Onset Village Slum and Blight Inventory

The Town of Wareham commissioned a study to be done to inventory all properties and parcels within a defined area of the town. This study was completed by JM Goldson Community Preservation and Planning in conjunction with Silva Engineering Associates, and took place in the latter half of 2018. The purpose was to determine eligibility for block grant funding under MGL c.121A and c.121B.

The results are similar if not identical to prior surveys. In this study, 762 properties were included, 694 of which contained buildings.

Twenty-eight percent of the area studied meet the criteria including physical deterioration, abandonment, chronic high vacancy rates, environmental contamination, and/or significant decline in property values. Eighty-six percent of the Village's infrastructure components are in fair or poor condition and contributing to slum and blight conditions. These include water, sewer, drainage, utilities, roadways and sidewalks.

The take aways from this include the following:

• 24% of people in the study area live below the poverty line
• 91 % of the people in the study area have income below the median for the area of $ 103,400.00 (HUD FY2017 Income Limits)
• 94% of roads are rated in fair or poor condition (39,620)
• 91% of sidewalks are rated in fair or poor condition (33,890 linear feet)
• The infrastucture is more severely deteriorated than the housing stock
• the drainage system discharges a great deal into wetlands and waterbodies
• there are few stormwater management systems
• the 3 playgrounds are severely degraded
• few if any accessibility or wheelchair compliant ramps exist
• 29% of all buildings are rated fair or poor
• 7 of 12 public buildings are rated fair or poor
• none of the seven historic resources are on the National Register of Historic Places
• 131 of 152 public improvements are deteriorated (sewer, lighting, landscape, etc.)
• No historic district exists
• Of 39 businesses, many are seasonal

Onset Bath House is a public/private initiative

The infrastructure issues are particularly disturbing as Onset has two parking programs bringing in substantial funding, and the water district has an operational surplus. The Town of Wareham is clearly not spending money on very basic upkeep in Onset.

My view:

• investment in Onset Village infrastructure is critical
• the Sewer Department needs to upgrade stormwater management
• lighting needs to installed or upgraded throughout
• the new Onset Bay Center and enlarged bandshell will only exacerbate traffic and use on the antiquated infrastructure
• economic development of year round businesses is a priority
• enforcement of existing health and building department by-laws with respect to blight must be enforced
• An additional fee for large developments (condos, golf course homes) should go to infrastructure improvement
• a new advisory committee on Onset Village, consisting of residents (both seasonal and permanent), business owners, clergy, and town administrators needs to be formed immediately to strategize use of both town and block grant funds
• cultural and historic districts should be established
• Onset properties should be nominated for the state Abandoned Housing Initiative 

Note: pages missing from the scanned study are blank, the entire document is available at the office of the town planner.