Cape Cod History

1988: Cape Cod calls for building halt

And you think the Cape is too crowded now? How about 20 years ago?
Scenic Cape Cod is split by call for building halt

In 1988, a proposal to halt development for at least a year on Cape Cod bitterly split residents of this famous resort and retirement area, according to an article in the New York Times of that era.

The Cape is one of New England's fastest-growing regions. But in recent years, many in Massachusetts have grown concerned that the building boom from Bourne on the west to the peninsula's tip at Provincetown is threatening the picturesque terrain and tranquil way of life.

That concern seems to have been tapped by a one-sentence proposal to consider a moratorium on Cape development. The proposal is buried in the back of a preliminary report by a state environmental commission chaired by former Senator Paul Tsongas.

Favored in Polls

Polls taken by The Boston Globe and The Cape Cod Times show residents overwhelmingly in favor of the moratorium. Conservation groups have taken up the idea and are collecting signatures to try to place a moratorium proposal on the November ballot as a non-binding resolution.

A binding referendum would require permission from the legislature. The conservation groups are willing to employ a non-binding measure, however, as a way of drawing attention to the issue.

''It's not that the Cape needs a moratorium,'' said Susan L. Nickerson, executive director of the Association for the Preservation of Cape Cod. ''What the Cape needs is growth control and this is a vehicle to get there.''

Builders and other business interests are viewing the move as a dangerous signal and thus a threat to their livelihoods. They say that they also are concerned about the environment but that a moratorium is a recipe for economic disaster. The proposal has polarized the Cape, making it harder than ever to reach a compromise on how to manage rapid growth.

''It is a message for builders to go out and build all they can, in essence, before Armageddon comes,'' said Henri S. Rauschenbach, a Republican state representative from the Cape who opposes the moratorium.

Focus on Tsongas

There could be little question after Friday about how builders felt about the proposal. Hundreds of construction company owners and their employees converged on Cape Cod Community College in this mid-Cape town for an emotional, five-hour public hearing on the commission's report. They encircled the campus with heavy construction equipment.

One after another, the builders blasted the proposal and, in particular, Mr. Tsongas, who owns a house in Chatham. Mr. Tsongas has not shied from attacking the builders, saying Friday in front of a distinctly hostile audience that ''it doesn't make a difference to builders in this hall whether they build a house consistent with Cape Cod architecture or schlock.''

Joseph C. Polcaro, a Cape builder and president of the Massachusetts Homebuilders Association, was among the more conciliatory of the speakers.

''The risk so far outweighs the potential gain that I don't think it's worth considering,'' he said of the moratorium. Mr. Polcaro then asked Mr. Tsongas to drop his call for a moratorium so all sides could work together, but Mr. Tsongas demurred.

Problems From Prosperity

Managing growth is a concern throughout the nation but has become a particularly hot issue in New England in recent months as residents confront the problems that prosperity have wrought. Vermont and Maine passed legislation this spring requiring or encouraging more regional and local planning. Many towns in Maine already have building moratoriums.

On the Cape, worries about growth have been voiced for several years. The population of the 15 towns in Barnstable County has risen 18 percent, to about 176,000, since 1980. In that time, the state's population grew by just 2 percent.

Commercial and residential construction has been strong. Speakers at Friday's hearing said developers had spent $1.8 billion on new construction in the last five years. Ms. Nickerson said that in the last two to three years, as many as 10 large housing developments were started or have been completed on the Cape.

Now, as summer visitors swell the area, the growth issue takes on a new urgency. Tourism continues to be extremely important to the local economy. In 1985, visitors to the Cape, the second-leading tourist destination in the state after the Boston area, generated a payroll of $112.8 million and almost 11,000 jobs, according to the United States Travel Data Center.

But the boom has also brought traffic, strain on roads and utilities, worries about the water supply, and in general, concern about quality of life.

Sentence in Appendix

Mr. Tsongas said he asked fellow commission members to include the moratorium proposal in their report on reorganizing the state's environmental bureaucracy as a way of focusing attention on the conflict between growth and the environment on the Cape and elsewhere in Massachusetts.

The proposal is a sentence, and that is buried in the report's appendix. But the attention focused on it has far overshadowed the rest of the document.

''You had to do something to get people to realize the dilemma we face,'' Mr. Tsongas said.