Cotuit Meadows

Conceived by Bayside Building, Cotuit Meadows is a new affordable housing development, located off of Route 28 at the Barnstable-Mashpee line.

Cotuit Meadows is built on both thoughtful design and community

Photos courtesy of Bayside Building

Affordable housing, despite the sensible and straightforward nature of the term, doesn’t always benefit from a lot of positive connotation. Real estate development that falls under the Massachusetts 40B Housing program allows developers to override local zoning bylaws as long as 25 percent of the planned development is available to low-income buyers. Often these mixed income communities have a history of questionable success and marred desirability within the conventional real estate market. In the case of Cotuit Meadows, a 40B project created by Centerville’s Bayside Building, that could not be farther from the truth. Recipient of a 2018 Gold BRICC Award in the category of Affordability Project, Bayside successfully demonstrated that with a lot of thought, planning, collaboration and cooperation, a community could be built. A community in the truest sense of the word—the kind of neighborhood that harkens back to a simpler time, one where on the Fourth of July kids patriotically ride their bikes on the sidewalks to cul-de-sacs dotted with homes that they trick-or-treat each fall. The kind of community where retirees, longing to see their grandchildren grow through the ages, take on a surrogate nature as the neighboring children grow from toddlers to young adults finishing their high school years.

Cotuit Meadows is nestled into a wooded enclave off of Route 28 just east of Mashpee Commons. Despite the bustling traffic encountered on the busy artery that runs the length of the upper arm of the Cape, the subdivision immediately renders a bucolic feeling of peace within its natural surroundings.  The park-like setting includes 124 units on a 50-acre parcel and a special spot designated as “Duffa Field,” named in memory of a longtime Bayside employee, Michael Duffley, who passed away several years ago. A sense of order and continuity is prevalent throughout the several streets that wind through the tidy and quaint residences. Bayside’s project manager, Nick Bowes, explains that the inclusion of certain covenants and restrictions within the Homeowners Association, like no mailboxes and requirements for individuals to maintain their lawns and landscaping, has the desired effect to create an aesthetically cohesive neighborhood. “It was important for us to not have it immediately obvious which of the units were affordable,” Bowes explains.