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Photo Pru Sowers
Howard Burchman, left, chair of the planning board, and Gary Reinhardt, zoning board chair, bring concerns to the board of health over the growth management bylaw. |
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Concerns aired over effectiveness of growth bylaws
By Pru Sowers
Banner Staff
PROVINCETOWN — Worried that local growth management bylaws intended to control, among other things, water usage in town, are not being implemented the way they were intended, the chairs of the zoning board of appeals and the planning board met with the board of health last week to discuss ways to more accurately assess water flow calculations made by the health agent.
The impact of the debate could lead to an examination on a case-by-case basis of every application that comes before the board of health involving bedroom additions, transfers or change of use, or potentially a relaxation of portions of the growth management bylaws.
Hoping to preserve water flow allocations for affordable housing developments, Gary Reinhardt, ZBA chair, questioned the way Health Agent Jane Evans defines a bedroom, which determines how much water and septic flow is assigned to a residence.
“The way the health agent and board of health are looking at septic flow doesn’t take into consideration usage. The problem is, [Evans] might be counting bedrooms where there are no bedrooms,” Reinhardt said.
The issue is particularly important, Reinhardt added, in cases where the applicant requests a “change of use,” which usually applies to a commercial structure such as a guesthouse or restaurant being converted to residential use. As part of the application process, the health agent tours the site to determine, among other things, how many bedrooms the now-residential structure will have. The number of bedrooms determines how much water and sewage capacity the structure will be allocated. Under state Title 5 regulations, each bedroom is assigned 110 gallons of water a day.
The issue, said Howard Burchman, chair of the planning board, is that if a residential development is assigned water flow that is not going to be used, it would be better to change the definition of what constitutes a bedroom so as to preserve that water allocation for other housing, preferably affordable. He pointed to a recent solution to the lack of affordable housing that proposes to turn the second floor storage space above many stores on Commercial Street into affordable housing rentals.
“There could be flow that is available to do this but we can’t because [Evans] is allocating it away,” Burchman said. “Years ago it was Title 5 that was the issue because we were concerned about excess growth. One could argue now there is more focus on housing and [we should] require development rather than restraining growth,” he said.
However, the board of health said their hands are tied in terms of changing what defines a bedroom. Duane Gregory, board of health chair, said Evans has no leeway in her calculations.
“She’s obligated by the [state] Dept. of Environmental Protection and Title 5 to count the potential use so that septic is proper for that property,” Gregory said. “We can’t do anything less than the state requires for Title 5 determination.”
Evans said that she is under strict rules for determining usage, including if a room could be used as a bedroom, whether the owner intends to use it as one or not, it must be counted as a bedroom. And since the Title 5 regulations cannot be changed, it would have to be Provincetown’s growth management bylaws that would change to better assess allowable development. Reinhardt says he would like to see the entire growth management mission debated.
“The potential question is whether growth management is still necessary? I don’t think that it is. I think the market is controlling it [efficient use of local resources],” he said.
The board of health suggested that if the zoning and planning boards are concerned that water flow allocation is not being adequately assessed, particularly when a homeowner applies to transfer existing bedrooms to another part of the property, they could examine each application on a case-by-case basis. Reinhardt rejected that idea as being too unwieldy, however.
“I don’t want to be a watchdog,” he said.
psowers@provincetownbanner.com
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Oct 12th, 2006