Cape Cod Commission outlines regional housing strategy recommendations to county commissioners

Christy Sanatorium, executive director of the Cape Cod Commission, and senior staff presented the commission’s regional housing strategy recommendations to the Barnstable County Board of Regional Commissioners on Feb. 12, 2025. The presentation outlined findings about the region’s housing stock and offered a set of actions intended to accelerate production of diverse, year‑round housing while protecting sensitive resources.

Nut graf: Commissioners and commission staff framed the strategy as a regional, data‑driven effort to expand housing types and preservation tools across the 15 Cape towns, and to coordinate zoning, permitting, infrastructure and climate‑resilience planning so growth occurs in appropriate locations.

Key findings presented by commission staff included: about 80% of housing on the Cape is single‑family; roughly 36% of regional housing is seasonal; and an estimate from a UMass Donahue study projects housing demand could outpace supply by 11,000 to 22,000 units by 2035. Staff said the median household would need earnings near $210,000 annually to afford the median single‑family home observed in the review period, and that from 2019–2022 median single‑family sales prices rose roughly 60% while household incomes rose about 7.5%.

Staff recommendations covered: modifying local zoning to allow more small multifamily housing in appropriate places; streamlining permitting; creating a set of preapproved construction plans (ADUs, cottages, duplexes, small multifamily) to reduce design costs and speed approvals; establishing a permanent regional housing services office; developing a regional capital plan; exploring housing on Joint Base Cape Cod in coordination with MAS Development; and creating two complementary entities — a community land trust to hold land for permanently affordable homes and a regional housing land bank to acquire, hold and dispose of development‑ready parcels.

Christy Sanatorium said the preapproved plans effort contracted with Flintlock Lab, Kromberg Urbanists and Architects, and Union Studio to produce roughly 12 construction‑ready plans (12 residential plans plus 3 meeting the International Building Code) and associated guidance for local adoption. Chloe Shaffer, the commission’s planner leading the land‑trust and land‑bank work, said the recommended community land trust would hold land in perpetuity for deed‑restricted homes (targeting deed‑restricted units up to 80% AMI and additional attainable homes up to about 200% AMI), while the land bank would acquire and remake sites over a shorter horizon for larger projects and partnerships.

Commissioners discussed accountability for implementation, the roles of towns versus the county and regional partners, how to staff and sustain new regional capacity, and the tradeoffs between increasing housing supply and preserving community character and environmental protections. Commissioner Forrest framed the question as one of leadership and urged clearer assignment of responsibilities. Commissioners also pressed staff on permitting streamlining, the practical limits of land availability, infrastructure and wildfire/coastal risk, and the need to monitor occupancy of newly built rental units.

Ending: Commission staff said final consultant reports and implementation steps will be released in the coming weeks and that the commission will continue technical assistance to towns; commissioners asked to revisit the topic periodically as implementation and local zoning changes move forward.