Orleans ZBA Continues 78-Unit Affordable Housing Hearing to July 29

ORLEANS -- June 24, 2026, Orleans Zoning Board advances 78-unit affordable housing project on Route 6A, continues hearing to July 29. The board heard revised architectural designs from Union Studio Architecture and Community Design's Paul Ataman for the Preservation of Affordable Housing, Housing Assistance Corporation, and Habitat for Humanity Cape Cod project at 66 and 76 Route 6A, formerly the Governor Prince Motel, finding broad improvement in massing, gable forms, and facade articulation over the prior submission. A Select Board letter, voted unanimously June 9, backed the application and requested that Orleans residents, town employees, and families with children in Orleans schools receive priority in the unit lottery, with staff noting that local-preference lotteries at two comparable recent projects placed about 80 percent of 107 Main Street tenants in Orleans and sent only roughly six units across both projects to off-Cape applicants. Attorney Peter Freeman told the board that 40B case law and the project's RFP origins preclude the ZBA from directing a fundamental site reorganization, after a board member submitted an alternative layout shifting the Habitat homes to the left side of the parcel. The board voted unanimously to continue to July 29 for presentations on traffic, landscaping, a waiver-by-waiver review, and additional material specifics, with the overall revised building design endorsed as a clear improvement.