CAPE COD REAL ESTATE REALTORS KEEP PACE WITH TECHNOLOGY
By Debi Boucher Stetson
The Pennysaver

Owners of half-acre lots who are aware of the impending deadline regarding the state's Title 5 septic system regulations are scrambling either to sell their lots or get building permits. Those who haven't been paying attention, on the other hand, will be in for a rude awakening.

As of Jan. 1, 2000, half-acre lots will not be permitted for more than two bedrooms, so owners of such lots must have a septic permit in place before then if they want to build a three-bedroom home. The restriction is part of the new state Title 5 regulations that took effect in 1995, building in a five-year window. To make things more complex, local septic regulations in a number of towns on the Cape have become more stringent. Zoning, of course, comes into play as well, determining how many smaller lots are even left in any given town.

Suzanne Goodrich, owner of Anchor Real Estate in Eastham, said the impending deadline regarding Title 5 is having an impact on the land market. “It’s a combination of not enough available inventory in housing and the fact that people who are holding half-acre lots are trying to get them sold or get them built on,” she said.

Anchor Real Estate recently sent out a mailing advising homeowners about the impending change in state regulations. The firm was not alone; other real estate companies have done the same thing in a dual effort to attract listings and warn property owners that their options are running down.

Jamie Regan, owner of Regan Realty in Mashpee, said his company also did a mailing recently but much to his frustration, some people didn’t take the message seriously.

“They think we’re being cute, to get listings,” he said, observing that many landowners are not at all aware of the regulations that could impact what they do with their land very soon. “They don't get it,” he said. “Property owners just don’t understand it. They think they’ll be grandfathered, but the way the state regulations are written, there’s no grandfathering.”

Regan estimated there are “a couple of hundred” lots in Mashpee that could be impacted by the regulation, including lots smaller than a half-acre. “Our zoning was done phased so there were a lot of quarter acres and half acres,” he said. If they don’t take action, owners of such lots may find their land reduced in value next year, when it is only good for a one- or two-bedroom home that has become a real estate standard.

Other towns will not be much affected, as they have virtually no half-acre lots left. In the, mid-Cape area, there’s just not much buildable land left, of any size.

“In my portion of the market, there's very few lots left,” said Dick Neitz, owner of Dick Neitz Realty in Yarmouth. “But I understand it is causing consternation in the other parts of the Cape,” he said of the approaching deadline for smaller lots.

He said it bothers him that many small-lot owners may be hurt by the regulations. “This is not just the greedy developer,” he said, noting that many people bought half-acre lots years ago intending to build their retirement homes here. “You talk to some of the people who are hurt - in many instances they’ve done nothing that any ordinary citizen wouldn’t do, and that’s buying a lot and holding on to it until they’re ready to buy,” he said. “It’s very difficult to explain to someone that if they had just done something last year, it would have been all right, but this year it’s not.”

“Twenty years ago there were a lot of people who bought land just to hold,” Goodrich said. “Now I don’t recommend anybody holding land, because the regulations change almost yearly.”

“The other thing the public isn't totally aware of is in many communities you can't just walk in and pull a permit,” Regan said, noting that Mashpee has a growth control limit on the number of building permits it will issue in a year. Other towns, including Sandwich and Falmouth, have similar limits.

Regan predicts there will be a rush on sales of and building permit applications for half-acre lots later in the year when people begin to panic. “In the fall, for sure,” he said. Meanwhile, he said, land-prices have already gone up significantly. “I’ve seen land go up over 50 percent in the last 19 months,” Regan said.