Herring Cove Beach
Despite the general accretion that is happening along the Provincetown Hook, the coastline at Herring Cove Beach is gradually eroding and within several years the parking lots will have eroded significantly away and will need to be reconstructed. One possible proposal is to build another parking lot on the other side of Provincelands Road and then build a bridged walkway for beach goers to be able to safely cross the road. Long range planning for this parking lot and others like it is imperative since putting down another coat of asphalt would only last another ten years and would not be a sustainable solution.
The expectation amongst visitors to be able to park directly on the beach is potentially at odds with the reality of the temporal impermanence of building so close to the waterline. Visitors with their cars laden down with beach toys, children, coolers and umbrellas would much prefer to be able to park by the beach as they have always been able to do and enjoy the convenience of having their vehicle close by. A long term projection of the area reveals that this may not always be possible and that a more permanent solution will need to be developed in order to continue to be able to cater to the high summer volume of visitors that frequent Herring Cove. In particular, the Herring Cove Bath House is a priority structure and may need to be moved or rebuilt sooner than the full scope of this larger transition will be carried out.
Site of the proposed new parking lot for Herring Cove on the opposite side of Provincelands Road.
This project in particular has spurred oppositional input from the community, who see this type of project to be an illustration of town interest colliding with that of the parks. Mary Joe Avellar, Provincetown’s Selectman told the local newspaper, the Provincetown Banner, during the week that this project was announced as a possibility:
I realize it’s very important to a lot of people in Provincetown. They’re very concerned about what happens at Herring Cove…There is a real fear in our town that the Seashore is planning on letting [the parking lot] go and shuttling us to the beach.
If such a project were to be carried out residents may complain about local character and history being lost by the removal of the lot despite the projected structural vulnerability in its current location. In order to reach consensus, it is imperative that projects of this nature that are highly visible and have a broad impact, undergo due public process and be discussed jointly so that the actions of the NPS are better understood and local stakeholders are provided an outlet to be able to express their ideas and concerns.
The pace of erosion requires that the Seashore plan for new solutions that are sustainable but must also satisfy the park’s stakeholders. Often an intensive community process is necessary to find the best rehabilitation or replacement solution and good data about trends is essential to a successful public process.[i]
The planning of parking lots should be considered in terms of Gordon Peabody’s expression of needing “to create an equal voice at the table for the earth”. While a parking lot seems like a benign and relatively static landscape of paved and stripped asphalt, they are actually part of a dynamic environ where humans have a concentrated impact because it is the funneling point to access the beach. Any location in a dune ecosystem that is a major nodal point suffers from similar disruption and instability.
[i] Giese, Graham, and Mark Adams. Cape Cod Shoreline Change and Resource Protection. Prop. Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies and Cape Cod National Seashore (U.S. National Park Service).
