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Seashore challenges Wellfleet zoning
Banner Daily Update Sat. Mar. 1
By Derek Burritt
Banner Staff
WELLFLEET—Cape Cod National Seashore Supt. George Price is seeking to challenge town zoning bylaws established after 1966 in his efforts to rein in the tear-down and rebuild phenomenon happening within the Seashore.
Specifically, he’s contesting Wellfleet’s 15-year-old definition of “alteration” to nonconforming single and two-family residential structures, which allows for the “reconstruction, extension, structural change, or replacement” of a dwelling, according to bylaw 6.1.5, which first appeared in 1993.
To understand Price’s claims, one must look back to the original legislation.
In 1961, when President John F. Kennedy signed Public Law 87-126, which established the Cape Cod National Seashore, it marked the first time a national park was created out of privately owned land. According to legislation, these roughly 600 private parcels within the Seashore district with “improved property” status were to be uniquely managed through mutually agreed upon zoning bylaws by the towns and the secretary of the interior.
According to the earliest zoning bylaw records in the town clerk's office, bylaws exist from 1966 that address property in the Seashore, including intensity regulations and a provision for variances. With regards to variances, the bylaw states that any applicant wishing to apply for a variance or exception be notified that the secretary of the interior is “authorized to withdraw the suspension of his authority to acquire, by condemnation,” the said property if the variance, “in his opinion, fails to conform or is in any manner opposed to or inconsistent with the purposes of the Cape Cod National Seashore.”
Attorney Ben Zehnder, who for the last five years has almost exclusively represented property owners in the Seashore, points to the parameters of the original legislation only establishing minimum lot size and setback requirements. In the case of Wellfleet, the minimum lot coverage area of 5 percent established in 1975 would be a stricter interpretation.
However, Price is looking at the spirit of the law.
“The intent was to allow a structure to be moved and rebuilt in the event of a natural phenomenon or erosion,” Price said in a telephone interview.
Price says he is currently investigating a way to exercise his authority to revoke certificates suspending condemnation in Wellfleet due to his claims that amended zoning bylaws in town after 1966 were never approved by the subsequent secretaries of the interior.
Read more on this story in the March 6 Provincetown Banner.
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Feb 28th, 2008