Enhancing Eastham with a District of Critical Planning Concern
Districts of Critical Planning Concern (DCPCs) are a tool in the Cape Cod Commission’s toolbox that towns and the region can use to protect important resources by pausing certain development activities while crafting specialized regulations. Once designated, a DCPC can have a development moratorium of up to a year to allow time for protective zoning measures to be adopted.
The Town of Eastham established a DCPC in 2017, known as the Eastham Corridor Special District. It covers commercially zoned lands along Route 6 and is in place to protect community character, encourage mixed-use development, enhance the North Eastham economy, improve pedestrian and bicyclist safety and access, minimize traffic conflicts, expand affordable housing opportunities, and reduce stormwater impacts.
In February 2025, the Commission approved amendments to the DCPC’s implementing regulations to better align with the town’s strategic plan, North Eastham Village Center Master Plan, and Housing Production Plan.
The changes included revising subdistrict boundaries, simplifying the use table, adding workforce housing requirements, providing height bonuses for affordable units, introducing detailed design standards, and refining the review process.
Eastham voters approved the amendments during Annual Town Meeting in May, with two changes to the Trade Park District made via a motion from the floor. The first change prohibited Compact Neighborhood, Mixed Use Building/Development, and Multi-Family Dwelling as principal uses in the Trade Park District while allowing Multi-Family Dwellings only as an accessory use tied to a permitted commercial or industrial use. The second change removed the requirement for outdoor amenity spaces in the Trade Park District.
The Eastham Planning Board, Select Board, and Zoning Task Force endorsed the modifications, following feedback from the Planning Board’s March 19 public hearing and conversations with property and business owners.
The changes are designed to support the need to balance future housing opportunities with preserving trades and industrial space, to encourage smaller scale workforce housing that fits the character of the Trade Park, and to remove unnecessary outdoor amenity space while still requiring landscaping and vegetative buffers along streets and property edges.
The updated regulations aim to advance Eastham’s goals for village-style development, expanded affordable housing, improved transportation connections, and environmental protection, while adapting to the unique needs of the Trade Park District.
The Cape Cod Commission approved the changes during a meeting held on August 14, 2025.
