I wish that more people understood the extreme limitations imposed by the wetlands on most of the property in the town plan. The County gave a full build out number, (number of homes that could be built with current zoning) that is just wrong. They know that and I’m surprised that they put that figure out knowing it would cause an outcry. Most of the vacant land in the town core that might possibly be available for low-income housing is so wet that only a fraction of the allowable number of homes could be built there. This has been discussed so often that I am continually shocked that so many people don’t know it.

There is no way that the full density build out of homes that the county gave at the last community meeting could happen. Ask some of the property owners. Some of these parcels are zoned for four to 12 units an acre. After wetland studies are done, they might get six homes on the entire 4 to 6 acres. I’ve done many such studies for clients looking to develop low-income or senior housing and after the hydrologist and soils engineers are done, there isn’t enough buildable land to even make it worth the effort. One such property, as an example, was over 4 acres, zoned to allow four homes per acre, and with the wetlands on that land the studies indicated that you could build one house on the whole thing. So if you are really worried about density, please take my word for it that the figures for density build out are fiction.

— Emma Amiad