The struggle over a proposed homeless shelter on Cape Cod continues to escalate, with a city’s Planning Board denying alleged conflicts of curiosity that the applicant’s legal professional believes have pushed “vehement opposition.”
Dennis Planning Board members Wealthy Hamlin and Elizabeth Patterson have mentioned they aren’t authorized abutters to the Dennis property that regional nonprofit Housing Help Corp. intends to show right into a shelter for homeless households.
Their refute on Monday got here after Housing Help’s legal professional Robert Brennan outlined alleged conflicts of curiosity in a letter he filed with Dennis’ city administrator final week.
The conflicts, Brennan mentioned, stem from Hamlin and Patterson having “financial interests” in no less than 11 properties in a Harwich neighborhood surrounding the Dennis property, assessed at roughly $5 million, in line with city assessor information.
Housing Help, for months, has seemed to morph its three household shelters in Hyannis, Bourne and Falmouth, into one central house at a former nursing house in South Dennis, a facility that may solely be accessed by way of an extension off a major street in neighboring Harwich.
Particularly, Brennan pointed to 4 properties Hamlin is listed as the principle trustee or proprietor of; 5 Hamlin is listed as co-trustee or co-owner with Patterson’s father, Robert Chamberlain, the city’s moderator; and two others that Chamberlain is the principle holder of.
All 11 “comprise contiguous parcels as close as 300 feet from HAC’s property,” a discovering that Brennan says “clearly constitutes either an actual disqualifying conflict … or, at an absolute minimum, creates the appearance of a conflict.”
“Despite what information is being spread,” Hamlin mentioned on Monday, “I am not a legal abutter to 1 Love Lane therefore I am not required to step down for this review.”
Brennan additionally argued Dennis Planning Board Chairman Paul McCormick, Jr., is not eligible to serve the city, claiming McCormick “has resided” in Harwich since April when he bought a Harwich Port house for $1.15 million. The legal professional cited the Barnstable Registry of Deeds.
“It has come up that I have purchased a property in Harwich,” McCormick mentioned initially of a gathering Monday. “It is undergoing renovations, and when it is livable I will be moving to it. I remain a Dennis resident. Thank you very much.”
In his letter to City Administrator Elizabeth Sullivan, Brennan wrote “Any suggestion that Town Administration and Select Board … were entirely unaware of the conflicts of interest, apparent disqualification of the Planning Board Chair, and the Harwich property interest of town employees simply strains credulity,”
The actions allegedly violated state regulation, Brennan wrote, prompting HAC to hunt the “statutory maximum of $100,000 per claimant against the Town in addition to damages from individuals.”
In a response letter on Monday, Dennis’ authorized counsel Amy E. Kwesell referred to as out Brennan’s “baseless and outrageous allegations that the Town of Dennis Select Board and Town Administration somehow are required to know about real estate in the town of Harwich owned by certain Planning Board members and the Town Moderator.”
“It is apparent that your allegations of bad behavior on the part of the Select Board and Town Administration are based purely on rumor and innuendo and inserting such false allegations in your letter is nothing but careless,” she wrote.
Housing Help’s proposal – a 57,000-square-foot facility housing as much as 79 homeless households, or 177 people, principally single moms and kids – has been met with stifling opposition in Dennis and Harwich.
The Cape Cod Fee – a regional board – discovered the “family transitional shelter” would haven’t any regional affect and denied a discretionary referral from Dennis and Harwich.
Residents and officers have questioned how attorneys and Dennis’ constructing commissioner have decided the challenge suits the standards of the Dover Modification — a state statute that exempts agricultural, non secular, and academic makes use of from sure zoning restrictions.
These considerations triggered the Dennis Planning Board to vote unanimously on Monday to attraction the constructing commissioner’s issuance of a constructing allow to HAC late final month.
Different arguments have additionally centered round a perception that the middle may very well be turned over to migrants, a notion that has prompted fierce backlash from Brennan.
“HAC’s use of the Property to serve Cape Codders and concerns or objections to a broken immigration system are two separate and distinct issues,” the legal professional wrote to the Dennis Planning Board on Monday.
Correspondences between Brennan and city officers have included copies to the Legal professional Common’s Workplace, which informed the Herald on Tuesday that whereas it’s monitoring developments, it’s not formally concerned within the challenge.
“Clearly your false accusations are only meant to inflame the situation and paint the entire Town in a bad light and will not be tolerated by the Town,” Kwesell wrote to Brennan.
