Cape Cod Commission urges zoning changes, preapproved plans, land trust and land bank to expand year‑round housing

The Cape Cod Commission on Feb. 12 presented a regional housing strategy that recommends changing local zoning, offering preapproved construction plans, and creating a community land trust and a regional housing land bank to increase year‑round and permanently affordable housing across the 15 towns on Cape Cod.

Commission staff said the report highlights factors that make the Cape’s housing market distinct, including a predominance of single‑family housing, high seasonal housing shares and rapid price growth. Christy Sanatore, executive director of the Cape Cod Commission, summarized the findings, saying, “80% of the housing across The Cape is single family homes. We have about 36% of our housing stock is seasonal. A household must earn about $210,000 annually to be able to affordably purchase the median price single family home that we have here on The Cape.” She added that between 2019 and 2022 the median single‑family sales price rose about 60% while household income rose about 7.5%.

Why i…