Historical Commission Hears Concerns Over Potential Falmouth Station Development
A Depot Avenue resident expressed his deep concerns regarding the EDIC’s plans for development at Falmouth Station at the Falmouth Historical Commission’s meeting on Tuesday, February 1.
Benjamin Mezzacappa went before the commission during its discussion of the Falmouth Station plans and said that as a resident, he has serious concerns regarding the already high density and traffic of the area and the impact that the proposed developments would have on the historic preservation of the area’s character.
“My family has owned property at 29 Depot Avenue since the early 1970s,” he said. “I have several 200-year-old buildings on that land. I really have a personal love for that whole area, Depot Avenue and Highfield Drive. I advocate for stewardship of that area [and] frankly I just think it is one of the most historically significant areas of this town, being all Beebe and Swift land.”
The Falmouth Station and the surrounding 3.9 acres are not in the historic district but are bordered by it on two sides. While the historical commission has no say over the usage of that parcel, chairman Edward Haddad said that he did remind the EDIC that it should be mindful of the historic significance of the property and its surroundings.
Mr. Mezzacappa said he has seen all the renderings of the EDIC’s three proposed designs—which include an open space plan, a single workforce residential building, and a multiple building design—but has seen no effort to make a historically accurate design or project that would fit the character of the area.
“The plans that I have renderings of show between 60 and 80 [microunits],” he said. “So we’re talking about a downtown Boston-style rectangular cube that looks like it belongs under the highway on your way into the city. It really is unbefitting of the area, frankly, and I don’t think it’s particularly viable for the group to build anything historically accurate. But that’s not really in my wheelhouse there to say that.”
Mr. Mezzacappa said that he thinks these plans have unpredictable outcomes, and he is concerned about losing the historical character of the neighborhood as well as disturbing wildlife and greatly increasing the population density. Between all of the business on Highfield Drive and Depot Avenue, the station, the bike path, and residents, Mr. Mezzacappa feels that it is already a high traffic area and any additional development would exacerbate the problem.
“We’re pretty much at capacity up there at the moment,” he said.
Mr. Mezzacappa purchased his property on Depot Avenue from his mother, Molly Campbell, last year and has plans to eventually restore it to “its original glory” and use it as a venue space for rent, although he is not looking to make much of a profit off of it.
“It’s really just because I love the area and I want to make the buildings beautiful again,” he said. “I’ve been dreaming about it my whole life.”
Although use of a parcel is beyond the commission’s purview, Mr. Haddad did share some of the same concerns regarding the historical character of the area surrounding the station.
“Certainly the station is a historic building,” he said. “We just went through a major restoration to restore the building and my feeling is that whatever they do there, whatever is approved, should complement the historic building there. Not overshadow it, not overpower it. This isn’t meant for that reason. That would be our interest—to make sure that the jewel of that property is still the station.”
The EDIC’s master planning study wrapped up in January, and there is still quite a bit of work to be done before a plan is selected and finalized. The EDIC’s has emphasized process community input as a big part of their process, but Mr. Mezzcappa feels that his concerns have not been sufficiently heard.
Mr. Mezzcappa said that he has lived next to the station for a long time and there have been no changes, which is fine, but he does not think he can live with what the EDIC is planning to do with the property because of the significant impact it would have on the surrounding area.
“We get into times where the pressure is on to find housing and all that kind of stuff [and] I’m fully cognizant of those problems,” he said. “At the same time, I think it’s too bad to sacrifice the charm of Cape Cod to satisfy some mandates and whatever. It makes it a less desirable place to live… You can’t stop progress, I guess, but at the same time, especially on Depot Avenue and [the] Highfield area, that should be really thought about as historic stuff. Even if it’s just on the other side of the line. It would be heartbreaking for me to step outside of my 200-year-old building and see a four-story city block directly in the wooded parcel that used to be my view.”