The End of This World (As We Knew It)

12.0 SEASONAL RESORT COMMUNITY (SRC)

12.1 PURPOSES AND INTENT.

To provide sites for seasonal cottage and recreational vehicle oriented resorts with special attention to
preserving and enhancing the existing land uses, vegetation, visual landscape, and amenities for future generations, thereby retaining the historic “way of life” and character of the area while considering the needs of neighboring properties.

Some Things You Might Like To Know

At the 2016 conference of the Massachusetts Association of Planning Directors, the Dennis Town Planner moderated a session on Thursday, 19 May 2016, entitled “Seasonal Resort Zoning: Taking a Concept From the Past and Creating a New Future.” He was joined by two other speakers, Robert L Brennan Jr. (Brennan Law and Heritage Sands Inc.) and Douglas Kallfelz, AIA (Principal, Union Studios Architects). The slideshow of their presentation can be viewed online at: http://massplanningdirectors.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/1B-Seasonal-Resort-Zoning-Heritage-Sands-Cottage-Community-Dennisport.pdf

Later that same day, three fellows from the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP) presented a session entitled “Ethics and Communication,” which the MAPD program describes as one which “will review the AICP Code of Ethics as it relates to communications” and “will explore how the code of ethics relates to effective communication.” The slideshow of that presentation can be viewed online at: http://massplanningdirectors.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/2016-05-06-Ethics-of-Communications-Final-as-of-5.16.16.pdf   

Worth noting in the “Ethics and Communication” session is Slide #6 entitled “Ethical Quicksand” and highlighting the importance of a planner’s “Framing Issues (honesty, clarity, completeness).”

Slide #12 about the AICP reads:

                              “Aspirational Principle 1 - Our Overall Responsibility to the Public

              Our primary obligation is to serve the public interest and we, therefore, owe our allegiance
              to our conscientiously attained concept of the public interest that is formulated
              through continuous and open debate.”

And Slide #13 concerns the AICP members’:

                                               “1. Responsibility to the Public

                                a) Always conscious of the rights of others
                                b) Special concern for long-range consequences of present actions
                                c) Attention to interrelatedness of decisions
                                d) Timely, clear and accurate information
                                e) Meaningful participation, including for those lacking influence”

The Take: 19 November 2009

Let me highlight some of the points that I think the Town Planner made on 19 November 2009. I suggest that you keep these points in mind as his Narrative emerges and changes over the course of the seven years since then.

• “Control over future land use. I think this is the big thing that this [Economic Development] committee was looking at.”

•  “If there is a transition, what would we like it to look like wouldn’t be . . .  a high-density housing development that puts a wall of single-family homes on the south side of  . . . Old Wharf Road.”

• “They could cluster and put all those housing units on one side of the street and totally wall off the water if someone decided that was the only economical way to use the property.”

• “Things happen and . . . we’d like to have more control over what happens in this area if something were to happen. And actually that control may actually scare some people away who don’t want to have to live to the Town design standards.”

• “We’re looking at the existing land uses, the lawfully pre-existing structures are grand-fathered. So, cottage colonies, the RV parks will remain as long as the property owners allow the use to remain.”

• “I do hope that Salt Air [Village] will authorize [Atty Reid] to continue to represent them as we work on this. Also, I am hoping that we can get a few people from uh Chase’s Ocean Grove, Camper’s Haven, and Curtis Pines.”

• “If we develop a bylaw for this part of town we’re probably going to need to give you guys your own land use category to fit into.”

• “To come up with something that gives you a level of conformity based upon what’s there.”

• “We can probably find something that will allow some reinvestment by the cottage owners.”

• “So, long term for you, but also long term vision in case . . . the economy changes and there’s just no way that these things exist any more.”

• “There’s some questions there that probably are going to need strong input from the cottage colonies.”

The Narrative: Your Own Land Use Category

On 19 November 2009, the Dennis Town Planner convened a meeting of his Economic Development Committee to hear input from owners of cottages and RVs along Old Wharf Road in Dennisport. This is a partial (but literal) transcript and excerpt [1:06:11 - 1:08:35] from the archived Town video of that meeting.

“Before you [Atty David S. Reid] walk away from the microphone, I uh uh uh I do hope that Salt Air [Village] will authorize you to continue to represent them as we work on this. Also, I am hoping that we can get a few people from uh Chase’s Ocean Grove, Camper’s Haven, and uh Curtis Pines.

“One of the things that uh I think is going to be a real challenge is in trying to come up with a regulation that perhaps does incorporate -- and I’m using the term “campground” simply because . . . We’re going to have other properties that are ‘cottage colonies’ in other parts of town, and if we develop a bylaw for this part of town we’re probably going to need to give you guys your own land use category to fit into. Uh, so, I’m, right now my working term is “campground” and but one of the things that’s going to be real tough to try to wrestle with and uh is going to be trying to come up with something that gives you a level of conformity based upon what’s there -- and so that someone like Attorney Reid hopefully will be able to help us and obviously Salt Air the structures are a little more spaced than they are at uh Chase’s Ocean Grove, but that’s going to have to be one of the things we’re going to have to wrestle with is they have some structures that are two feet apart and you could step from one deck to another at Chase’s Ocean Grove and y’know we want to give it some level of conformity so that uh y’know as I like to say ‘People have to ask permission to sneeze when you’re non-conforming,’ and we’d like to be able to get us to a point where you might be able to do something or most of you might be able to do something with your cottages without even necessarily having to go to the Town. Uh that y’know so uh Somewhere in there we can probably find something that will allow some reinvestment by the cottage owners, as well as get us to a point that also y’know ensures that uh there’s a long term out there as well, just in case. So, long term for you, but also long term vision in case uh y’know the economy changes and there’s just no way that these things exist any more.

“So, I do hope you’ll stay involved, because uh there’s some questions there that probably are going to need strong input from the cottage colonies.”

The Narrative Begins: 19 November 2009

On 19 November 2009, the Dennis Town Planner convened a meeting of his Economic Development Committee to hear input from owners of cottages and RVs along Old Wharf Road in Dennisport. This is a partial (but literal) transcript and excerpt [30:55-33:33] from the archived Town video of that meeting.

“Control over future land use.

“I think this is the big thing that this committee was looking at. Ah, right now, as I’ve said several times, hotels are a ‘Yes’ in this zoning district. And, ah, that means that the Town cannot say ‘No’ if it complies with the z- minimum requirements of zoning we don’t have a lotta control, say, ‘Gee, what you’re showing just isn’t the right fit for the Town of Dennis.’ 

“So y’know trying to put out a vision like a hotel that might be on one side of the street and maybe a waterfront conference facility that might be on the other side of the street and y’know open sandy beaches ah is an idea saying y’know y’know thirty years fifty years from now ah if there is a transition, what would you we like it to look like ahhh wouldn’t be as I’ve seen in some ah recent reports out of Hingham and other places ah a high-density housing development that puts a wall of single-family homes on the south side of Old Bass River- oh uh Old Wharf Road and uh then that’s possible, because zoning allows fourteen housing units on Chase’s Ocean Grove. Ah, so they could cluster and put all those housing units on one side of the street and totally wall off the water if someone decided that was the only economical way to use the property.

“Another option is, this is a Hingham project, forty-six housing units on the waterfront is a 40B. Ah, there are homes selling for 1.6 million alongside homes selling for 170,000. Ah, and, y’know things happen and we’re just like we’d like to have more control over what happens in this area if something were to happen. And actually that control may actually scare some people away who don’t want to have to live to the Town design standards.

“So, that’s why we’ve called for fewer by-right uses in this district and placing many of the current by-right uses under special permit authority. Ah, we’re looking at the existing land uses, the lawfully pre-existing structures are grandfathered. So, cottage colonies, the RV parks will remain as long as the property owners allow the use to remain. And that’s why I keep saying, if you guys become your property owners y’know you’re going to allow yourself to remain. Ah, structures that are constructed or expanded without proper permits and zoning relief do place a lawfully pre-existing status in jeopardy. So, ah, what I’m saying is, ‘Don’t do anything without proper permits, because then y’know someone could come in and order your building removed because you’ve surrendered your grandfather rights if you don’t do things the right way.”

Heritage Defined

What better place is there to begin this look at Dennis town government in the 21st Century than to go right to the World Wide Web? http://www.town.dennis.ma.us/Pages/index

And that’s where we find this description of how someone at Town Hall presents the Town:

“Dennis, named an All American Town in 1978, combines its traditional New England heritage with modern day conveniences.”
 
Did someone say, “traditional  New  England heritage?” 

I love that phrase, and I couldn’t ask for a better place to start. After all, this payroll someone hasn’t introduced the world to Dennis by invoking some of its traditional Town heritage. Surely, Dennis must be proud of Sleepy John Sears, who invented a better way of producing salt from saltwater, or of Asa Shiverick and his sons, whose sailing ships had plied the waters of the world. 

But is that the foundation upon which the Town wants to build its reputation in this world? 

Apparently not.  

Some payroll someone decided that the Town of Dennis should dress itself in something more than just its local heritage and wrap itself in the mantle of all New England: the Town Meeting form of government.

Stepping away from http://www.town.dennis.ma.us/Pages/index for the moment, you can get a little more insight into the Dennis self-image by seeing how the Commonwealth of Massachusetts looks upon this “traditional New England heritage” called “Town Meeting.”

“In use for over 300 years and still today,” says the Secretary of the Commonwealth, William Francis Galvin, “[Town Meeting] has proven to be a valuable means for many Massachusetts taxpayers to voice their opinions and directly effect change in their communities. Here in this ancient American assembly, you can make your voice heard as you and your neighbors decide the course of the government closest to you.” 

Wow. Though I’m not so sure that 300 years qualifies anything as being “ancient,” there can be no doubt that Town Meeting is our Massachusetts heritage; thus, it is the Town’s New England heritage.

Let me take a moment here to invoke some extreme heaviosity and quote a line or two from Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy In America, which the French historian wrote in two volumes after traveling this nation in the mid-19th Century.

“[L]ocal assemblies of citizens constitute the strength of free nations. Town-meetings are to liberty what primary schools are to science; they bring it within the people’s reach, they teach men how to use and how to enjoy it. A nation may establish a system of free government, but without the spirit of municipal institutions it cannot have the spirit of liberty.”

This, I might further suggest is our “traditional New England heritage.”

He goes on to note in his history that, “The townships have the right to make by-laws, and to enforce them by fines which are fixed by law.”

As Secretary of State Galvin further explains, Town Meeting is the one place where registered voters are entitled to exercise control over three areas: (1) the salaries for the elected officials; (2) the appropriation of money to run the town; and (3) the enactment of the Town’s local statutes, which are called By-laws. And whenever Town Meeting adopts a By-law which regulates the use of land, buildings and/or structures in order to protect the health, safety and general welfare of the Town’s present and future inhabitants, this is a called a Zoning By-Law. 

Make no mistake about it: Town Meeting is our “traditional New England heritage.”

If you take a closer, more local look at things, you’ll see that very concept reiterated in the Zoning By-laws enacted by Dennis Town Meeting and stated this way [with my bold emphasis]:

SECTION 1 - ADMINISTRATION & INTERPRETATION

1.1 TITLE
This By-Law shall be known as the Dennis Zoning By-Law. 

1.2 PURPOSE
The purpose of this By-Law is to promote the health, safety, convenience, amenity, and general welfare of the inhabitants of the Town of Dennis, through encouraging the most appropriate use of the land as authorized by Chapter 808 of the Acts of 1975, with objectives as follows: 

To lessen congestion in the ways; to conserve health; to secure safety from fire, flood, panic and other dangers; to provide adequate light and air; to prevent overcrowding of land; to avoid undue concentration of population; to recognize the need for housing for persons of all income levels; to facilitate the adequate provision of transportation, water, water supply, drainage, schools, parks, open space, and other public requirements; to conserve the value of land and buildings, including the conservation of natural resources and the prevention of blight and pollution of the environment; to encourage the most appropriate use of land throughout the town, including consideration of the master plan, and to preserve and increase amenities by the promulgation of regulations to fulfill said objectives. 

1.3 ADMINISTRATION
  1.3.1 Enforcement     
  The Building Commissioner shall administer and enforce the provisions of this By-Law. No permit shall be issued for construction or for the change of use of any land or premises unless the required submitted plans and specifications indicate that buildings, structures, premises and their use will conform in all respects to the provisions of this By-Law.

For the purposes of this blog, let me now point out two things. 

First, there is absolutely nothing (N-O-T-H-I-N-G) in Section 1.2 Purpose of the Dennis Zoning By-law which even implies, let alone states, that zoning land use is an instrument for developing or promoting the Dennis economy. 

Second, the Dennis Building Commissioner does not accept the notion that the Building Commissioner is authorized only to ENFORCE and is not authorized to INTERPRET the specific words of a By-law as adopted by the voters of Town Meeting.
 
This blog is dedicated to every member of Dennis Town Meeting who believes that a vote cast (either for or against an article) actually means something and to every permit applicant in Dennis who has been required by the Town Planner or the Building Commissioner to seek some sort of remedy before the Zoning Board of Appeals.