Somewhere Over the Rainbow
There is no place like Home!
(In response to Rick Trapilo’s letter, of 5/23/24, “Planning Board Member Vows to Press On”)
ADU’s (Accessory Dwelling Units) could most certainly be an alternative to help create more housing. But there is a dire need for our community to get involved, and begin to seriously discuss with our town officials just how we are going to go about it. But first, maybe we should re-name Accessory Dwelling Units to be named something like, “The Heart Home Extension.” This may drop a clue to wealth builders who are buying up family homes here in Fairhaven, from thinking that ADU’s can be another way to make more money with short term renting, or charging high rental fees.
In other words, ADU’s should be allowable only as a place for family residents to live in, not built just for sheer profit making. Residential neighborhoods, which are many in Fairhaven, in the first place, had no business being set up for mini hotel profit making (Short Term Rentals)) in the midst of an obvious housing shortage. Family residential homes are for families to grow in love, and prosper in. And the word here is “Residential’ meaning not zoned for business.
Also let us erase the word “Affordable’ housing and replace it with “Reasonably Priced” housing. Because it is a fact, that housing has become unreasonably priced, like everything else that includes our basic living needs, to include food & water.
Making sure that zoning is not changed in “residential areas” to continue to accommodate investors’ profits and vacationers, needs to be a topic of discussion. We are already over our Short Term Rental allowances for Fairhaven, and our bylaws continue to go unchecked/ignored. It doesn’t matter the excuses you get from town officials anymore. The fact remains what it is. It’s the residents of Fairhaven that suffer the financial consequences, tax hikes, and the pains of homelessness.
Gaining the communities “Trust,” well Mr. Trapilo, you know what they say, the proof is in the pudding. If the town government can not even follow the STR bylaws, what makes you think any other housing law protections will be adhered to?
And I will add here that Cape Cod is not a good example for us Mr. Trapilo. Cape Cod officials had no care at all about working families, and pushed out so many valuable workers off the Cape, in order to move full speed ahead with their Real Estate money making agendas. In fact Cape Cod suffered a shortage of ambulance drivers, fire fighters and many others in the vital workforce, because they had no available and or “reasonably priced housing” for them. And that is because of the inundation of short term rentals and high rental fees in residential neighborhoods.
We actually have more homes than we realize, available, but many of them are being used exclusively for investor wealth building.
Yes, let’s be transparent, Mr. Trapilo. Transparency is a good place to start the discussion on ADU’s. It is time to balance the scales on our housing polarities. But let us not be afraid to discuss the reasons for the imbalance, and you will begin to solve the incongruities. It’s really that simple to understand. And may we not forget, as we already have, “Zoning Laws” were in part, actually put in place to protect communities against housing disparities.
Changing zoning laws and/or adhering to zoning laws that protect the residents and its resources, that is the question?
Michelle Costen, Fairhaven
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