Long Pond Community Housing And Wastewater Moving Forward

BREWSTER – In May, comprehensive plans for the Sea Camps Long Pond property, including a 10-acre lot designated for community housing and wastewater treatment, were approved.

“That location is absolutely perfect for meeting the community’s housing goals, wastewater protection goals, and open space and recreation goals,” said Ned Chatelain, select board member and representative to the affordable housing trust and water resources task force.

While the select board is enthusiastic about the project, many residents and community organizations have provided feedback about the next phase, implementation. Less than a month ago, the Brewster Conservation Trust and Brewster Ponds Coalition brought a joint resolution to the select board calling for a comprehensive wastewater study of the 10 acres and a larger feasibility study for housing locations.

Charlie Sumner, president of the BCT, and Susan Bridges, president of the BPC, urged the town to consider all their options in a joint statement (see page 29). “Recognizing our community urgently needs affordable and attainable housing, the joint BCT-BPC resolution calls for the Town to study the best location for housing considering all relevant factors, with the hope of finding an alternative site, including the former Sea Camps Bayside property, before finalizing plans for the Long Pond parcel,” they wrote.

The designated lot sits directly in the middle of a Zone II recharge area for town drinking water, is in the Herring River watershed, and borders the Pleasant Bay watershed.

Although there hasn’t been a formal response to the resolution, Town Manager Peter Lombardi detailed the latest advancements involving the pond parcel, referencing material that acknowledges the organizations’ requests.

In summer 2023, the state Department of Environmental Protection awarded grant funding to conduct an analysis of the town’s nitrogen mitigation requirements in the Herring River watershed. Based on DEP regulations, the watershed was declared nitrogen-sensitive. Part of the analysis included wastewater treatment options on the Sea Camps Pond property.

In fall 2023, an environmental and community planning consulting firm conducted a preliminary investigation of the property, finding it plausible to add a wastewater treatment system for approximately 44 housing units.

The town recently applied for additional grant funding to examine how a wastewater treatment facility on the property would meet Title 5 septic system requirements and utilize the best available technologies to mitigate nitrogen and phosphorus impacts. 

“The grant will also analyze the costs of designing a larger system that would treat more than the minimum levels of nitrogen mitigation to offset the impacts of new housing, with the goal of improving groundwater, drinking water, and pond water quality in this area,” said Lombardi.

In regards to the wastewater treatment facility, Sumner and Bridges wrote, “A town study should identify treatment options that not only meet the reduction of nitrogen required by the Herring River watershed permit, but also address phosphorus, the primary nutrient impairing ponds, and chemicals of emerging concern (such as PFAS) which might contaminate our drinking water supply.”

In addressing concerns about the property, Lombardi emphasized the town’s positive track record of affordable housing projects. “The town has been very thorough, thoughtful, and deliberative in developing housing on the Millstone Road side with Spring Rock Village, and I think we’re approaching the Long Pond project with the expectation that we will take a similar approach,” he said.

For the past several years, the town has been following a housing production plan (the second iteration) certified by the state three times and used by the affordable housing trust to guide affordable housing projects, including feasible locations.

“The Local Comprehensive Plan, The Vision Plan, and the Housing Production Plan provide guidance for siting housing,” said Sumner and Bridges. “All three recognize that our water supply area (Zone II) is not suitable, and that housing should be directed to areas of public services, transportation, and economic activities.”

While the implementation phase will likely take approximately five years to complete, Chatelain is excited about the conversations that will take place in the meantime. 

“There’s what we have to do, what we want to do, and what we will do, and they are not the same,” he said. “So what we’re studying right now is what we need to know — what we have to do and what that looks like. Then we’ll be able to have the conversation as a community and decide how much we want to add to that.”