TPRTA Remarks to the Planning Board | FY 27 Zoning Priorities  | Aug 19, 2026

Below are edited comments made to the Planning Board at its Zoning Forum for FY27 Priorities.

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TPRTA appreciates being asked to contribute perspective and suggestions on the long list – 18 items – we received from Chairman Althaus recently.

Our comments tonight will focus on our recommended priorities from your list, a new zoning bylaw suggestion, and brief comments on  issues you have raised in the past that merit re-consideration now.

The planning board has a unique role and opportunity to reduce and eliminate the most serious conflicts in Truro – or to continue and possibly accelerate them. Your choices and priorities going forward in this process will make it clear how you want to make your mark.  As Roberta Lema recently said:  this is the time for open hearts, open minds and open ears.

Our comments tonight are offered in that spirit.  We believe the future of Truro rests on our willingness and ability to do that – to have open hearts, open minds and open ears.

To that end,  we would like to put forward some ideas on demographic realities that guide our thinking.

First, Truro’s seniors over the age of 65 constitute more that 60% of the population according to the US census. Yet disparaging comments at ATM 2026 and elsewhere reflect disdain for this group of residents, and it is not new.  As early as 2024, one ATM voter said  not to worry, “they’ll be dead  in 15 years.” – implying they’ll be gone and we’ll have room for a new cohort.

But even a new cohort will not change this reality:  Seniors are here to stay as the majority in Truro where for the long-term future, seniors will replace seniors. We should be grateful for that. Disparagingly calling Truro a “retirement” community is not only offensive and unconstructive, it is also out of reality. This board perhaps more than any other Board – needs to be in reality.

The second demographic factor concerns the assessed values of residential properties in Truro.   Take a look at this chart, based on the actual taxes paid and recorded in the FY 26 Truro Tax Book.   This is how the distribution of assessed values falls out between full-timers and part-timers.

Full timers and part-timers are almost identically distributed by assessed value –  the ONLY indicator of wealth we have in Truro. Wealth is not income –  we recognize homeowners can be house rich and home poor.  Yet, that is true for both full-timers and for part-timers.

This chart reflects a wealth of TOWN data behind it, but we hope you take away that Truro’s part-timers are mostly middle class and that wealth at the extremes –  low and high –  is shared proportionately.  Some will say well,   this is for a second home.  Yes for some it is, but for about 10% of part-timers it is the only property they own.

Further,  Truro’s full-timers are increasingly snow-birders, have second homes on Cape or in other towns and states, and pay excise taxes on luxury items likes pleasure boats.  No one begrudges our neighbors their American Dream.  It is a dream that both full-timers and part-timers share and shape for themselves.

What does this mean for the Planning Board? 

Many of Planning Board items are openly based –  as a Select Board Member recently said – on the assumptions that “part-timers will pay for it all.”

Let us assure you:  Part-timers as a whole cannot afford to pay for it all;  the ambitious zoning development plans under consideration are not economically sustainable on the belief that it part-timers’ bank is bottomless.

Ron Fichtner, a TPRTA Board member and former statistician for the CDC, introduced a phrase into Truro’s vocabulary earlier this year: Carrying Capacity.

It has now caught on Cape-wide as well.  In Truro, we have reached our carrying capacity on tax impositions on part-timers and full-timers,  but on more than that, too – on water resources, environmental stresses, fiscal excesses, and more.  The Planning Board –  as a servant of all Truro’s residents – might want to think more about Carrying Capacity as you advance your zoning agenda.

We recommend the Planning Board prioritize these bylaws on your list:

• First, a Growth Management Bylaw. It is obvious we need one.  A reasonable draft was presented as a Citizen’s Petition- it had its flaws but gives a good basis to start from.  We hope this Board will take it up very soon,.
• Second, a revision of the Walsh Overlay District (WOD) Zoning – We believe the Town is serious and is acting in good faith to honor the 2024 Walsh vote to cap the number of units at Walsh at 160, but it cannot happen under WOD as it exists.  And there is no enforceable  mechanism for the Select Board to limit development to 160 units  permanently –  neither RFPs nor deed restrictions will do that.  Only zoning changes to the use and dimensions tables can ensure this cap.  You perhaps more than other Town Boards must know that the use and dimensions table would allow full buildout of more than 1,000 units in a variety of configurations and can included major super center/mall size commercial areas within the mixed use requirements.  The community rejected these notions in 2024. We urge you to take up revising WOD soonest.   This is a great time for your Board to make Walsh work as voters and the Select Board want through thoughtful informed, and comprehensive planning.
• Third, we urge you to consider a new bylaw to ban chain stores in Truro – or as you would know them “Formula Businesses.” Ms. Townsend flagged this in her remarks that we had such a ban, suggesting large-scale commercial development at Walsh could not happen.  But Truro does not have such a ban, and large-scale commercial chain store  development can happen at Walsh unless we do something to change WOD zoning.
• Fourth, we ask you to delay consideration of a Conversion bylaw and an Inclusionary bylaw – these are complex bylaws with potential for consequential and irreversible impacts.  Many communities are beginning  to reject “by-right” conversion bylaws becuase of adverse water impacts;  and “by right” inclusionary bylaws have been shown to be effective in urban areas – where apartment buildings abound – but to have unanticipated and adverse consequences in rural areas (where apartment buildings do not typically exist).  These bylaws both deserve more study and public discussion before you take them up.
• Last, we have supported a street definition bylaw for more than a decade. Please, go for it.

Thank you for your time today. Happy to answer any questions you may have.

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After discussion, TPRTA called on the Planning Board to consider zoning in the context of healing Truro, emphasizing that the Planning Board is uniquely positioned to bring peace to Truro by addressing the zoning issues at Walsh  (by establishing a way in zoning to permanently enforce a 160-unit cap) and by taking up zoning bylaws that will settle Truro down, allow us to get on with Walsh development quickly, limit densification elsewhere, identify actual water needs and impacts, and make it possible to really plan for Truro’s future in a way that works for all of Truro.