Community Resiliency by Design
In 2018, the Cape Cod Commission received a $100,000 Planning Assistance Grant from the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs to develop a series of context-appropriate housing development prototypes that could deliver needed housing options at densities somewhere between the typical single-family, detached house and the large format multi-family, corridor building that are the dominant forms of residential development today. This effort, Community Resiliency by Design, carried out by the Cape Cod Commission and Union Studio, included various community engagement opportunities to garner feedback on the desired types of housing and strategies proposed while also helping demystify and alleviate concerns around the notion of increased density in appropriate locations. In many cases the prototypes were based on existing building typologies that could be found on the Cape, albeit in very limited numbers.
The project initially involved four towns—Falmouth, Barnstable, Orleans, and Eastham—and in 2019 was conducted in Sandwich.
Cape Cod's Housing Challenge
The market is dominated by single-family homes; 82% of houses in the region are detached, single-family homes compared to 52% for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and 62% for the United States. Regional and local land use conventions, infrastructure norms, and traditional financing continue to perpetuate the development of large single-family homes, reinforcing auto-dependent lifestyles, requiring more roadway networks, and necessitating more water and wastewater infrastructure to clean up and protect our coastal and inland waters.
Housing between single-family housing and mid-rise apartments, the so-called "missing middle housing," can easily integrate into existing neighborhoods, providing much needed housing units while protecting and enhancing an area's unique character, which is particularly important on the Cape where the rich historic character helps drive the region's economy.
Illustration by Union Studio
Project Locations
The CRBD project facilitated community workshops, a visual preference survey, and architectural and design support and outreach to develop building form preferences for compact redevelopment in certain locations within these communities.
These communities were selected for this project because of recent planning efforts and studies for each of the areas that helped to lay the foundation for the prototypes and strategies developed during the CRBD process.
Route 6 & Brackett Road Area, Eastham
The Route 6A and Brackett Road Area is the first economic development District of Critical Planning Concern (DCPC). Through this collaborative local and regional process the Town of Eastham created new zoning districts to support compact mixed use residential development. The Town is in the process of continuous planning to support the development of a mixed use village center with new residential development.
Main Street/Orleans Center, Orleans
The Town of Orleans has actively planned for redevelopment and infill development in Orleans Center. Streetscape planning, zoning, and wastewater plans have been developed and implemented to support new growth and redevelopment to help revitalize and sustain Orleans Center as a year-round community and destination. The Commission supported the development of village center zoning adopted in 2017 and helped produce design guidelines for Orleans with a focus on the Orleans Center in 2019.
East Hyannis, Barnstable
The Town of Barnstable has a focused effort to support redevelopment in the Hyannis Growth Incentive Zone. There is strong interest in East Hyannis to support residential infill and redevelopment in this special area supported by regional transit, Hyannis Harbor and the employment centers in Hyannis including Cape Cod Hospital and all supporting health care service providers. The Town is currently exploring form-based code in the area and continues to partner with the Commission on updating the Design and Infrastructure Plan for Hyannis.
South Sandwich, Sandwich
The South Sandwich Planning Area was identified by the Town of Sandwich for planned review of local zoning to support mixed use, residential, and village center development. As part of this project, Commission staff identified possible zoning revisions in certain areas within South Sandwich based on feedback from the CRBD project and goals for the area.
Davis Straits, Falmouth
The Town of Falmouth and the Cape Cod Commission have partnered on long range planning in the Davis Straits area through multiple RESET programs. The CRBD project was a natural extension of that collaboration in support of the town’s goals to promote concentrated growth in the commercial core and to explore the development of a greenway to support flood resiliency in low lying areas in the same planning area. The Town of Falmouth continues to partner with the Commission as they explore developing form-based code in the area.
The CRBD process began for each community with a public presentation and workshop on demystifying density by showing that many of the desired, traditional housing forms on Cape Cod are actually quite dense. These presentations then also discussed the missing middle housing types and asked participants to weigh in on what housing forms they thought would fit in well in the study area for their community in terms of height, massing, and architectural style. Please visit www.capecodcommission.org/crbd to view the presentations.
Visual Preference Survey
Following the first presentation, stakeholders in each community were invited to participate in an online visual preference survey. Across Falmouth, Eastham, Orleans, Barnstable, and Sandwich more than 1,000 people responded. The survey asked respondents which scale and style of development would be good fits in the study area in their community.
Example question from the Visual Preference Survey
Results from the survey showed greater comfort with lower buildings (1-2 stories) but more contemporary styles in Eastham, while in Falmouth, Hyannis, Sandwich, and Orleans, there was a greater acceptance of slightly taller buildings (1.5-2.5 stories in most areas and even 3 stories in some locations) and more traditional building styles.
At a second public workshop, Union Studio presented illustrative plans of redevelopment in each community using the preferred scales and styles in each community identified during the first workshop and through the online visual preference surveys.
Route 6 & Brackett Road Area, Eastham
In Eastham, the focus was more on mixed-use development and the example illustrated how 19 dwelling units and 24,000 sf of retail could fit in with the existing character of the area on about 3.8 acres.
Existing conditions (top) and an illustrative plan of potential redevelopment (bottom)
Main Street/Village Center, Orleans
In Orleans, the chosen site to illustrate was about 5 acres and more residential-focused with 52 dwelling units and 4,800 sf of retail along Route 6A.
Existing conditions (top) and an illustrative plan of potential redevelopment (bottom)
East Hyannis, Barnstable
In Hyannis, one of the suggested strategies was to focus less on redeveloping entire parcels and more on infilling underutilized lots. Adding buildings to the fronts of these lots could add much needed residential units and commercial square footage, filling in gaps in the existing development pattern.
Existing conditions (top) and an illustrative plan of potential redevelopment (bottom)
Davis Straits, Falmouth
In Falmouth, the illustrative example showed a development of 52 residential units with 4,500 sf of retail by developing what was previously primarily a parking lot.
Existing conditions (top) and an illustrative plan of potential redevelopment (bottom)
South Sandwich, Sandwich
In Sandwich, the illustrative example was different than in the other towns. Rather than showing a possible site plan for a single smaller parcel, the illustrative example showed more of a possible master plan for a portion of the town-owned land off of Quaker Meetinghouse Road. This scenario shows how different types of housing could be arranged to potentially allow for approximately 440 units on 42 acres, as well as some commercial uses (in the dark red). While this development scenario served as an illustrative planning example of how these forms could be arranged on this site, a smaller proposal that focuses on mixed use development in the area adjacent to existing development, and developed in phases, would likely be a more realistic goal for this location going forward.
Possible programming, generally, (top) and an illustrative master plan of possible redevelopment (bottom)
Below is the Falmouth example site, showing the before and after.
Use your mouse to zoom in and move around and compare the existing conditions to the illustrative example.
Form-based Code Framework
The input from the public workshops and surveys informed a form-based code framework for the region. Form-based codes are also an option that should be considered on the Cape as a strategy to help deliver context-appropriate densities in forms that are sympathetic to the historic development patterns that exist. While not an exhaustive study on the topic of form-based codes, this framework is instead intended to help start the conversation around this strategy by introducing the principles, considerations, and options form-based codes can offer.
