that includes commercial and residential real estate, senior living, construction, investments, and a variety of service businesses, according to the website.
The company manages more than 600 residential apartment units, duplexes and single-family homes in Yarmouth, Hyannis, Dennis, Harwich, and Brewster, according to PItta. Bishop's Landing rentals will be market rate for two-bedrooms in the region.
The town’s affordable housing zoning required two of the 14 units to be affordable, but the bylaw allows for an option to make a payment in lieu of creating the affordable housing, Town Planner Kathy Williams wrote in an email Feb. 26. The Davenport Companies met this affordability requirement with a payment of $310,750 to the Affordable Housing Trust. The trust voted to accept the money to create affordable housing, Williams wrote.
Denise Coffey writes about business, tourism and issues impacting Cape Cod’s residents and visitors. Contact her at dcoffey@capecodonline.com.
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This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Cape developer building 14 houses for year-round Cape residents only
