Housing Plans Fail to Win Vote

FALMOUTH, MA - Town meeting has rejected two conflicting articles regarding the Webster Woods property and its use for affordable housing. The 16-acre parcel at 419 Woods Hole Road has been a lightning rod for controversy for several years. This week, town meeting voters had the choice of preserving the town-owned land as open space or building 15 units of "workforce" housing on a portion of the land.

But since neither article was able to win the two-thirds majority necessary to move forward Wednesday night, the issue goes back to the drawing board. Article 37 called for selectmen to put a conservation restriction on all but three acres of the property, which would be saved for "future municipal use."

Selectman Kevin Murphy took the lead in supporting this article, after urging Woods Hole residents to come up with alternatives to developing Webster Woods last year. Currently the Woods Hole Planning District has no housing units that meet "affordable" criteria. A group of town officials and Woods Hole residents believe they have found a viable option that provides about the same number affordable units, while preserving Webster Woods.

Proponents hope Chatham developer Christopher Wise — who is redeveloping the Nautilus Motel land in Woods Hole to build a senior housing facility, will follow through on his plan to purchase a foreclosed property on Oshman Way in the Woods Hole Planning District, and then gift it to a local nonprofit group such as the Falmouth Housing Corp.

The parcel already has a 6,000-square-foot foundation on a foreclosed property. Conceptual plans call for the construction of an additional building, resulting in 14 potential affordable units. Wise is also said to be in the process of buying an apartment building at 3 Little Harbor Road from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, where additional units could be built. Although Wise has both properties under agreement, he does not own them yet, Murphy said.

After voters rejected the article Murphy was backing, they took up Article 41, which called for 15 units to be built as soon as possible, while retaining 12 acres of the Webster Woods property as open space. Although a majority of town meeting voters approved, the measure fell short of the two-thirds majority required by just 10 votes.