Act Local in Harwich

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Massachusetts needs more affordable housing, but the path to building it cannot run straight through wetlands, sole-source aquifers, and the rights of communities to direct their own development. Until the state acknowledges that good-faith planning deserves real protection — and until the Cape Cod Commission finally steps up to the responsibility it was created for — the anger and distrust surrounding 40B will only deepen.

Today, I spoke with Steven Farrall about the Harwich Zoning Board of Appeals’ decision to approve Pine Oaks Village IV with conditions. He was careful and respectful in his comments. He emphasized that the Board worked extraordinarily hard under difficult circumstances, managing a chaotic and emotionally charged process with professionalism. But he also said something the Board itself has openly acknowledged: they were overwhelmed. The truth, in his view — and increasingly in the view of residents across the Cape — is that 40B is broken.

Harwich followed all the rules. Residents understood the expectation that the town would need to increase its affordable housing stock and accepted that, being well below “safe harbor,” they had limited protection from aggressive development. In response, Harwich did exactly what the state asked: they created, approved, and certified a Housing Production Plan. They laid out a thoughtful, phased approach to adding units in appropriate locations. They did the work — work that many towns, including Barnstable, have still not completed.

And yet the projects arriving at their doorstep look nothing like the vision Harwich outlined for itself. Instead of modest, well-planned developments aligned with local priorities, the town is confronted with oversized, poorly sited proposals that jeopardize wetlands, contaminate watersheds, and upend the character of long-established neighborhoods. The sense of betrayal is palpable: Harwich followed the rules, and the rules failed Harwich.

Into this frustration steps Governor Maura Healey, presenting a slate of 40B reforms as bold solutions to the state’s housing crisis. But when you evaluate these reforms from the perspective of a town that has played by the book, they don’t fix the imbalance — they deepen it. Rather than addressing the structural inequities embedded in 40B, the changes reinforce a process in which developers gain even more leverage, while communities gain almost none.

The push for more frequent updates to the Subsidized Housing Inventory may sound helpful, but few on Cape Cod believe it will meaningfully correct a system so thoroughly tilted toward large development firms. A certified HPP and steady, measurable progress toward safe harbor should already carry weight. Instead, Healey’s reforms continue to leave towns vulnerable until they meet a rigid numerical target, regardless of their planning, their environmental constraints, or their demonstrated good-faith effort.

Even more troubling is the proposal for appeal bonds, which would force residents — often ordinary working families — to risk thousands of dollars simply to challenge a development they believe threatens their drinking water, wildlife habitat, or neighborhood safety. Developers can afford such bonds effortlessly. Residents cannot. This transforms public participation from a civic right into a luxury commodity. It is a rollback of democratic access, not an expansion of it.

And beyond Beacon Hill lies another failure — one much closer to home. On Cape Cod, the agency specifically created to defend the region’s fragile environment, the Cape Cod Commission, is repeatedly choosing not to intervene. Time after time, the Commission walks away from opportunities to scrutinize flawed or environmentally risky proposals. It declines discretionary referrals, avoids confronting major developers, and sends a clear message: build what you want, where you want, and don’t expect regional oversight to stand in your way.

This retreat from environmental stewardship leaves towns like Harwich exposed. Residents watch wetlands shrink, nitrogen levels rise, drinking-water protections weaken, and traffic and wastewater systems approach breaking points. Yet the Commission and the state continue to speak in soft,technocratic terms about “streamlining” and “modernizing,” as if the Cape were just another suburb off the Mass Pike rather than one of the most ecologically sensitive regions in New England.

The truth is unavoidable: Healey’s reforms do not quell the frustration surrounding 40B — they intensify it. They reinforce the belief that local plans don’t matter, environmental limits don’t matter, and citizen voices don’t matter. They tell towns, in effect, that even when they follow every rule, the rules will not protect them.

And the institutions we trusted to protect us from unwanted, ill-conceived development — like the Cape Cod Commission — are asleep at the wheel.

https://www.harwich-ma.gov/1276/ZB2025-21-Pine-Oaks-Village-IV-Queen-Ann