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Proposed Cape Cod housing plan would help residents, employers, vacationers

BARNSTABLE, Mass. — Many New Englanders head to Cape Cod looking for a relaxing vacation. That can be hard to achieve if they’re stuck waiting in lines because there aren’t enough workers to handle the crowds.

But to have a sufficient number of workers on the Cape, those people need a place to live.

Reasonably priced housing can often be hard to find in a place where the focus has been on building luxury housing.

“A lot of people my age move way,” Sam Monroe, manager at Osterville Fish, said.

Monroe is one of Cape Cod’s endangered species -- a college educated 20-something who still calls Massachusetts’ piece of paradise home.

Despite his job and his wife’s position as a teacher, finding a home wasn’t easy.

“We looked all over, in different areas,” Monroe said. “If it was a nice piece of property, it was either too far way from where we needed to be, or where we wanted to be.”

Rob Brennan, of CapeBuilt, is developing two parcels in downtown Hyannis into worker housing.

Sea Captain’s Row on Pleasant Street and 255 Main Street will have a total of 70 market rate apartments meant for people who will work on Cape Cod year-round.

“For so long, the Cape’s primary focus in development had been on second vacation homes,” Brennan said. “Often times you had the 1st time home buyers, or even renters, competing with folks that are looking to buy or rent a vacation home, and that really squeezed out a lot of young professionals and working families.”

Monroe said a lot of his friends are living with parents or in an in-law suite.

Barnstable town planner Elizabeth Jenkins said she believes a community loses out when people in the middle can’t afford to live there. She said a housing analysis showed there was a decent supply of affordable housing in downtown Hyannis, but not much market rate housing stock.

“I think the general sustainability and the quality of life that people are looking for comes when you have those opportunities for all people," she said.

Brennan said both projects will be done with a reverence for the past, but will have plenty of modern amenities.

It’s a combination Brennan believes will draw young professionals back to downtown Hyannis, and in the process, improve the experience of vacationers.

“You need to have professionals who are able to live on the Cape, whether it's professionals to manage the restaurants, working in the financial services or in the hospitals," Brennan said.

The business community is hoping these projects will help them attract more skilled workers as well.

"We want this to be the place where everyone wants to live in, and loves, and it’s quirky and interesting, Elizabeth Wurfbain, Executive Director of the Hyannis Main Street Business Improvement District, said.

Brennan said the leases will be structured so the units can’t be sub-let or listed on sites like Airbnb.

He also explained that part of the application review process will be to check where a person works.