Condos or condoms? Be careful when you refuse to adjust zoning.

A recent survey by the Donahue Institute at UMASS and Citizens Housing and Planning Association found that “more than seven in ten (71.3%) Cape and Islands residents support building affordable housing in their neighborhood,” higher than the statewide average of 64.8%.

We have a hard time believing that statistic tells the whole story. We can believe that most Cape and Islands residents understand that affordable housing is necessary to their security and a viable economy, but they do not want to do what is necessary to let that housing be built in their towns. Nearly every attempt to change zoning in a way that would allow multi-family units of any kind, including cluster zoning designed to preserve open space, seems to run into a buzz-saw of opposition.

Too often people talk the talk instead of walk the walk; ” I support affordable housing, just put it somewhere else!” Anything other than single-family homes on acre (or greater) lots is anathema to many Cape residents, and you simply cannot build affordable housing on Cape Cod with single-family homes on an acre.

One of the ideas we have advanced in the past is to allow development of multi-family units – apartments or small condos – on any land zoned for commercial development. But even this idea can meet a lot of resistance.

Recently, the Wall Street Journal reported on a development proposal in San Francisco. When an old armory closed in the Mission District near city hall, developers bought the building and started to work at getting approval to change the zoning from industrial to residential.

Over time, developers sought permission to remodel the building into a church, a storage space or an apartment complex. But every proposal ran into a maze of zoning rules and objections from various interest groups, including those interested in preserving the site as historical and those who wanted it to be exclusively low-income housing.

In the end, one developer decided to stop fighting and find a use that did not require rezoning. Before long he found someone who wanted to turn the building into a film studio, and the city agreed that film production fell within existing zoning. But they overlooked one detail in the paperwork. The movies being produced were to be hardcore pornography.

Seems that the large stone rooms, winding staircases, marble columns and dank basement are perfect for some of the film ideas in the hopper at “Kink Films,” the new owner of the building.

Soon, where soldiers use to march, there will be a bunch of naked people playing paintball for the cameras. And the basement is perfect for a movie about zombies (naked of course)!

Reflexive opposition to any change in one’s neighborhood can sometimes lead to much worse development than that being opposed.

Affordable housing on Cape Cod is essential if we are to just maintain the conditions we have come to appreciate and expect. If we are unable to make reasonable accommodations to fit our needs we all may lose.

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