From the Falmouth Enterprise · November 17, 1981
On November 16, 1981, more than 110 people at the Precinct Seven Association meeting in the East Falmouth School heard William A. Strauss Jr., general partner of the Washburn Island Preserve Limited Partnership, describe about 50 estates for the 342-acre island. Lots would average 2.5 acres, with homes of about 5,000 square feet, a clubhouse, pool, tennis courts, five docks and stone-dust paths for electric carts instead of roads for cars. Strauss said only 18 percent of the land would be disturbed. Former state environmental management commissioner Richard E. Kendall was project coordinator.
Kendall said a bill for a state taking had passed the Senate but died in the House, and Strauss noted the island’s taxes had risen from $10,000 to $40,000 a year. Neighbors, including Seacoast Shores resident Winnifred Woods, pressed the developers on traffic and on septic pollution of the Seapit River. Within weeks Woods was leading a new citizens group, CPWB, that challenged the plan before the planning board. The houses were never built: the state took the island by eminent domain in June 1983.
This is CPWB’s summary of a news article. The full article and its photos are published by the Falmouth Enterprise. The page is in the Falmouth Public Library’s digital archive of the Enterprise.
Drafted with AI assistance from the linked source.
