Mixed-use housing becomes Bourne priority, along with getting commuters off the bridges

BUZZARDS BAY ― The Select Board has approved an updated 2014 Bourne Housing Production Plan that prioritizes affordable and mixed-use housing, as well as workforce units with the goal of removing some daily Cape commuters from the two bridges over the Cape Cod Canal.

Board chair Mary Jane Mastrangelo on Aug. 2 stressed that the Cape’s dire workforce situation must be addressed in the housing plan, especially as it relates to Bourne.

Mastrangelo said the town can play a role in helping reduce commuting traffic, something that might also re-shape Bourne’s reputation in the motoring universe as a high-speed flow-through town.

“It’s something that must be addressed,” Mastrangelo said. “It’s a Cape problem." But it affects Bourne particularly with the canal bridges, she said.

About 50,000 workers cross the Cape Cod Canal daily

Mastrangelo said 47,000 to 50,000 workers cross the Cape Cod Canal, most during daily commutes, helping create horrendous traffic backups because many must work here but cannot afford to live here. “We have to try to do something,” she said.

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The situation is exacerbated by motorists seeking alternative approaches to the canal bridges, often creating long lines of secondary congestion in Bourne neighborhoods, especially during peak-volume drive times. South of the canal, this usually starts in the late afternoon on Thursdays.

Mastrangelo said she hopes upcoming Bourne Bridge repairs will result in fewer traffic backups than occurred with recent Sagamore Bridge work with its lane restrictions in both directions. Community memories of interminable traffic delays in Sagamore remain vivid.

On the issue of workforce housing, Select Board member Jared MacDonald said, “This is probably one of the biggest demands Bourne has, and it goes back to the town’s geography ... Our location is such it makes sense to have this type of housing for people who work in not only Bourne but also down-Cape.”

Mastrangelo in an Aug. 16 interview said she is satisfied by workforce housing needs being addressed. “But there’s a lot we need to talk about to pull many elements together. Items such as accessory dwellings and what would be allowed.”

Bourne's housing plan emerges against volatile backdrop

The Planning Board has approved the updated plan, a 98-page document prepared by the Bourne Affordable Housing Trust, with the help of a consultant. It now faces review at the state Department of Housing and Community Development.

The housing production plan offers Bourne the opportunity to influence, if not control, its mixed-housing density. Interest in regional and local housing needs has exploded in town.

There are plans for all kinds of units advancing on both sides of the canal. Perhaps most dramatically, they include townhouses to be built above a massive retaining wall, high on the hill next to the concrete Bourne Bridge abutment at Main Street’s east end. The proposed project is immediately beyond a new gas station complex already in place with planned retail stores and workforce housing units.

Bourne's updated housing plan comes against a backdrop of volatile post-COVID housing prices, limited Cape inventory, young people leaving who cannot afford to live in Bourne, an economically unsettling shortage of workforce units and a rising elderly population, many with senior housing needs.

The report directs attention to those who can no longer afford to pay more than 30% of income for housing and also addresses the ongoing goal to have 10% of Bourne's housing inventory be affordable. It points out the need for the town to suggest places for mixed-use housing and help that happen through regulations.

Housing strategies include amending the town’s accessory dwelling bylaw, working with developers to fine-tune affordable projects, funding local initiatives, making public property available for suitable affordable units, creating affordable living solutions for special needs and the elderly, while ensuring units remain affordable.

An increase in the older adult population in Bourne is predicted

The assessment suggests a gain of 7,120 older adults by 2030 from 5,383 in 2023. The town’s age distribution is addressed, showing declines in younger residents and gains in older adults, with the median age leaping from 39.2 years in 2020 to 51.2 years by 2021.

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“This median is lower than 54.6 years for Barnstable County but much higher than the state at 39.9 years,” the plan notes. “Bourne’s median age is also considerably lower than Lower Cape communities such as Chatham at 62.5 years.”

The state Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities says Bourne has 589 units of state-approved affordable housing as part of its subsidized housing inventory, the equivalent of 6.6% of the town’s 8,930 year-round units.

Snapshot of Bourne housing proposals on the horizon

The 24 units in 12 townhouses proposed by the 340 Main Street LLC of Falmouth, at the Bourne Bridge, which may or may not be replaced, are perhaps the most dramatic effort to supply housing; including a playground backing up to U.S. Army Corps of Engineers land. The towering proposal is considered attainability housing. Ten percent of the units on four acres will be affordable.

Local contractor Vincent Michienzi plans complexes at 9 Sandwich Road once the historic 1700s Keene House is moved or demolished and at 194 Shore Road next to the Aptucxet VFW Post and Gray Gables entrance.

The Keene property at Trading Post Corners would accommodate three buildings with 24 units on one acre, six being affordable. The Shore Road plan involves 12 units with one affordable.

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Both locations involve reasonably high visibility. The Shore Road complex would cost an estimated $4.7 million to complete, according to Community Preservation Act (CPA) records. The Sandwich Road estimate is $8.5 million.

Michienzi seeks $1,035,000 in CPA funds for Shore Road units and $2.1 million for Sandwich Road housing.

Community Preservation Committee Chair Barry Johnson said the CPA funding requests are “considerable” but there are other matters to resolve. “Mr. Michienzi’s requests are not slam-dunks,” he said.

Rescom Architectural of Bourne designed both complexes.

A building permit, meanwhile, is pending for Cape View Way units to be built behind the North Sagamore fire station off Meetinghouse Lane. Plans call for 42 rental units with 34 being affordable. All units are designated for families with no age restrictions. Some 34 units are affordable and will be leased to eligible households whose annual income does not exceed 60% of area median income.

Johnson said a comprehensive permit for the complex is secured and construction may start this month. He said the project secured $360,000 in Community Preservation Act funds via three allocations. The project is advanced by Housing Assistance Corporation in Hyannis and the Preservation of Affordable Housing, according to planning department records.

Transit-oriented housing for Bourne

Town Planner Jennifer Copeland is working on a zoning overlay map for the west end of Main Street as Bourne tries to satisfy a Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) mandate that multi-family housing be considered for Boston commuters, if-and-when daily trains return to the village. Units, or at the very least a multi-family map to designate their location, must be near the restored village train station at Main Street and Academy Drive.

Town Administrator Marlene McCollem on June 13 told the Select Board the ‘T Zoning Action Plan was submitted in March and was accepted. The town is currently in interim compliance with a proposed target of the May 2024 town meeting to adopt the zoning district, she said.

The ‘T’ mandate is not optional. It is designed to boost housing development near transit stops. McCollem on Aug. 16 agreed Main Street’s west end is densely populated and filled with business, but she said 15 acres could be carved out of the area with re-development in mind, perhaps converting buildings to housing. “There is space,” she said. “It’s doable.”

Town historical records indicate the last commuter trains departed Buzzards Bay in 1964.

Apartment complex opens in Buzzards Bay, another falls through

Tides at Bourne apartments at Kendall Rae Place, across from Bourne Town Hall and overlooking the canal, opened earlier this summer after two years of supply-chain delays, sub-contractor issues and disconcerted tenants who signed leases before construction started.

This included middle-income individuals, retirees and others searching for canal-side living just steps away from Main Street. Retired Bourne Fire Chief Steve Philbrick was among them. “It hasn’t been easy finding that interim housing,” he said. “Or the waiting.”

The 100-unit, market-rate and canal-side complex for individuals 55-and-over includes 10 affordable units.

Another proposed 160 apartments at 2 Kendall Place in Buzzards Bay, with 16 designated affordable, were approved by the Planning Board but will not be built as the project's financing was lost, Mastrangelo said.

Accessory dwellings bylaw would encourage workforce housing

The Planning Board earlier this year vowed to work on a zoning bylaw that would accommodate but regulate property owners creating accessory dwelling units. Deed restrictions might limit occupants to the workforce of Bourne, board members said.

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This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Bourne makes a plan to increase affordable housing, cut commuters