The Cape and Islands region struggles to provide a range of housing options and a stable year-round housing supply. Market demand for seasonal/vacation homes and the proliferation of short-term rentals make it difficult for the Cape’s year-round workforce to find decent, affordable housing. Several towns in the region began to consider creating a program similar to one operating in Vail, Colorado, which buys year-round housing deed restrictions on existing housing to prevent them from becoming vacation homes in the future. To understand how year-round deed restriction programs work and whether they can benefit Cape Cod, Community Development Partnership (CDP), a non-profit community development corporation, asked Barrett Planning Group to evaluate the feasibility of implementing one in the eight towns that comprise Lower and Outer Cape Cod (Provincetown, Truro, Wellfleet, Eastham, Orleans, Brewster, Harwich, and Chatham.)
Case Studies
We did extensive research into other year-round deed restriction programs, focusing on implementation, funding, and program administration. Our staff interviewed representatives from existing programs and scrutinized publicly available data to identify best practices, potential funding streams, legal implications, and program operating costs.
Feasibility:
Given market trends on Cape Cod and “lessons learned” from other programs, we developed five scenarios tailored to the conditions in the Lower and Outer Cape towns. Key considerations included residency requirements, resale caps, and incentives for developers. We also modeled alternative structures for a program that works with new residential development to illustrate other ways that deed restrictions can be used to create year-round housing stock. Each model considered the price and impact on the community alongside comparisons to available market options.
Wrapping up our work for CDP, we compiled our findings and the scenarios we considered into a comprehensive report for presentation to CDP’s Housing Committee.
