Letter: Amherst’s High Rents Necessitate Changes to Inclusionary Zoning Requirement
Architect's rendering of apartment building at 26 Spring Steet. Photo: amherstma.gov
The following letter was sent to the Amherst Community Resources Committee and the Amherst Planning Board on December 18, 2024.
Here are some of the rents at the new apartment and mixed-use buildings. Please note that only 11 East Pleasant and Aspen Heights have affordable units. The UMass Off-campus Housing Office is my source:
As I said at the December 17 CRC meeting, these are Boston area rents and even higher.
This is why I offered Boston, Cambridge, and Somerville as sister cities to look at inclusionary zoning requirements. Both Somerville and Cambridge require 20 percent affordable apartments in larger buildings, while Boston requires 17 percent with an added 3 percent of units taking vouchers (Section 8). This supports, I think, raising the percentage requirement on University Drive—as well as throughout Amherst. (Recall that building costs are lower here than in the Boston metro area.)
Janet
Aspen Heights
$2425- 453 sq ft studio
$2489 501 sq ft 2 bedroom
$3199 627 sq ft 2 bedroom
$4455 1,302 sq ft 3 bedroom
| Aspen Heights Amherst Apartments | University of Massachusetts Amherst | Off-Campus Housing Search offcampushousing.umass.edu |
Spring Street
$2150-222 330-462 sq ft studio (max 4 occupants)
$2375-2875 620 sq ft 1 bedroom (4 max occupants)
| 26 Spring Apartments | University of Massachusetts Amherst | Off-Campus Housing Search offcampushousing.umass.edu |
1 East Pleasant Street (no affordable units)
$2150-$2075 524 sq ft studio (max 4 occupants)
$2175-2345 590 sq ft 1 bedroom (max 4 occupants)
| One East Pleasant Apartments | University of Massachusetts Amherst | Off-Campus Housing Search offcampushousing.umass.edu |
Kendrick Place (no affordable units)
$2150-$2075 524 sq ft studio (max 4 occupants)
$1400 per bedroom in a 3 bedroom apt, 1407 square feet ($4200/month)
$1380-1430/ bed in 4 bedroom apt ($5520-$5720/month)
| Kendrick Place Apartments | University of Massachusetts Amherst | Off-Campus Housing Search offcampushousing.umass.edu |
11 East Pleasant Street
$3500 810-838 sq ft 2 bedroom (4 max occupants)
| 11 E Pleasant St Apartments | University of Massachusetts Amherst | Off-Campus Housing Search offcampushousing.umass.edu |
Fieldstone (on UMass campus)
Up to $1704 per bedroom in 786 sq ft apt
Many off campus students exceed the permitted tenants, in order to make it more affordable . This is a common practice ,and impossible to enforce .
An article in last years Wall Street Journal spoke of the cost of student housing,and that it exceeds that of tuition , with a mention of Umass.
The high price of rent ,is what has led to the splurge in big box student housing , which the town has eagerly allowed .
Very interesting research. The rents to live in these new buildings are eye-popping. No wonder retail shops and non-student housing are on a steep decline in Amherst.
Making matters worse, I understand that Fieldstone, because it is on UMass property, pays no local property tax.
Nobody is reporting vacancy rates. I’m told there are lots of For Rent signs at mid-year.
Have we over-built high end housing? I’m waiting for the shoe to drop.
Yes , we are overbuilding. I see the same mid year vacancy signs. The newest big box in town, looks barely occupied. My friends in the business confirm the same.
The Umass sub- letting site shows many students looking to sub let for spring semester.
When I read them, I am struck by the cost,and the number of students in a apartment splitting that rent . 4 students in a 2 bedroom. 6 students in a 5 bedroom. Etc.
Yet the town still accommodates more student housing projects . This has a
an overall negative effect on all the others in that business, and the community .
There are things that we have no control over, nor do we have any right to control it. If business people want to build and to rent and to buy land, we have no right to interfere.
There are things we do have a right to control. One. Noise. Two. Parking issues. Three. Regular inspections for any property that is rented, human safety is at stake, make the property owners pay for any inspections. Four. Verify the number of tenants in a residence, although this is difficult.
I have heard that the property owners have complained about the inspections. These homes have gone uninspected for way too long and the owners have been let off the hook. Going into business means abiding by certain rules, if any of them still think this is unfair I can give them my number and I’ll explain it to them.
Thumbs up Tom. Couldn’t have said it better myself. Considering we’ve had the noise, parking issues, obvious lack of inspections seeing we’ve had a fire or heating issues on both sides of us, it would be nice to control the number of tenants too! Noticing all the for lease banners at a lot of apartment complex’s indicates the town might be overbuilding which might bring down costs over time.
UMass does not publish a spring attrition figure, and they wouldn’t know it yet anyway.
But if there are a lot of sublets and spring vacancies, one has to wonder what it might be.
I don’t support this idea, it only helps prop up the existing inventory of run down rentals by discouraging new development. We’re seeing a large cycle of rental inventory turnover where new modern dense accommodations are competing with the old tired inventory. Prices will come down when demand softens.
I’m probably off what the point was. But I know from looking for Section 8 housing. And 1 of the properties in Amherst just contacted me. Laws about rents are being broken everywhere I’m just realizing. There are discrimination cases galore out there. Places advertise or say when you call & ask if they take Section 8. That they accept it. Referring to Alpine Commons. But yet! Their rents are so high housing could never be used. Or a person on it being able to meet the criteria. This is called “income discrimination”. Nevermind the zoning issues .Take care of the people that are homeless due to high rents in the Community. Not everyone has Income like the College kids parents that are paying extremely high rents because landlords have No Thresholds or Scruples to do what’s right. Since Covid everyone feels ” Entitled” to more,more,more. Laws should be made to keep rents at a certain level. Only the rich are going to be able to live & survive at this rate.
Inclusionary zoning requirements to create permanent affordable housing are quite common and Amherst’s 10-12% rate is quite low compared to comparable cities and towns. The new apt owners are raking in rent money and can afford to build more low and middle income affordable units. FYI no one has any “right” to build anything they want, where they want and how they want to. Limits on rental charge also offend no constitutional rights.
What is the goal? increasing affordable housing units? Placing a burden on developers doesn’t accomplish that if they don’t build – this is counting your chickens before they hatch. Unlike Cambridge or Somerville which have massive opportunistic reasons (and only in recent history) to build large complexes, Amherst’s economy is much more sensitive and not so hot that developers may pass if the numbers don’t add up. We’re already seeing one project scaled back just from a cost increase in steel. It becomes greedy to brute force affordable housing into an area which has already been tough to develop.
The town has affordable housing projects in flight and more being planned. Amherst’s affordable housing stock as a percentage will go up a point with the planned units (11% to 12%). Cambridge is around 15%, Somerville is 10% and Boston around 19% – where are we trying to go and what is the best way to get there.
Mr Lloyd – is it not greedy to increase your rent 2x beyond the what the market rate was before you built the building and increase the rent yearly at figures well above the average inflation rate? Is it not greedy to outbid working families for single family homes and then pack them with 8 students bringing in over 8k a month in rental income? If the greed of developers did not wreck the housing market in our community then there would be no need to “greedily” force affordable housing. The irony in your statement is interesting to say the least. I hope you will consider how the logic in your statements is flawed. If you would like to discuss more feel free to email me.
Julian Hynes – It should be obvious that the new large apartment buildings are higher quality and offer more amenities than most of the existing rental housing and would command a higher price. Looking at just square footage is not realistic. Single family houses with too many student tenants is not a developer problem, it’s a landlord and enforcement problem. Rentals in Amherst are required to have a permit and inspections, if you think there are violations it would be a matter for the town government. I’d be interested to see data that single family houses in Amherst are being bought up at inflated prices and turned from owner occupied to rental at any sort of scale in recent history – former family homes have been a staple of the Amherst rental market for decades but the stock looks pretty stable and not a new phenomenon.
Steel is at an all time low , and the better product for a 5 story apartment building .
In my neighborhood 5 student rental homes with 6 students per home @ $1000 per student .This practice is the norm .
This group of renters are nice kids , respectful .
Last year, one of the homes ran an underground fraternity ,with many students living in the house .
Working with code enforcement we were able to get them ousted .
I agree that affordable housing should be aggressively pushed .
Doesn’t Amherst have a maximum of four unrelated adults living an any dwelling any longer? That was on the books for a long time. At one time there was a code enforcement officer hired specifically to ensure that was the case. The person also did the annual or bi-annual(?) inspections for health and safety…including but not limited to smoke and CO detectors.