East Street And Belchertown Road Affordable Housing Plans Unveiled
Way Finders' preliminary design concept for affordable housing at the East Street School near the expanding East Village Center. Photo: Way Finders
Report On The Meeting Of The Amherst Municipal Affordable Trust, April 14,2022
This meeting was broadcast on Zoom and recorded. It can be viewed here.
Present
John Hornik (Chair), Sid Ferreira, Rob Crowner, Carol Lewis, Allegra Clark, Erica Piedade, Aschleigh Jensen, Risha Hess, Town Manager Paul Bockelman, and Town Council liaison Jennifer Taub (District 3)
Staff: Planner Nate Malloy and Rita Farrell, Assistant
Way Finders Presents Preliminary Plans For Development At East Street School And Belchertown Road
Last year the town purchased property at 76 to 80 Belchertown Road to be used for affordable housing. This property was combined in a request for proposals with the former East Street School building on South East Street to develop 50 or more affordable units, with a substantial number containing two or three bedrooms. A proposal by Way Finders, a Springfield-based non-profit housing provider established over 50 years ago, was chosen to develop the properties.
Way Finders currently manages over 800 units in Western Massachusetts, including those at Butternut Farms and Olympia Oaks in Amherst. Diane Smith, Michelle McArdaragh, and Rachel Boulanger presented the proposed plans for the two sites designed by Narrow Gate Architects with sustainability consultation from the Center for Ecotechnology. Both buildings are designed to meet passive house sustainability standards, and both include rooftop solar panels.
For the former East Street School, the plans call for six units in the three-story building, with new construction along the street of a 23-unit structure, connected by a two-story indoor walkway. The Belchertown Road site would support a 41-unit building. Between the two sites, there would be 18 one-bedroom, 37 two-bedroom, and 14 three-bedroom units. Each building would have a courtyard, a community room, and a management office. Forty-five units will rent to those earning less than 60% area mean income (AMI), 18 units to those earning 30% of AMI, about 15 are “workforce housing” (100% of AMI), and 10 will be rented at market rate. For a family of four, 30% AMI is currently an income of $26,500 per year, and 60% of AMI is $50,406.
Way Finders plans to hold a public forum in the summer or fall. The group will need to obtain a comprehensive permit from the Zoning Board of Appeals, and will solicit funds from the Department of Housing and Community Development. Construction is projected to begin in 2025, with occupancy in 2026. Residents will be chosen by lottery.
Housing Trust members were enthusiastic about the designs, though some thought the Belchertown Road structure should be near the road with the parking lot behind, because it is in the village center. Way Finders assured the group that different-sized units would be equally divided by income level. Because of the tax credits awarded for creating affordable housing, student renters are not allowed.
Study Reveals A Shortage Of Affordable Housing In the Region
The Trust discussed a recent study done by the Donahue Institute and Way Finders showing a need for 17,000 new affordable housing units (i.e., renting for less than $500 per month) in the Pioneer Valley. For Hampshire County, specifically, the shortage was 1,500 units renting for less than $1000 per month. Amherst was cited as having the largest mismatch in the county between low resident income and high average rents charged..
Nate Malloy of the Planning Department noted that the problem was not only lack of affordable housing locally, but a need for better-paying jobs. Town Councilor Jennifer Taub called attention to the fact that many houses that might be affordable to middle-income families are being purchased by out-of-town developers who can pay cash and rent the houses to students. Malloy noted that it is the houses in the $250,000 to $350,000 range that are most likely to be bought by developers, and those are the ones that would be affordable to the workforce population.
The meeting adjourned at 9:00 p.m. The Housing Trust will meet next on May 12.
Housing is important, and so, apparently, is transportation. Both projects are on regular transit routes, which is a big plus. The bike storage room and bike racks (better to cover them) on the preliminary plans for 76-80 Belchertown Road are promising, but disappointingly, both plans also show a plethora of parking.
This relatively flat part of town favors cycling and walking, so these projects also provide us opportunities to improve the transportation mix in Amherst. We need safer bike-ped facilities along the northeast side of Belchertown Road running through the East Common, to help connect residents here and throughout town.
Instead of a “WALKWAY CONNECTED TO EXISTING SIDEWALK” as shown on the 76-80 Belchertown Road plan, let’s think bigger — and to the future. Let’s devote the first dozen feet of frontage here — and all the way from Gatehouse Road and Rolling Green in the east, to the Fort River School and East Common in the west — to the Town of Amherst’s most-needed, multi-use, multi-generational path!
Kudos to the designers for adapting the East Street School building into the affordable housing complex thereby reusing an existing town structure and avoiding demolition. This saves money and landfill waste.
I am interested in how the report handles our college and university residents in their statistics and analysis who have low incomes and pay high housing costs. Also, UMass has enrolled thousands of new students and only 1500 new dorm beds in the past decade. The impact of this mismatch in our local area and impacts on rents and house prices will be interesting to understand.