Developer Wants to Donate to Housing Fund Instead of Building Affordable Units
Architect's rendering of a new residential building to be constructed at 55 South Pleasant Street, replacing the ell of the former Hastings Building. Photo: amherstma.gov
Report on the Meeting of the Amherst Planning Board, March 6, 2024
This meeting was conducted over Zoom and was recorded. The recording can be viewed here.
Present
Doug Marshall (Chair), Bruce Coldham,Janet McGowan, Karin Winter, and Johanna Neumann. Absent: Jesse Mager and Fred Hartwell.
Staff: Chris Brestrup (Planning Director), Nate Malloy (Senior Planner), and Pam Field Sadler (Assistant)
Proposed Mixed-use Building Behind Hastings Aimed at Student Rentals
The Planning Board held a public hearing on a planned five-story mixed-use building incorporating the former Hastings store and demolishing the adjacent wood building that was home to the Jeffrey Amherst Bookstore and the brick ell-shaped addition behind the Hastings building.
Last fall the Amherst Historical Commission placed a six-month delay on the demolition, but that delay expires in April. Hastings closed in June, 2022 after 108 years in business. Owners Mary Brohl and Sharon Povenelli approached John Kuhn of Kuhn, Riddle Architects for advice on how to best reuse the three-story historic building, which is part of Merchant’s Row designed by William Fenno Pratt in the late 19th century. Kuhn felt that it would not be feasible to remodel the ell-addition behind the building into apartments, but demolishing it along with the adjacent brick structure would create enough space for a new five-story building. Working with Barry Roberts, who purchased the bookstore building as South Pleasant Street LLC, the group designed the new space to have 22 units.
The former Hastings store will become the Amherst College store. The top two floors of the building will each have three apartments, two one-bedrooms and one three-bedroom on each floor. The new building behind will have a two-bedroom, a three bedroom, and two four-bedroom units on each of the top four floors. The first floor will be for amenities, such as a lobby, bicycle storage, trash, and possibly a lounge. A covered walkway will lead to the main entrance from South Pleasant Street. There are only two parking spaces planned. None are required, because the property is in the municipal parking district.
Roberts plans to rent the apartments at market rate. Attorney Tom Reidy estimated that this would be about $2900 per month for a two-bedroom unit. Because the apartments are designed for students, rather than families, they will be mostly equal-sized bedrooms with little common space in each unit, Roberts plans to exercise a provision under the town’s Inclusionary Zoning Bylaw (Article 15) to pay $1,240,400 to the Amherst Municipal Affordable Housing Trust (AMAHT) in lieu of providing the three required affordable units. The developers and Planning Board members felt that this development would not be ideal for a family, and that the AMAHT could use the money to develop affordable housing in a more suitable area. The group will discuss this proposal at AMAHT’s next meeting on March 14.
Planning Board members asked about common space on the roof, but were told by architect Jonathan Salvon that with the area required for solar panels and the rooftop utilities, there would be no space for a roof deck. He worried that a deck on the Hastings Building would threaten its structural integrity.
The lot coverage for the new project will be 97%, reduced from the current 100%. However, the Zoning Bylaw allows only 95% in this general business district, so the developer is asking for a special permit for the increased coverage. Stormwater drainage will be directed in a counter-clockwise direction around the building into an existing drain. Civil Engineer Phil Henry felt that the single drain was adequate, even given the prediction for more rain storms in the future. The project is still waiting for an evaluation from the Town Engineer.
Project Receives Favorable Comments from the Public
Letitia LaFollette and Kent Faeber cited the contributions the development will make to Amherst’s tax base, estimated to be $400,000 per year. Lafollette liked that it will create new housing downtown, while maintaining the Hastings building. Faerber said that the donation of compensatory funds to AMAHT will give the housing trust the flexibility to create additional affordable housing.
Vince O’Connor wondered if Roberts could increase the affordable units in one of his other buildings to make up for the lack of affordable units in this project, but Planning Director Chris Brestrup said this would be difficult, because there might be a different set of owners for each building, and changing the number of affordable units would require a modification of the decision on the other project.
The public hearing will continue on March 20.
No Additional Screening Needed for Rooftop Mechanicals at New Fort River School
At its previous review of the site plan for the new elementary school at Fort River, the Planning Board worried that the rooftop mechanicals would be visible from the athletic fields behind the school. Screening was proposed for the front of the roof facing the parking lot, but not for the rear. However, the designers pointed out that, besides adding up to $300,000 to the cost of the project for the additional screening, the screens would decrease the amount of solar energy produced by the PV panels. The Planning Board agreed that this was a high cost for the minimal need for screening, and decided not to require the additional screening.
Downtown Design Standards Work Beginning Soon
Planner Nate Malloy said that Dodson and Flinker, the Design group hired to help develop design standards for downtown will begin meeting with stakeholders soon. There will be groups of business owners and residents. Anyone interested in participating in these focus groups should contact Malloy at malloyn@amherstma.gov or Brestrup at brestrupc@amherstma.gov.
The next Planning Board meeting is scheduled for March 20.
So now we’ll have another 5 story building designed for students in the very center of our downtown? We are continuing to build a downtown that will be overrun with students and totally unappealing to year round residents. And we are doing this and demolishing a historic building so that Barry Roberts can reap yet more profits? There are much better places to put student housing, like University Drive, to bring in tax revenue. Thank you, Rob Morra, for coming up with that idea. Let’s agree to keep any additional undergrad student housing out of downtown.
So many thoughts …
(1) Thanks to the developers for sharing their views as to this location being “less appropriate” than some other location for affordable housing. However, let’s not take that as fact. Isn’t downtown location, highly accessible to public transit, lots of jobs, and the downtown “village center”, a great location for affordable housing?
(2) Also, is “affordable housing” intended to be synonymous with “family housing”? Do students not also want affordable housing?
(3) I can’t help but notice that “market rate”, when contrasted with “affordable housing”, is apparently synonymized with “unaffordable”.
I appreciate this project.
We have a severe need for housing in Amherst, Hampshire County, Massachusetts and the United states. I am happy that someone is taking action to try to increase the housing inventory, even if it draws students and professionals to our village center. The hope is that providing inventory that they seek, which is close to amenities and public transportation, it will reduce the need to rent single family dwellings in neighborhoods which I have witnessed students do by default because they don’t have other options. This will free up some of the single family units to be available for others.
This building at 55 South Pleasant Street, although charming in its own right, had become functionally obsolete, and about 60% of the building was empty. This project will be a better use of the space and will help satisfy some of the issues we face with under supply of housing.
Thank you.