Provincetown and Truro officials on several Boards weigh in on key issues affecting Truro’s proposals for land use. Listen, learn, and decide for yourself.

Fact: Truro’s lack of feasibility studies for water and wastewater management before beginning housing development will cause years of delay with Provincetown and for Truro.

FACT: The lack of a prior feasibility study or plan at Walsh before WOD was proposed is a serious planning failure which impedes Truro’s ability to advance development but also Provincetown’s ability to make urgent water decisions for Walsh, now put off until at least 2028. The Walsh Committee on the one hand supports WOD zoning but deflects responsibility for assessing the zoning impact on housing, water, traffic, infrastructure, environment, and economy. Who does and when? This further supports Walsh re-zoning and growth management articles at ATM 2026.

FACT: It DOES make sense to PAUSE, PLAN, then PROCEED. We must wait for plans on water, wastewater and other factors because we cannot know what is available unless and until we solve the location of well(s), the gallonage needed for the number of units to be built, whether such gallonage is available, whether we have the site and budget to handle wastewater without contaminating downgradient wells and embayments, and so much more. This is also true for the North Truro Overlay, whose zoning, water and infrastructure impacts are unknown. Planning must come first – and it must be integrated and comprehensive if we are to make good decisions to create the housing Truro needs in a way taxpayers can afford and residents can sustain.

Only WOD’s Use and Dimensional Tables control what can be developed at Walsh. Careful analysis of those tables shows that as many as 1,100 units can be built in the two residential subdistricts depending on layout. Further, commercial uses have no maximum size limits, are allowed to be up to 1/3 of the residential floor space (which has no maximums except height) and allows everything from manufacturing to research labs. WOD also made no provision for water supply or infrastructure, nor were separate plans made for that. There is no housing without water. P’town is dismayed that this alone adds years to any development schedule and allowed uses will deplete the ZONE 1 under Walsh. Finally, “BY RIGHT” zoning allows the developer to build at will once land use rights are granted. Only new, permanent zoning limits set at ATM 2026 can change this for good.

FACT: Hope is not a strategy. The developer selected to develop Walsh under current WOD zoning is not required to follow the Town’s dictates once land use rights are granted. “By right” uses in the WOD Use Tables allow ANY use consistent with the generous allowances (low minimums, no maximums, no unit caps, etc.). While contract terms could limit a developer’s challenge, the only certain way to ensure a developer builds what voters approved is to change Walsh zoning and create a new residential district. ZONING CONTROLS, Not the Select Board, Town Manager or any committee.

FACT: The Select Board, Town Manager and Walsh Committee are sincere in volunteering to limit Walsh development to “up to 160 units.” Trusting these individuals may be merited, but these individuals will change. There is no guarantee this position will continue to be honored, nor have any committed to the other terms voters approved for Walsh in 2024. And in any case WOD zoning will still apply and that can allow much more development while it remains on the books. In other words, this is not about trust, it is ABOUT ZONING. To guarantee voters get what we approved in 2024, WOD zoning must be rescinded and changed at ATM 2026.

A new wastewater plan tied to potential development at the Walsh property routes treated effluent toward neighborhoods west of the site, raising concerns about impacts on nearby private wells and coastal waters. The letter argues that the proposal prioritizes protecting Provincetown’s wells while leaving Truro residents exposed to nitrogen, contaminants, and other wastewater by-products. The author calls for a public hearing and clearer answers about Truro’s long-term water supply and wastewater strategy before the town proceeds.