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Falmouth unveils town-owned parcel inventory, advances several affordable-housing grants
Summary
Town planner presented an inventory of town-owned parcels and recommended 22 candidate sites for possible disposition; the Select Board approved a $650,000 construction grant to Falmouth Housing Trust for five deed-restricted homes and a $216,300 supplemental grant to an age-restricted project.
Town planners on Sept. 9 presented the results of a year-long inventory and screening of town-owned parcels intended to identify land that could support municipal needs or be disposed of for affordable housing. The effort reduced an initial assessor list of 576 parcels to 22 candidate properties after a multi-step screening for conservation status, environmental constraints, frontage and lot-size criteria.
Jed Corach, the town planner, told the board the team prioritized parcels over two acres for the first pass and then applied a yes/no screening (frontage, minimum lot size, wetlands, zoning overlays and deed restrictions) to narrow the field. He said the department will continue work on the roughly 300 parcels under two acres and will post the underlying database and deed research when complete to speed future analysis.
Corach said the process produced three ranked groups of "good, moderate and poor" candidates; board and staff identified several parcels—on West Falmouth Highway and Locust Field Road—as near-term candidates for the November town meeting warrant. The board directed staff to include those parcels for warrant articles and continue outreach and vetting with department heads.
At the same meeting the board approved two affordable-housing awards from the town's Affordable Housing Fund. The Select Board, acting as trustees of the fund, granted $650,000 to the Falmouth Housing Trust to construct five deed-restricted single-family homes at 419 Qu Highway (two units at 80% AMI, one at 100% AMI and two at 120% AMI). Housing Trust director Laura Moan said the project is "a $2.8 million project," includes advanced septic treatment for each home at an added cost of about $90,000'$100,000, and will seek a comprehensive-permit filing with the zoning board this month to start construction in early 2025.
The board also approved a $216,300 supplemental award to Scranton Main LLC to cover unexpected expenses on an age-restricted, 48-unit project previously funded by the town. Staff said additional costs arose from construction adjustments and safety improvements; the working group and Community Preservation Committee had recommended the supplemental funding.
Planning staff emphasized that identifying candidate parcels is an early step for public outreach and that many parcels are restricted by conservation or deed terms, meaning they are not available for housing. The planner said the town will continue to refine the inventory, post details online and develop warrant language for November town meeting for the parcels the board directed staff to move forward.
