Harwich Selectmen Evaluating Captains’ Row Proposal

HARWICH – Selectmen in Harwich are interested in referring the area known as Captains’ Row to the Cape Cod Commission to become a district of critical planning concern.

The board voted last week to refer the matter to the planning board for a recommendation.

The developers of a proposed retail project on Route 28 in West Harwich withdrew it from planning board consideration recently. The plans would have included the demolition of the Captain George Winchell Baker House.

The planning board was considering the controversial 7,500-square-foot project for referral to the Cape Cod Commission.

Chad Brubaker of Liscotti Develeopment and Harwich Retail LLC read a letter to the board withdrawing the project without prejudice.

The board unanimously approved a motion to allow the request.

The withdrawal followed several months of protest from residents.

Efforts have been made in recent years in West Harwich to preserve historic characteristics of the village, along with creating a Captain’s Row historic district.

The historical commission implemented a one-year demolition delay on the property which is set to expire in the middle of September.

“I’m afraid of binary decision being made somewhere in October where the choice at the planning board level is going to be a hole in the ground or a box store,” said Selectman Donald Howell.

“Because there is nothing going to be stopping them if they own the property from leveling it after mid-September.”

Duncan Berry, a Captains’ Row proponent who was just appointed to the planning board, said a district of critical planning concern designation stopped a retail property from being built in Eastham.

“I just want to encourage you to act swiftly because of the ticking clock,” Berry said.

Berry read from Cape Cod Commission documents which indicate that “a DCPC is a powerful tool that allows a town to impose a moratorium, or ‘time out,’ on certain types of development or activities in a specified area to plan for or adopt special rules and regulations that will protect, among other things, cultural, architectural, archaeological, historic, economic, or recreational sources or values of regional, statewide, or national significance.”

Berry said that he thinks seeking the DCPC is a no-brainer for the town.

“This is a great opportunity to do what zoning can’t always do with an aesthetic component, and what you can’t do with a historic district,” he said.

The next meeting of the planning board is early next month.

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