Updated Affordable Housing Plan in the Works

Report on the Meeting of the Amherst Municipal Affordable Housing Trust, August 8, 2024

This meeting was held over Zoom and was recorded. It can be viewed here.

Present
Gaston de los Reyes, (Chair) Carol Lewis, Erica Piedade, Allegra Clark, and Paul Bockelman (Town Manager). Absent: Rob Crowner, Alex Cox, and Grover Wehman-Brown

Staff: Greg Richane (Housing Coordinator) and Nate Malloy (Senior Planner)

2025 Housing Production Plan
Representatives from Barrett Planning Group presented their plans and a timetable for updating the town’s Housing Production Plan (HPP), a state-regulated plan for a “community’s proactive strategy for developing affordable housing by creating a strategy to enable it to meet its housing needs in a manner consistent with Chapter 40B statute and regulation.” Amherst’s last HPP was developed in 2013. 

Over the next six months, Barrett Planning will work with the town to assess Amherst’s housing needs, develop measurable and achievable housing goals, and outline a strategy to implement changes needed to attain those goals. The process will start this month with community outreach to low- and moderate-income residents who need affordable housing, as well as staff and community members involved with housing. The consultants will interview these stakeholders both in-person and virtually. Housing Coordinator Greg Richane has reached out to relevant residents for involvement in the process. The consultants will also attend community events, such as the September 19 Business Improvement District block party to obtain further input. 

After the interviews, the consultants will hold the first of two community meetings on October 1 to discuss their findings and hear suggestions from the public on Amherst’s housing needs. This information will be used to develop goals for housing development. The second community meeting will be held around December 3 to discuss the proposed housing goals. The consultants will then develop a draft HPP to be presented in March for approval in April 2025. 

Throughout the development of the HPP, the consultants will communicate regularly with the Housing Trust and the Planning Board to keep those entities appraised of their progress and to receive feedback. The process is outlined in the Housing Trust packet, pages 9-24.

Housing Trust Gives Another $350,000 to Amherst Community Homes Project on Ball Lane
At the July meeting of the Housing Trust, Valley Community Development Corporation requested an additional $350,000 from the trust to help meet the $915,000 shortfall in funds for Amherst Community Homes, its affordable homeownership project on Ball Lane in North Amherst. The trust had previously awarded $375,000 to the project. In total, the town will have contributed $1.475 million, or $49,500 for each of the 30 units in the development.

Jessica Allan and Laura Baker of Valley CDC said they are applying for grants to make up the remainder of the funding deficit. Allan added that they were hoping for a $500,000 earmark in the state’s Housing Bond Bill that would pay for solar panels on the units. She also hoped that work could be started on the permitted driveway into the project and the water and sewer connections this summer to lessen the total construction time. Allan and Baker stressed that Valley CDC is very enthusiastic about the project.

Housing Trust members said they were eager for the project to go forward. Trust Chair Gaston de los Reyes reported that former chair John Hornik spoke favorably of the funding request, saying that he usually recommends contributing to existing projects, rather than saving money for hypothetical opportunities in the future. Planner Nate Malloy noted that the only other affordable housing project now in planning is the Way Finders affordable rentals at the East Street School and on Belchertown Road. He said the trust can expect more money from the Community Preservation Act funds and payment-in-lieu of affordable units from Barry Roberts’ mixed-use building at 45 South Pleasant Street in the near future. 

Town Manager Paul Bockelman agreed that this affordable homeownership opportunity is one of the town’s most important projects, but he wanted to make sure that Valley CDC would not come back to the trust for more money at a later date. After receiving that assurance from Baker, the trust voted 5-0 to award another $350,000 to the Amherst Community Homes project.