Cape conservationists target developed sites
BREWSTER -- Spread over more than 2 acres near the western edge of Brewster, the Jolly Whaler Village's shuttered cottages with chipped gray and yellow paint have greeted motorists on Route 6A for the past few years. Across the road on part of the motel's land sit several RVs in a trailer park. To get rid of what many feel is an eyesore near the entrance to this Cape Cod town, Brewster residents shelled out nearly $1 million to buy the property next month, raze the buildings, and create a park. The recreational vehicles have been evicted and their owners are beginning to pack.
For decades, most conservation efforts on the Cape have focused on virgin woodlands and coastal areas. But now, more communities are turning their attention toward rundown buildings and deteriorating shacks, buying and bulldozing them to make way for public parks and scenic views.
The "undevelopment" effort is not popular with everyone. But especially in the densely built mid-Cape, preservation advocates and town leaders say they have no choice, given the lack of open space.
"We're not on some mission by God to take down buildings," said Mark Robinson, executive director of Compact of Cape Cod Conservation Trusts. "But some things just aren't suitable for redevelopment, and these projects can enhance the beauty of a community through open space."
For Jim Maddocks, who lives less than a mile from the Jolly Whaler, the change is long due.
"It's going to be a wonderful way into Brewster and reflect what the rest of the town really looks like," said Maddocks, a member of the Brewster Conservation Trust who is helping to design the park.
Ostracized across the Cape for being home to the gaudiest stretch of Route 28, Yarmouth has led the way in the undevelopment movement, spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to purchase a dilapidated motel, contaminated gas station, and other neglected buildings to turn an acre or two in each case into pocket parks.
Although residents and conservationists across Cape Cod have largely praised these projects, some have criticized the undevelopment approach, saying towns could get more bang for their buck buying forested woodlands or protecting wetlands.
Several residents at Brewster's Town Meeting last fall challenged the wisdom of permanently taking commercial properties off the tax rolls, town officials said. But the Jolly Whaler project squeaked through with 12 votes more than the needed two-thirds majority.
Historically, towns and conservation groups have not seriously considered reclaiming developed sites, thinking that preservation options are forever lost once ground has been broken, said Robinson, whose nonprofit organization published a brochure called, "Take Back The Cape: Discovering Opportunities for Undevelopment."
Although purchasing open land and acquiring donated properties have been effective in protecting untouched areas, Robinson said, the rapid encroachment of residential and commercial development has made it necessary for towns to find ways to create open space. Since 1990, development on Cape Cod and the Islands has increased at a faster rate than almost anywhere in New England, Robinson wrote in the brochure.Page 2 of 2 --
Many of the undevelopment efforts across Cape Cod are funded by land banks, which are created by a 3 percent surcharge on local property taxes to preserve open space. In most cases, towns have found a way around regulations that restrict land banks from buying properties with existing buildings by negotiating with private groups or property owners to remove the structures.
"The purpose of the land bank is not to solely do these types of projects or even a lot of them," said state Representative Eric T. Turkington, a Falmouth Democrat, who pushed legislation that established the land banks. "Certainly, though, one of the priorities is getting rid of ugly things. I don't blame Yarmouth."
Along Route 28 in Yarmouth, aging motels, neon lights, and asphalt parking lots have swallowed much of the land. Residents such as Jack Mulkeen conceded that his popularly scorned town is "where everyone on the Cape points to and says, `We don't want this to come here.' "
For more than a decade, though, Yarmouth has worked to tear down structures that built that reputation. Verdant pocket parks with benches and water views have replaced a languishing motel along Route 28 and Rascal's Nightclub, a once-popular bar that Mulkeen said had fallen on hard times and burned.
The town also took control of a gas station and turned it into a small green oasis at one of the busiest corners in South Yarmouth. But the fallout from unanticipated contamination has added $146,000 to the price tag for a 4,000-square-foot patch of land. The state is now considering slicing off a piece to widen the road.
"It can never be Route 6A, but we can try to improve it," said Mulkeen, chairman of Yarmouth Land Bank.
Over the past few years, other towns across the Cape have followed Yarmouth's lead. Since 1998, the 15 towns have spent about $100 million to preserve 3,500 acres. Robinson estimated that undevelopment efforts account for between 10 and 20 percent of land acquisitions.
"It's an idea we're interested in and like," said John Lipman, deputy director of the Cape Cod Commission.
In Truro, Town Meeting approved $312,000 two years ago to buy a defunct Mobil gas station that was plunked down in a residential area on Route 6. Now it's an open space of sandy soil and scattered trees.
Several years earlier, the town purchased a metal warehouse and contaminated gas station where Route 6 and Route 6A converge. Brenda Boleyn, chairwoman of Truro's Open Space Committee, said these projects are key to preserving a greenbelt along Route 6.
Without undevelopment, town officials said, there are few options to create open space in Hyannis. Last year, the town of Barnstable spent $650,000 to purchase a contaminated Gulf station on 1.3 acres that had become an illegal dumping site. In 1999, the town bought an idle gas station at the intersection of Route 28 and Barnstable Road. It paid $310,000 to create a .36-acre park.
"There's not a lot of remaining space in that area," said Lindsey Counsell, chairman of Barnstable Land Bank. "Without some level of undevelopment, we're not going to get open space."
Dennis put up $220,000 to buy a Cumberland Farms gas station on a half-acre that had fallen into disrepair with missing roof shingles and peeling paint. The Dennis Port site along Route 6A, surrounded by a historic cemetery and Village Green, is currently in the process of an environmental cleanup.
"It's fairly expensive for a small piece of land, but it was a visual eyesore in an area that otherwise the community has great pride in," said Henry Kelley, chairman of the town's Land Bank.
Town officials expect to begin seeding the property by the summer, and final plans call for brick walkways, elm trees, and shrubs.
"A lot of people appreciate a sense of environmental protection through aesthetics," Robinson said. "People may not grasp all the underpinnings of conservation, but on a gut level they can appreciate open space."
