Zoning Board Visits Site Of Proposed 40B

     Only one truck braved a recently graded road leading to the top of a long, narrow site on Sandwich Road Wednesday, during a visit to the site of a proposed 32-unit Chapter 40B affordable housing development.
     Most of the Bourne Zoning Board of Appeals members walked to the top of the site, orienting themselves and asking questions in preparation for August 6 and the continuing review of that project.
     The board members, who were accompanied by Paul J. Attea, attorney for the applicant, and civil engineer Raul Lizardi-Rivera of Holmes & McGrath of Falmouth, paid close attention to several aspects of the project, proposed by property owner Thomas C. Pappas.
     Starting out at the six-bay garage at the base of the sloped site, members looked at that structure, where two units of housing were planned, raising the question of whether the units would be on top of the bays or would use most of the structure.
     About midway up the slope was the beginning of a foundation. Mr. Pappas had previously received approval to build a single-family home on the site. The foundation, however, was for a swimming pool.
     The shell of the pool was slated to be removed, Mr. Attea said, making way for the three proposed units that would sit at the top of a bluff, a location from which the Sagamore Bridge is visible. Beyond those units, a proposed road would curve around and access six more units.
     At that point, the road would curve up to the next level, where another eight units are proposed. The long drive would curve again at the end of those units, to a level where the remaining units are planned.
     Because of the slope of the site, a long retaining wall will line a goodly portion of the road, given the approximately 44-foot difference in grade on the property.
     Board members, who included Chairman Lee M. Berger, John Priestley Jr., Robert Gaynor, Timothy Sawyer, John O’Brien, and Wade M. Keene, stopped again to look at the proximity of the proposed units to the parking lot of the Upper Cape Cod Regional Technical School. The applicant has requested a variance from the required setbacks in that area.
     A traffic circle turnaround is proposed for the top of the site, and board members looked at the land on which that circle would sit. They walked up from there to what they determined was the boundary between Mr. Pappas’s property and the Schooner Pass condominium development, several buildings of which were visible through the trees in various locations along the road.
     Two members of the Port of Call subdivision also joined the site visit. Elias C. Habeeb and George B. Jones, neighbors on Weatherdeck Drive, wanted board members to look at the downed trees, cleared to allow Mr. Pappas access to a lot he had purchased in that subdivision.
     At a previous meeting of the zoning board, Port of Call residents had protested the idea that the lot could be used to provide a secondary access to the property, saying that its use was restricted by condominium rules to the building of a single-family home.
     Traffic, the need for an emergency access, and safety, given the right-in, right-out restriction put onto the Sandwich Road access to the property by the Massachusetts Highway Department, will be issues to be discussed during the permitting process. Several board members walked the cleared area to Mr. Pappas’s property line, where a Port of Call traffic circle was visible, hearing that the clearing had been done without a permit and a cease-and-desist order had been placed on the work.
     On July 7, the board sent a letter to the applicant, giving notice that a comprehensive permit could either be denied or conditions imposed on the project.
     The letter said that Bourne had already produced more than the 39 units of affordable housing it was required to produce in a calendar year, entitling the town to protection under what has been called the Safe Harbor provision of the Department of Housing and Community Development regulations.
     The applicant has until 15 days after it receives the letter, probably prior to the August 6 continued hearing, to write to DHCD and challenge the letter.