Bylaw threatens Cape hostel
From the August 23, 2007 version of the Cape Cod Times

By Doug Fraser

EASTHAM - Charging as little as $25 a night for a bed, youth hostels offer visitors an affordable alternative to motels or rented houses. But a legal technicality now threatens to close one of only two hostels on the Cape.

Hostelling International's Mid-Cape hostel, with its 45 beds divided among eight small cottages, is considered a camp under Eastham zoning bylaws.

Despite being in existence for more than 40 years, the hostel never met the standard of four acres required for a camp. The error was discovered last year only after Hostelling International proposed rebuilding the hostel as an eco-friendly larger single building, an idea that upset some of their neighbors.

"They were talking about 7,000 square feet of building," said abutter Robert Freeman, who was concerned about traffic, noise and an expansion of the season from summers to nine months.

But Deborah Ruhe, executive director of Hostelling International's New England branch, said her organization never submitted plans and only floated ideas before neighbors at a series of informational meetings they hosted to get feedback. She said they never intended to increase the numbers of beds. Instead of working with the group on their concerns, Freeman's attorney, Duane Landreth, focused on closing them down, she said.

On Aug. 9, the town zoning board of appeals denied the hostel's request for a special permit. When the hostel closes its doors for the season this September, it could be forever, barring a successful appeal through the courts, or a variance from the zoning board.

Hostelling International is still considering its options, Ruhe said.

The hostel is on land owned by the Eastham Conservation Foundation. The land was donated by former town conservation commission Chairman Jacqueline Duffek in 2000, with the condition that the hostel be allowed to continue there for as long as it remained in operation. Once it ceases to be a hostel, the land reverts to open space.

With between 2,400 and 3,900 overnight rentals a year, the Eastham hostel remains an affordable way to see the Cape for youth groups and international visitors.

Yesterday morning, MIT graduate students Brandon Pierquet and Beth Williams were sipping coffee and slowly rousing themselves after a rigorous bike trip from Province-town the day before.

Losing the hostel is unthinkable. "It's so expensive to come to the Cape otherwise," said Williams.

Susan Johnson, whose father's home abuts the hostel property, said neighbors overreacted. The hostel's been a good neighbor for 25 years. "It's so nice to come down the street and see the 'Welcome' sign in other languages."

Doug Fraser can be reached at dfraser@capecodonline.com.