The complexities of the process — and the increasing threat climate change poses to shoreline properties — came into view at an Oct. 16 hearing before Wellfleet’s conservation commission that was followed by a study completed in mid-December, with the hearing to be continued on Jan. 15.

In this case, the proposal seeks to shore up a decades-old wooden bulkhead at a house on Mayo Beach. The seawall is regularly washed over during severe storms. The 1930s hip-roofed bungalow is owned by John Hall of Natick, who purchased the shoreline property at 195 Kendrick Ave. in 2019.

Hall knew he would be required to do some bulkhead maintenance and erosion control when he bought the house, including dumping sand as beach nourishment annually. He didn’t expect that in just five years the threat of flooding would force him to up his game.

His property has flooded three times since he bought it, and the water has run across Kendrick Avenue and damaged some of the mobile home condominiums at Harborside Village. Hall wants the conservation commission’s approval to add 30 inches to the height of the existing wooden bulkhead, which spans the front of his property and curves toward the road on both ends. Hall initially hoped he could extend those “wings” to protect the land eroding on either side of his house. On the west side, loss of sand is threatening his septic system and leaching field.

“With climate change, I’ve lost 10 feet on both sides of my property,” Hall told the conservation commission…