[0:00] I think we're going to get started, and it sounds like some of you have. So thank you for that. First, thanks for coming. Tonight, my name is Gail Sullivan, and I'm a part-time well-fleet resident, and I'm the managing principal of Studio G Architects, and we are leading the team that's doing this planning process. And we'll talk about that more in a minute. So next slide, please. I just want to, we're going to do 10 minutes of talking, and then we really want you all talking.

[0:29] But I did want to put tonight's meeting in a context, a number of people have come up to meet tonight, but also to others to ask about that.

[0:37] So, very briefly, in 2022, the town of Wellfleet bought Marisa's camp ground.

[0:44] It's 21 and a half acres, and that is intended to help provide desperately needed housing in the town.

[0:52] For year-round residents in particular, also for seasonal residents.

[0:56] The sale agreement commits the town to keep the campground until 2028.

[1:04] And the reasoning behind that from the town was that that's about how long it's going

[1:09] to take for development to get designed, planned, financed, and ready to go.

[1:16] So that's kind of a good timeline.

[1:18] So I think there have been some questions that we've been hearing about what's the timeline

[1:22] for all of this.

[1:23] And I know some people feel an enormous sense of urgency to solve the problems on the

[1:28] other hand.

[1:30] Money always drives development, and it takes a lot of money to get housing built.

[1:38] So a couple of other points.

[1:40] In 2023, the town had a housing production plan done by James Goldson, who is the community

[1:48] engagement consultant on our team and here tonight.

[1:51] and some of you may have participated in some of the discussions for that or

[1:56] seen the plan. The town established the Marisa's Campground Planning Committee,

[2:03] a volunteer group to figure out how that site can best serve your town for the

[2:10] years to come. And this past spring that committee selected our team to do the

[2:16] planning study. So we are consultants to the town working closely with the planning committee,

[2:23] and hopefully with all of you, not just tonight, but going forward, to put together a plan

[2:29] for Marisa's campground. So I want to say, if we, thanks, Athena, a little bit about the team.

[2:36] We're four different companies, each with key skills needed for this process. So Studio

[2:44] J.M. Goldson does community engagement, housing production plans, helps plan housing.

[2:52] Langen is both here for civil engineering, for landscape architecture, but also for

[2:59] traffic planning.

[3:01] And finally, and definitely not least, Boston communities is on our team because they are

[3:07] developers and development consultants, they have expertise in how to finance affordable

[3:14] and attainable or if you prefer workforce housing.

[3:19] So that's the group that the town has hired to do this process.

[3:25] And I want to make a couple of key points because I think there's some confusion about this.

[3:30] We are not the designers of the housing that's going to come on this site.

[3:34] We are also not the developers, okay?

[3:38] We are the planners.

[3:40] We're working for you to make sure that your vision gets put into the set of guidelines

[3:46] that the town puts out for a developer one or more to develop the housing and other uses.

[3:55] So that's really the key thing, as we're looking for your vision, your input

[4:00] that is going to go into the guidelines that will direct it.

[4:03] Basically, you have to say what you want, okay?

[4:08] And then the next thing, if we can go to the agenda, thanks, is we are in the very

[4:13] first phase of this planning process.

[4:15] So phase one, hearing from well-fleet residents, year-round residents, people who work here

[4:23] and maybe haven't been able to live here, part-time residents, seasonal residents.

[4:29] We want to hear from people who have a stake in this community about what's needed.

[4:36] So tonight is the first of three community meetings.

[4:39] The next one will be in November and the following one in February.

[4:44] Tonight's is really about the listening process.

[4:47] So Rashman and I are going to share a little information and then Jen Goldson is going to give

[4:53] you a little bit of information about what you're doing at these tables tonight.

[4:57] So I want to go into what we've already heard.

[5:01] So there's already been a lot of focus groups happening

[5:03] in the community as well as surveys.

[5:06] We're continuing that process into September.

[5:09] Some of you may have participated.

[5:11] So there are a number of quotes on the next few slides.

[5:14] All of these quotes are from the focus groups.

[5:19] So they can form what I think we all already know.

[5:23] There's not enough year-round housing.

[5:24] people ping pong from rental to rental. Sometimes they have to move in, especially in the summer season, with family or others.

[5:34] And research and the community conversations tell us a few things that we know.

[5:39] Well, fleet has limited land for development, right? We love the national seashore. It also occupies a lot of acres in this town

[5:47] that cannot be turned into affordable and attainable housing.

[5:54] So we also have the issue of short term rentals and seasonal homes which we know and I'm one of those people in part time here.

[6:01] We know strains the year-round housing stock. So what do we do to solve those problems?

[6:07] Next slide please. We also know that housing growth in Wellfleet has not kept pace with the needs of the year-round community.

[6:16] We also know that housing costs are way too high for many year-round residents, and

[6:23] the year-round residents are critical to keeping an economy and a community viable and

[6:28] sustainable.

[6:30] People who grew up here and want to stay here need starter homes, and they need the ability

[6:36] to expand that homes as they expand their families if we want a sustainable community.

[6:42] And seasonal workers, I think we all know, are one backbone of this economy and they need

[6:49] decent places to live, next slide.

[6:53] And this vote in particular struck me.

[6:56] Artists are an important part of our community and none of them should be living in a chicken

[7:01] coop.

[7:04] So another thing that we know is well-fledged population skews to the older side.

[7:10] Michael, one of my staff said, I'll probably be the only person under 24 here as I guarantee

[7:16] it.

[7:17] As seniors could move to smaller dwellings to age and place, perhaps with support services

[7:23] if they need them, that's a way that homes, larger homes, could open up for families.

[7:29] How might that get facilitated?

[7:32] Marisa's site is really important because it is large.

[7:36] It might be the larger site that the town has, has control over to think about what should

[7:44] happen here for the well-being in the future, the well-being today and for the future of

[7:51] this town.

[7:53] So I want to share a few statistics that we've gathered.

[7:56] And I am going to make a point because for people who are detail-oriented, you may find faults

[8:02] on some of the statistics.

[8:03] I will point out, statistics on these issues are very hard to come by and they are not

[8:09] always accurate, so I'm just going to acknowledge that right now.

[8:12] Okay, but that said, the best information that we have is right here.

[8:18] We don't have enough housing diversity by which we mean different types of housing in

[8:22] the town.

[8:24] 91% of the housing in this town is single family.

[8:28] That's great for some households, not great for others.

[8:31] 77% are owner occupied, but 66% of our housing stock is seasonal use.

[8:40] More than half of the homes in this town are not occupied by year-round residents leaving

[8:46] less than half of the homes in this town available for year-round residents.

[8:52] If we had lots of housing that might be okay, but it's not okay here.

[8:56] We don't have enough smaller units in this town for smaller households, and everybody

[9:05] knows we have very high housing costs here.

[9:09] This is the median single-family house sale price at $940,000, and we don't have enough

[9:17] affordable housing if one third of the community is cost burdened by their shelter costs.

[9:24] And what does this do? It decreases the labor force and it decreases the number of children

[9:32] who have the opportunity to grow up in this town. So I think these are problems that

[9:38] we should all see as our problems. So this planning process that you're engaged in tonight

[9:45] is one step. I won't say it's the very first one because the planning committee has been

[9:50] working diligently for many, many months, but it is one step in the process to start to

[9:56] address all of that.

[9:58] And I want to acknowledge something that the facilitators, and I was talking about earlier,

[10:02] this is complicated.

[10:03] This is not simple.

[10:04] There's not a simple, single lever to pull that's going to solve all the problems.

[10:10] So let's just acknowledge tonight.

[10:11] It's complicated, and we need to have everybody's ideas to get to the solutions.

[10:16] So, Rashmi is going to talk a little about our goals.

[10:25] There we go.

[10:26] So thank you, Gail, for handing it over to me.

[10:30] As Gail mentioned, we are here to plan.

[10:33] This is part of a master planning process.

[10:36] And today is a representation of how our approach is to this master planning.

[10:42] We want to use a collaborative and transparent planning process.

[10:47] So today, we're asking you for your ideas, right?

[10:50] So we're not coming today with solutions.

[10:52] We are asking you to help us shape what this plan needs to be.

[10:57] So this is why we have multiple tables where you can contribute your ideas.

[11:03] We do want to optimize the property for development.

[11:06] You know, what is the combination of the types of housing that need to be there?

[11:10] What are the other components that need to be on the site?

[11:14] So we're going to look at all of that.

[11:15] We're going to have a chance to talk about transit already planned,

[11:19] needed, what are all the different connections, and we're not going to talk about this today,

[11:24] but we're already thinking about innovative wastewater management next step.

[11:29] This is the most important slide.

[11:32] So the reason we have multiple stations is we want to think of the plan for Marisa's as

[11:41] creating a neighborhood, right, and when we're creating a neighborhood it's their multiple

[11:46] components, there's housing, there's community uses, there's commercial, there's open space,

[11:53] we want to make sure that the entire project is sustainable, so really bring to the table

[11:59] a holistic approach and understand that all of these pieces are interconnected.

[12:04] So this is why we want to make sure that we are hearing your voices because the residential

[12:11] neighborhood that is going to be created, that we're going to provide guidelines for should

[12:16] represent you, your vision, and your culture and what feels like it belongs in

[12:21] well-fleet, right? So this is why we have stations like reflecting well-fleet. We

[12:26] understand, as Gail said, that we need a variety of options for housing because

[12:30] a variety of people need housing, and some rental, some home ownership, some

[12:36] seniors, some seasonal workers. So think about this in all the different ways.

[12:40] This is not one project that has one solution. It's it's gonna be multiple

[12:45] different projects that address different needs. And then as to support the residential

[12:52] neighborhood, we do need to think of all the other services and facilities that need

[12:57] to be expanded. So we're having conversations about some of those at some of the other

[13:01] stations. Next slide. This slide I'm not going to go into but I'm going to invite you to

[13:06] be part of the sustainability and climate resilience station where you can contribute ideas and

[13:12] And here about what we might already be thinking of doing to make sure that the development

[13:18] guidelines include thresholds and measures of sustainability next slide.

[13:26] And so to kind of bring this back to why we are here, part of Gail mentioned this, but

[13:31] to remind everybody, our deliverable is to come up with guidelines that we would provide

[13:38] to developers, multiple or single, that is yet to be determined, is it one project, is

[13:45] it multiple projects, this is all part of the planning process for us to decide and make

[13:50] recommendations for what the RFP to the developers need to be like.

[13:54] Is it supposed to be one all constructed at the same time?

[13:57] Is it supposed to be phased, right?

[13:59] All of this is part of the plan.

[14:01] So it might be a question that some of you have is that how is this going to happen?

[14:05] and this is all part of the guidelines.

[14:07] I encourage you to come to our March 2025 meeting

[14:10] where we will have the plan to share

[14:12] and you will be a part of the planning process.

[14:15] And then I do want to reiterate,

[14:17] please use this as an opportunity

[14:20] to share your vision and your ideas

[14:22] for how you want this to be part of your community.

[14:27] Next slide.

[14:30] So this is what this site looks like today.

[14:33] You can go to some of the stations.

[14:34] I think open space and ecology invites you to be part of site planning.

[14:39] There are some constraints, right?

[14:42] So we have the riparian buffer, we have some environmental borders.

[14:47] So when we think of where we're building, we want to be sure to respect some of those boundaries

[14:53] and understand what the impact of building there.

[14:55] So I'm not going to go into this.

[14:58] Next slide is Regional Code.

[15:00] Contest. Again, we have a station that's devoted to that where you have a chance to think about

[15:04] how does this site or the development, development, slash developments occurring at this site,

[15:11] how do they connect to the rest of the town, how do they connect to Outer Cape, and what

[15:14] else needs to be put in place. So keep all of this in mind, and please go to multiple stations

[15:19] so you can help us think about all of these. I'm going to hand it over to Jim.

[15:29] All right, wonderful. Hopefully it's more interesting to hear from a few different faces, rather

[15:34] than one person talking the whole time. I'm Jen Goldson, everybody can hear me okay, right?

[15:40] I'm a specialist in community planning with my colleague Laura in the corner here and

[15:46] I'm going to talk to you about what you're going to be doing at these tables, so we have

[15:50] you already separated out into these different tables. So tonight is called a, there's

[15:56] a technical name for it, not that it matters to you all, but it's called the World Cafe

[15:59] Method where you actually get to talk with one group and then you get to go up and talk

[16:03] to some other group, whichever groups you choose.

[16:07] And we have several topics here.

[16:09] So we have reflecting Wellfleet, what are important elements

[16:13] of the history and culture of Wellfleet,

[16:16] and how can those elements be reflected on the site?

[16:20] Community connections, what kind of connections,

[16:24] transportation connections, other connections,

[16:26] would you like to see?

[16:27] Over here, as Rajmi already said,

[16:30] But open space and ecology, what kinds of outer activities, landscape spaces would you

[16:36] like to see over here is housing, what kinds of households do you think would be housed

[16:42] at this site or should be housed at this site, what kinds of housing types would you like

[16:46] to see there.

[16:47] Over here we have community uses and commercial, what kind of amenities should be at this site,

[16:54] what kinds of equipment and items, et cetera.

[16:56] And then over here we have sustainability and climate resilience.

[17:01] And the whole structure of today is that you start where you are.

[17:05] So hopefully you like the topic you're sitting at.

[17:08] You start here and you talk with the group that's around the table.

[17:11] And they'll go through the various questions on the board with you

[17:14] and really entice you to really discuss with each other.

[17:18] Put your ideas down on the sheets there.

[17:21] And each table has a facilitator.

[17:23] Could my facilitators just raise their hands?

[17:25] So the folks at your table can see. So Hillary, could you stand with the one you're with? Yeah. Good.

[17:31] Okay. Who is the facilitator at Reflecting Well Fleet? Is that right for me?

[17:37] Okay. So you all have a facilitator. There he is. He's this one. All right.

[17:41] Hillary's over here. We have a couple of Sean two people here who's over here.

[17:48] Gary. Very good. Okay. Very good. Who's over here? Sharon and Laura. Good.

[17:53] and over here, Ryan, very good.

[17:56] So you'll have some facilitators at your table and they'll facilitate a discussion with your group.

[18:02] And then I'm going to be ringing this bell.

[18:05] I'm going to show you what it sounds like just so you're not startled by it.

[18:09] But about three minutes before you change tables, I'm going to ring this.

[18:14] So that's what's going to sound like.

[18:16] So when I ring that you still have three minutes left to wrap up your conversation.

[18:21] and then I'll ring it again when time is up and then you can choose to go to another table.

[18:26] We just asked that you respect the number of seats generally that are around the table

[18:30] because it's really hard to have a conversation if everybody goes to the housing table.

[18:35] So it is a little bit like musical chairs except we're not taking a chair away every round.

[18:40] I don't know if you guys remember playing musical chairs.

[18:43] So just, you know, and if you don't get to go to the table you want,

[18:47] I want you all to know that we've created an online version of this whole forum.

[18:53] So we have an online version that's live right now in a few slides I can show you how

[19:00] to get to that.

[19:01] But everything that's in this room is already online.

[19:04] It's an interactive website we've created so that if you didn't get to go to a table tonight

[19:08] or if you have friends, hopefully you'd like to participate, you can encourage them to

[19:13] go online and do the same exact activities online.

[19:18] We also have these little sheets here that you can tell us anything you want.

[19:23] It doesn't even have to be a question that's on the board.

[19:26] So these sheets were at the front table and I think there's some on every table as well.

[19:30] These are just individual forms you can fill out.

[19:33] There's a big blank side on the back that says, what else would you like to tell us?

[19:38] So you're not bound by the questions here.

[19:40] Does that generally make sense how I'm describing the way the night will go, and what we're looking for, and how this all works, and the other opportunities?

[19:48] Yes, go ahead.

[19:53] Exactly. So what kind of? So you're going to have 20 minutes at the table that you're at right now.

[20:00] I'm going to ring it when you have a three-minute warning, but you don't have to get up the first time I ring it.

[20:05] The second time I ring it, that's the time to get up and move, and you can move two

[20:11] times so that you go to three tables tonight.

[20:14] Yeah, so you can go to three tables tonight, and then again, tell us anything else you

[20:19] think on the sheet of paper, and you can go online and participate as much as you'd like

[20:24] there.

[20:25] Does that make sense?

[20:26] The way I've described that?

[20:27] Laura.

[20:27] I

[20:32] think that they could go to Rashmi and where

[20:42] will that box be,

[20:46] so where you got your

[20:48] name tag at the front, you can drop it there.

[21:01] So Rebecca, I'll judge the town's administrative executive.

[21:06] Great, does that make sense to everyone?

[21:08] Is that clear?

[21:10] Okay, perfect.

[21:11] Any other questions before we get started?

[21:18] Sharon.

[21:22] So then we're going to do a report out and so each of what you'll pick one table facilitator

[21:29] to basically report out just the gist of what was talked about in the various rounds.

[21:35] So you know the table facilitators are staying with their table the whole night.

[21:39] You guys are moving but the table facilitators stay there.

[21:42] So they'll report out like mostly people we're talking about X, Y, or Z.

[21:46] Or I had three different groups and they really cared about lots of different things.

[21:49] So that's what the report outs at the end will be like.

[21:53] Okay, let me just say I wasn't really using my slides.

[21:56] Do I have any more slides if you could forward to the next one?

[21:59] Is that it?

[22:01] Okay, good.

[22:03] So if you want to go online, why don't we just flip to the end

[22:06] because I have a slide about where to go online?

[22:09] Yeah, so we'll put this up again later.

[22:13] But the QR code is right here.

[22:17] If you want to grab it now, you can, but we're going to put this up a little bit later so you can grab that.

[22:22] You can walk over here and grab that.

[22:25] And then we also have the URL here as well.

[22:28] If they go onto the Towns website, does anybody know if the town has linked this story map to the website?

[22:35] Do you know?

[22:37] Okay, so you can still go straight to that site, but it will eventually be linked on the Towns website.

[22:43] Okay. Perfect world never happens exactly right. It should be. Did you just grab it? Okay.

[23:00] Yeah. Why don't we?

[23:07] So each table has a couple of different activities.

Maurices Community Forum Presentation 8-1-2024

Transcript