Seeing that there is a quorum of the council president. I am calling this meeting to order at 6 30 p.m The purpose of the meeting is to hear presentations and discussion on the proposed studio apartment supportive housing at 132 Northampton Road Before we start the official part of the program you can't hear back there Okay, so I need to speak directly into the mic. Thank you If you need to use the restrooms, they're up one floor or down one floor there's both men's and women's in both of those and Obviously the exits from the building and from the room are red that being straight out and others leading to them We hope you can find seats if there are seats available next to you Please raise your hand so the people in the back can go to those seats Okay So this is a little different than our normal setting it's actually meant to be a conversation of residents about this particular project but given the somewhat heartfelt and heated feelings that people have We felt it was important to basically review for you the rules of engagement these are directly drawn from two different sources Massachusetts general law an open meeting and The council's adopted rules of a procedure All meeting participants including councillors residents and staff should Confine their remarks to the substance of the issue at hand Participants shall avoid discussing personalities and not impugn the motives character or integrity of any individual The council supports the rights of residents to criticize its local government But they should be done appropriately and responsibly with civility and discretion All participants shall address their remarks to the president and maintain a civil tone The council welcomes your remarks Generally, the public shall not Be allowed to participate in the deliberations of the council unless we decide otherwise Those present shall not engage in audible or visible demonstrations of approval or disapproval Those present shall not conduct themselves in a manner that disturbs or impedes the orderly procedures of the meeting If that occurs, I have the right to either adjourn the meeting or take a recess and if it's an individual I have a right to warn that individual and if it continues ask that individual to leave the room Any member the public may make an audio or video recording of an open session of a public meeting However, we need to know now if you are planning to do that other than obviously Amherst media Is there anybody that is planning to record the meeting? Okay, and you are and behind you Okay, may please make a note in the minutes that we have those two Individuals recording for their organizations. Are there any other people recording at this time? Please let me know if that changes We are going to begin with a five-minute presentation at most From Nate buddington who chairs the Community Preservation Act committee. We're then going on to presentations by Valley CDC about the project Then there will be a statement from the affordable housing trust by John Hornick and then statements and presentations by people who are Butters and neighbors After that we will review the timeline of what happens after tonight and we will move on to counsel clarifying questions After that we will have public comment and I'll describe more about the public comment period when we get to that So Nate we're going to again. This is different We want to make sure that both the counsel and the audience has the ability to hear from the speakers Thank you. Can everybody hear me? Okay Any better? Yeah, lean lean way in Nate. I'll try to thank you. My name is Nate buddington I'm the chair of the CPA Committee this year the current makeup of the CPA Committee consists of representatives from the Historical Commission Housing Authority the Conservation Commission LSE and the Planning Board as well as four at-large members the current committee consists of at least one grandparent the mother of an infant residents of South Central and North Amherst an experienced activist the owner of a small business retired academics a regional development expert a recreation advocate Members who sat on and supported town meeting and members who voted for a change in town government There's probably other interesting things I could tell you about our members But as you can see the CPA Committee represents an impressive level of geographical generational professional and political diversity This year we added a number of new members as a number of people had turned out turned out last year More than the two previous years. I've sat on CPA This new group did not hesitate to vote no on a proposal that had problematic elements We had more split votes and I've seen in my short tenure on CPA We had vigorous discussions about the property tax burden on Amherst residents Whether an affordable housing proposal truly contributed to the affordable housing landscape Whether we should purchase wetlands that can never be developed Whether we should contribute to the graph park project for the third year in a row and there were others about half of our votes We're not unanimous I've sat on a few committees over the years But I've seen few that have worked as well as the current CPA Asking tough questions thoughtfully listening communicating with mutual respect. That's how we rolled this year The Valley CDC project before us tonight received enthusiastic and unanimous support from the CPA Committee The proposal gets to the heart of CPA's affordable housing mission And it's worth remembering why we have affordable housing as part of the CPA to begin with a few data points The National Low-Income Housing Coalition found that a renter working 40 hours a week and earning minimum wage Can afford a two-bedroom apartment without spending nearly half of their income in exactly zero counties nationwide Baby boomers are living longer more independently and often with no or exhausted retirement funds than in previous generations They're also more likely than previous generations to be divorced and living alone The federal government consistently subsidizes middle and upper middle-class homeowners rather than low-income renters seniors and the disabled Annual federal expenditures from the mortgage interest tax deduction dwarfs what the government pays for rental subsidies in public housing The National Alliance to End Homelessness says that of the approximately 370,000 homeless individuals Precisely the group that will find shelter in this project only 55% will ever find permanent housing From the Atlantic Magazine More than seven million renter households have a member with a disability To help those who struggle with mobility the most common disability challenge It's important to have step-free entryway a single floor layout Wide doors and hallways and for those who are not of average height or use a wheelchair Electrical controls such as light switches should be accessible from lower heights 1% of rental housing about 365,000 units nationwide Include all of those according to the Census Bureau and the supply of disability Accommodating apartments is the slimmest in the northeast because the region's buildings are old meaning that there are a lot of walk-ups and narrow houses Embedded in these statistics are the folks who will be living in the proposed Valley CDC fully accessible complex These folks homeless low-income and single veterans people under the care of mental health services the physically disabled They're already in our community Living on the streets or with friends or family and already cramped apartments are spending half their meager income on inadequate housing This project will dramatically improve the lives of our most vulnerable neighbors So we have before us in this proposal a local solution to what is a profound human crisis Faced by almost every community in the country We have a good location and we have the funds and we have a great organization with a proven track record Neighbors are asking many thoughtful questions about this project as any involves citizen should and we'll hear many of those concerns tonight But town council needs to do the right thing and approve the CPA expenditure for this project This project is literally community preservation, and I have confidence that when you vote you'll show us the best of Amherst Thank you very much and just to remind the audience we are not taking a vote tonight We're moving on to presentations from Valley CDC and I believe Laura Baker and Joanne are Next please identify yourself Hi Excuse me. I'm Laura Baker. I'm the real estate project manager from Valley Community Development Corporation I think the sound is good. What do you folks? All right I'm going to be giving a quick overview of the proposed affordable housing development at 132 North Hampton Road I'm going to be moving and speaking quickly because we have limited time We did provide handouts of these slides at the table when you come in because they're kind of chock full of information so The site location site is located on route 9 about halfway between University Drive and the town center The light green area that you see on the slide is the parcel Which is mostly surrounded by Amherst College athletic fields. The gray L shape is the proposed building This is our preliminary site plan One of our priorities is to keep as much green open space as possible on the site and preserve the current streetscape Vegetative screening is shown between the Amherst College field and the rear of the building and more could be added there as needed This is our preliminary elevation We propose to reuse the existing house and add a large addition The style is traditional and residential The building was inspired by some of the residence halls on the Amherst College and Smith College campuses There are more plans on display against that wall over there if people want to look after the session The site characteristics It's a walkable site about four tenths of a mile from town and from bus stops about six tenths of a mile from shopping plazas It's on a major road and public water and sewer. It's a large lot Butters include institutional single-family and multifamily residences more than 90% of the housing units along this route 9 corridor Our renter occupied it is nearby some dense housing uses including a six-unit rental That has 14 bedrooms Three residence halls on route 9 with 18 27 and 45 bedrooms respectively and a 78 unit assisted senior housing development There are two comparable properties owned by Valley and North Hampton for single adults that are also located on route 9 All of the four comparable properties owned by Valley and North Hampton are in much smaller parcels They're built at higher density and located closer to their neighbors Some have surrounding commercial uses Compared to Amherst North Hampton has more than twice the land area in commercial use In Amherst primary land land uses are open space agricultural residential and institutional We are proposing 28 small studio apartments The tenancy will be a majority of working adults The median income per person in Amherst is twenty thousand three hundred and thirty six dollars Valley is proposing to build eight studios for persons earning less than thirty one thousand and fifty dollars and Eight studios for persons earning less than forty seven thousand nine hundred dollars Many current Amherst employees will be income eligible. We would expect equal numbers of male and female applicants and tenants Additionally, we propose Two studios for clients of the Department of Mental Health with incomes below eighteen thousand six hundred and fifty dollars and Ten studios with a preference for homeless persons with an income below eighteen thousand six hundred and fifty dollars Homeless persons are those who lack adequate permanent affordable housing and they will come from a variety of walks of life These ten studios are not limited to chronically homeless persons Which is defined as those who have long-term or repeated homelessness Combined with a serious mental illness substance use disorder or disability Nationally only twenty four percent of homeless persons meet the definition for chronic homelessness Of these ten homeless tenants, we would expect that more would be men than women We anticipate an upcoming zoning approval process that will include Notification to a butters multiple public hearings and a comprehensive review of the proposed development Including the site plan parking traffic impacts project scale building massing and appearance fire safety public safety Adequacy of management capital reserves and neighbor and a butter concerns We've identified a number of key concerns from neighbors that seem ripe for ongoing discussion including public safety Adequacy of proposed tenant services Unit mix in the building can there be one bedrooms for example as well as studios and Neighborhood integration. How could new tenants become connected with other neighbors? At this time, I'm going to turn it over to Liz Reno from Valley's property management company Housing management resources to talk about tenant selection and screening. I'm Liz Reno from HMR properties. I Manage about 200 units of affordable housing Including the Valley CDC are sorrows HMR and total manages Provides affordable housing for over 8,000 families and individuals up and down the East Coast We provide high quality affordable housing that strengthens communities. I Truly believe that stable housing is the foundation I Truly believe that stable housing is the foundation for growth It is very difficult to sustain a job or a healthy lifestyle without stable housing Tonight, I'd like to focus on our SRO sites My team and I are very lucky to work with this community and help them find homes affordable homes in these difficult markets Our residents come from a lot of different backgrounds. We have a small business owner proud grandparents who love to show us photos Store clerks gas station attendants veterans domestic violence survivors a stand-up comedian artists musicians and many fast-food workers Many of my residents make a minimum wage which in Massachusetts today is $12 an hour We all know that that's not enough For those of For those residents who are lucky enough to have a job that allows them to work 40 hours a week They will take home $1,800 a month If you look today on Zillow or apartment guide You could not find a studio or a one bedroom for less than $1,200 without utilities Making affordable housing complexes like the proposed Valley CDC SRO the only place for these tenants to turn We have a rigorous screening process at HMR all residents have to pass a credit and criminal check we also Make sure that every resident is set up with services Before they are a lot before they are accepted Lots of these for residents are formally homeless. We help them navigate an almost impossible system Joanne from Valley CDC Organizes a service providers meeting which is vital to the success of our residents We meet quarterly to discuss challenges that residents are facing and make a plan with their providers from service From organizations like service net Elliott homeless services DMH veteran services CHD and Elder services to help our residents meet their needs. I Urged you all to give this community a chance. You will be pleasantly surprised They are lively and fantastic. They are not the people that you think that they are And that's all I have to say tonight. Thank you Hi We wanted to spend about five minutes focusing on a topic that has come up of interest I think to people especially who live near this property It's an analysis of emergency and police call data So we've heard these concerns from people in Amherst Related to emergency services Will the proposed development use more than typical levels of emergency services to the types of emergency services at Properties Valley already own signal tenant activities that might pose a danger to nearby residents Does the level of use of emergency calls indicate the tenants need additional services and Our emergency calls happening mostly in the evening or in overnight hours So those were kind of the questions that we were focused on when we started looking at data We looked at the four properties Owned by Valley that are most similar to the proposed one at 132 North Hampton Road all buildings house Single adults and have a mix of low-income and homeless persons and Department of Mental Health referred tenants The time period that we studied were calendar years 2016 17 and 18 We primarily chose this period because HMR where Liz works was hired in July 2016 And so this period best reflects the management team that's being proposed For 132 North Hampton Road and we wanted full-year data to compare to other types of full-year data We looked at police dispatch calls for city-wide for the city of North Hampton During this period and we found that they averaged 1.06 calls per person per year We know that that number is underreported because they only had posted the most frequent call categories and not 100% of the dispatch calls We do have 100% of the dispatch calls for these four properties and that Tallied 1.55 calls per tenant per year. So we do know that we're running above the city-wide average We do notice light decreasing trend in calls from Valley properties year to year from 2016 to 2018 Again, there are copies of these in the back because there's kind of chock-full here We also looked at 911 calls. So unlike the last slide, which was just police calls. This is fire Police and EMT calls combined We found that there were 2.11 calls per tenant per year from our properties We looked at a couple of close properties in Amherst the Arbor's Which is the 78 unit senior housing development, which is very near to this site and found that they had 3.35 calls per tenant per year and then we looked at the Amherst motel which is at 408 North Hampton Road and found that they had 1.58 Calls per tenant per year. We just kind of wanted to get a sense of what some different and comparable properties might look like What we were most interested in learning is why our tenants are calling for emergency services What we learned in general is that often tenant Valley tenants are either victims or witnesses in a crime situation We found that Valley tenants sometimes use emergency services for non-emergency reasons So the primary call category is medical and wellness checks almost a third of calls Followed by noise or disturbance the vast majority being a tenant complaining about another tenant who's within the same building Warrants and summonses was next. We note that the majority of these call categories are attempts at service and Not actual service. So a warrant may be Policemen come to try to serve a warrant or summons a number of times before actually reaching the person Police assistance and services ran a gamut of Valley tenants seeking assistance either with unwanted guests a fall from a wheelchair Kind of a wide range of needs Six percent of calls were unrelated to the residential tenants. So they were traffic stops nearby Calls from a commercial tenant who shared the same address for example Suspicious and wanted category Majority were Valley tenants reporting someone or something that they thought was suspicious either out of property or in the community Property lost and stolen some were people recovering and turning in property to the police And some were reports of lost or stolen property including a walker medication clothes and one instance of cash Substance use and related there were eight instances of intoxication Two were Valley tenants reporting other people who were intoxicated and for were drugs one suspected one medical marijuana and two illegal drugs There were elevator and alarm calls most of them false alarms Some traffic incident incidents mostly with Valley tenants not in the driver's seat. They're typically pedestrians or bikers An assault Valley tenants were victims of assault in three cases by people who did not live in our properties and Twice tenant tenant against another tenant one instance was pushing Most of our tenant conflicts are verbal We looked especially for calls that might indicate where there was harm to neighbors or illegal drug use because we had heard those concerns from neighbors We had again two calls initiated by neighbors for noise complaints We didn't find any evidence of harm bodily harm to neighbors We did not find evidence of neighbor property damage or theft from neighbors and again We found two instances of illegal drugs on the property We looked at the time of day for these calls We found that the highest call volume was between 9 a.m. And 7 p.m. With a peak call time period of 1 30 to 2 p.m There are calls occurring during the night, but they're not the majority of calls We asked ourselves could the call volume be reduced and tenants benefit by onsite staff and we answered ourselves. Yes We thought about what kinds of emergency calls might be reduced by having staff on site And these included tenant complaints of noise one tenant to another tenant disputes wellness checks initiated by family or service providers Tenant calls regarding stolen property that turned out to be misplaced Tenant calls about an unknown person someone. They didn't know what the property Various mechanical issues and other non-emergency calls I would add that the call data that I've described above is from properties where there is no On-site resident services coordinator and limited property management staff on site The Northampton properties also have higher a higher concentration of very low income and homeless tenants Then is proposed for the site in Amherst We are working on a service plan for this property. It is a work in progress The elements that we've identified so far include an onsite resident resident services coordinator approximately 20 hours a week having property management staff on site approximately 20 hours per week having contractual arrangements with other community agencies that would serve tenants Department of mental health refer tenants will receive ongoing regular support services through DMH and homeless tenants who are referred to the property will Also have wraparound services provided by a local agency We'd like to invite up Pamela who's one of the tenants at our single-person building and she wanted to speak about her experience Hi folks. Can you hear me? Okay? Okay, great. My name is Pamela. I'm 54 years old born and raised in Western mass I grew up in Long Meadow in 2002. I moved to downtown Northampton to a small affordable studio I lived there for 10 years. I Left Northampton. I've just recently come back about a year and a half ago And I live on Blake. I'm excuse me on Bridge Street, which is up for renovation and I'm currently Relocated temporarily to a much larger apartment I'm going back to Bridge Street when it's when it's renovated and Many of you might ask why you know, why would would a single woman 54 years old want to live in A type of building like that. Well, I'll tell you why It's affordable It's a community where I feel extremely safe. I I know there's been some concerns about safety issues And I can tell you for all the years that that I've lived in downtown, Northampton and in this type of Building you you tend to form relationships with your with your neighbors I Want to add? Some of us are in college. I'll be going back in September to finish another degree Some of us are artists Some people, you know came from a homeless shelter and are now stable I just what what I've come to learn living in this type of situation is it takes a village To have a healthy community. It really does, you know and For me For what for what I have proposed for my life I want to live in downtown Northampton somewhere affordable if it wasn't for this type of housing I wouldn't be here and I don't know where I would be Given the fact that it is affordable for me. It's close to downtown. I can walk And I formed some bonds with with people in these buildings that even though we're Displaced because our building is being renovated. We we stay in touch You know, we have a community night where we share meals at each other's homes You know, we're not out going to bars. We're not out partying You know, we're talking about our future and we support each other And I think what I would ask each and every one of you to think about when you think about this type of Coming building coming into your community. It's going to benefit your community And you will be as Liz said pleasantly surprised It'll be people like me, you know and If given a chance to to a DV survivor or a recovering addict for a College kid it gives us some place to go that we can afford and I think I've heard it said many times One of the biggest problems we face is affordable stable housing and that's what this is and I'd ask you I'll just to give it a chance. Thanks Thank you We're now going to proceed with John Hornick My name is John Hornick. I am the chair of the Amherst Municipal Affordable Housing Trust On January 10th of this year the members of the housing trust voted unanimously to recommend to the Community Preservation Act Committee that this proposal for Valley Community Development Be given its highest priority for funding Above both of our own proposals for funds to support future affordable housing project and those of others Our recommendations stated in part to the best of our knowledge There is no equivalent structure in Amherst, although there are at least four North Hampton in North Hampton According to the housing production plan 2013 there are a large number of individuals who would benefit from this development Much larger than the 28 units can accommodate Nonetheless, it is a good start and one that this community has been slow to recognize We applaud the work that Valley Community Development has done to bring this project to its current status. I Personally want to thank CPAC for making this recommendation to town council Further, I want to thank Valley Community Development for stepping forward to plan a residence that will address a significant Unmet need for housing for low-income persons in Amherst Including some who have recently been homeless Tonight you will hear from others who share the opinion of the housing trust and support of this housing development During public comment. I expect you will hear from persons living in the immediate neighborhood who support this development From experts on fair housing questions that are at issues from people who have direct experience in working with residents like the one like the People will be in the one proposed and who are confident that future residents do not propose exceptional risks From people who have lived in or near similar residences and can report positive experiences with those neighbors From civic organizations and service organizations who support this project From persons who are knowledgeable about affordable housing development who regard Valley as a competent well-respected not-for-profit organization as well as hearing from other advocates for this project Many of whom have written letters to town council as well as those who are here to speak this evening. I Am personally pleased and proud that so many members of the Amherst community have chosen to support this housing project and To do so with conviction Thank you for your attention We're now going to move on to statements from the What we would refer to as the butters and neighbors and I believe we are starting with Steven George and Steven we have a slide set from you that we're prepared to show over here. Thank you Council president then grease emmer counselors neighbors of butters. Thank you very much for this opportunity This is a extra workload for you that when the council already has a full schedule Thanks also to the town staff to be here for this extra meeting I want to mention Ed. I don't know his last name But I do several other things in this building and Ed is the person who sets things up. He's been here every time No problem. Okay. I live at 23 Dana Street and We're gonna have five brief speakers. We are not elected by the residents or the butters But somehow we are called upon to make a presentation That's similar in in form and length to the presentation You've just heard and I want to thank the people who presented for the tone of that which was Informative and sometimes compelling and there's not the slightest doubt in any of our minds that everyone involved in promoting the project as the best intentions and wants the project to succeed You can do it. Okay. Next slide. Okay. Let me just suggest some goals that I have To support affordable housing in Amherst and specifically at 132 Northampton Road The goal is to support it right now. I do not support the Proposal there as presented. There is problems with it couple of other Possible a couple of other goals would be to maintain Amherst existing community character and to ensure that new development is in accord with existing neighborhood character The last one has provoked some controversy with people saying this is an illegitimate or Reprehensible goal. Of course, you can see it comes not from my words It's from the Amherst master plan that the maintaining the existing community is goal number one of that plan and Ensuring that new development is in accord with the existing neighborhood character is from that same section of the plan So there's nothing to apologize for or to be ashamed of in saying This is one thing that we want to address and Consider to maintain The existing neighborhood character to some extent, of course, there's going to be changes with time Okay, next slide. Oh, yeah, let's talk about what is that existing neighborhood? I'm showing the zoning map here We're not going to get into the weeds with zoning because it's I'm not qualified to do it And it's not the council's main job, but just to show Roughly where this is This is the site on 132 Northampton Road. This is Northampton Road route 9 here The town center the business district These are the playing fields of Amherst College is the central campus So these this site is surrounded by residential zones the resident the general residents and the neighborhood residents general residents being as higher density the neighborhood residents being a lower density and Notice that the site is at the very boundary or limit of the general residence. So it's near a moderate density residential neighborhood Next slide Okay So the valley the Valley CDC says that they want to define the neighborhood as a corridor along Northampton Road Maybe would look something like this next slide. Okay, some kind of elongated corridor That's fine But then most of the people that are here a lot of them are would not be in the neighborhood because we live on Dana Street Blue Hills orchard streets down here Woodside and so on So I think a better idea of the neighborhood is the next slide Which is you know people that live within one within three tenths of a mile of the of the site Okay, and so looking at that we can take that same That same circle you might want to go back just to see that it is the same Okay, but so another view of that of that area go to the next one now That is a land use map So going to the town website and looking at the how each parcel of land is used yellow is one family single family residences Tan is multiple family most are two family residents some three and there's a couple of them There's 115 Northampton Road there. I think it has I think was mentioned six apartments 50 Lincoln Avenue has three And there are a few that have more but the primary character is One or two family residents. There are some of the properties on Northampton Road that are rented to students I think that's why Valley CDC would like to make that because it has a lot of those But the neighborhood itself is primarily one and two family style structures There are three other that were mentioned actually in the presentation three other types of uses that are different from just single-family residents, but I'm going to show you the characteristics that they have that I think are relevant So let's look at the next one. Okay, there are three live-in dorms selling when house right here is not that far and two more but notice that the dorms have These are Amherst College dorms. They have live-in trained resident counselors not one per dorm, but one per floor and So that is a way that they're accommodating The neighborhood in a sense by having that degree of support and supervision There's a boarding house at 71 South Prospect Street. It really is an old-fashioned SRO not studio apartments But really just single rooms 13 Units are there That boarding house has had a live-in building manager I don't want to overdo it and say I know it has it right now because I'm not positive But I know the previous building manager. She said it was chaos before she came She was an on-site live-in building manager and of course the arbors down here Which is an assisted living facility primarily elderly people of course it has 24 hour professional staff so Uses that are not primarily single family have a degree of support and supervision That is that is appropriate for the residents and that is that is reasonable for this kind of this kind of neighborhood Okay, so let's now examine one other point. It's very important to show the the the family orientation of the neighborhood The This this 500 foot circle around the residents houses 21 is it I think it is 21 21 children live there and four grandchildren are often staying there And then there are an additional at least 40 children living in between the 500 foot circle and the larger one So there's a lot of kids in the neighborhood in fact the number of kids is increasing as there is turnover and new families coming in So the increase in kids is is noteworthy because that's not characteristic of the town as a whole So this also emphasizes the family one and two family residential style of the neighborhood Okay, let's look at the situation with north hampton road With with not north hampton road, but the north hampton sros Three are in frankly business zones. So there's just no doubt. They're right in the middle of town middle of florids One is on king street One is in urban residential c that's a different category that we don't have here, but it's the highest density of Residential and it's close to downtown a block from the post office a block from the pvta ta stop So if you look to the distance at the distance to services That you would have for residents on the one and bridge street north hampton That's a route nine as you approach town the one that's being renovated now And compare that to the distance from the proposed site here in amherst to those services You see that the one at bridge street, which is of course the the most residential the most urban the least urban of all of them The distances are much shorter and why is that? Is it because land is more readily available in downtown or cheaper? Of course not the reason that The the sros are located there is because many of the residents don't have cars And they need access to those services, especially in winter So the location of those north hampton sros reflects that the one in amherst is not ideal from that point of view Okay, so the proponents of the current proposal for 132 north hampton road. They say it represents no change No, okay, no change no risk. It's like what we already have and if the project is built as proposed We suggest that it will be an extreme outliner in the neighborhood compared to everything that's there now And as the other neighbors will discuss the north hampton sros are not free of trouble either Melissa Porter I'm Melissa Porter and I live at 110 Dana street and I've been working in human services for 32 years And predominantly with people Who are the most marginal or vulnerable? Meaning they have co-occurring issues such as substance use chronic homelessness and mental health issues I also have experience running and overseeing and managing To sros or similar sros to the to the project that valley cdc is proposing and I do have a speaker here tonight Who is a friend of mine and volunteered when I kind of talked to him about the proposal And I think for one I am I am a major proponent of affordable housing and It is, you know, my life's work. I do have concerns about the current model and the lack of staffing That is being Opposed so the person I'm having speaking is chris and chris is going to come on up here and share his experience about Living in an sro that's very similar to the proposed model in terms of the staffing and some of the issues he had Good evening So I'm my name is chris a I'm 58 years old and I've lived in two different sros in the valley Um, I currently don't live in one so I've I think an sro This type of building is an amazing opportunity for people to better their lives and to move forward I was able to do that by living in one I lived in one single occupancy that had The staff that they're proposing here just somebody who dropped in that was Not the most ideal situation it was up in turners falls. There was a lot of isolation It was not I don't think it's a good idea personally. I lived in one where they had a live-in resident who kind of didn't have to pay rent and was Keeping an eye on things Also, not an ideal situation because there's a lot of favoritism that can go on So my my feeling is that this like I said, this could be a fantastic opportunity for people to move forward and you know rid themselves of homelessness and Be a productive member of society But I think having one resident One manager that lives there is not a good idea The burnout because they would be on call 24 hours And I don't think that's realistic to have somebody to expect them to be on call 24 hours a day In case there's an emergency. There's crisis my my feeling is that having a round of Employees who come in and work there is a better idea Just in case and they need to be trained They should have first responder training. They should be trained in dealing with mental health crises And also just general upkeep and you know maintenance of the place I just think that that would be a better A better idea to have somebody there all the time having One property manager drop in for 20 hours a week Uh and You know when when I lived in the one up in turners, we had that the property manager dropped in once a week Uh, I got locked out one time I left my keys inside once the door shuts behind you you're out and I had to wait a day and a half to get The manager to come in and unlock the door for me with a live in Or at least an on-site staff There wouldn't be any issue with that and I think a lot of people are worried that there's going to be a lot of people Roaming around the neighborhood at night I can tell you from my own personal experience that when people have been homeless and they have a place to stay They're not going to go out at night They've they've been living outside and the last place they want to do is to be outside in the cold or in the dark They can have a roof over their heads and power and They're not going to want to go out. So I don't think that's really a realistic worry There's always going to be one or two people that could have issues But for the most part my experience has been a good one Most of the residents tend to want to stay inside. They'll go to work. They'll go to their appointments The ones that are in crisis That's where that you know onsite staff is important I witnessed people that were in Mental health crisis who were just locked in their rooms and for days Before somebody came to check on them with an onsite staff that wouldn't be an issue There would always be somebody there who's trained to be able to handle this And reach out to the appropriate You know services So that's my feeling anyway and I Love my watch at home. So I don't know how long I have So anyway, I'll share the time and like I said fantastic opportunity if it's just played right. Thank you. Thank you Um, Rosie cobble and we have slides for Rosie By the way, all of the material that's presented tonight will be on the website by tomorrow sometime Thank you to the town council And I'm really glad that this the title of this session was changed from neighbors in opposition because I'm not in opposition to this project in in whatever form It's presented before you read too much into my accent Let me share that That all four of my grandparents didn't finish high school and three of them left by the age of 14 My granddad was the youngest of 13 kids who grew up in a town House in east london had four rooms and my mom his daughter And grew up in affordable housing. So and I'm you know, and I'm totally A beneficiary of the british welfare state and I think that my new country america should have More welfare state and I'm in favor of affordable housing and I'm in favor of affordable housing at this site But I do think there are um, you know not something that's really unfortunate what's happened is that It's it's as though everyone who's in favor of it is here And if you voice any kind of a concern or criticism, you're like way over here and in opposition in reality There's a whole bunch of people who are kind of like here and just want to express concerns about specific aspects of the management plan and and that's why I'm up here, um We've heard qualitative testimonials about good stuff and that's great But i'm a scientist and and you know, we're being asked to sort of take a lot of Verbal assurances things I prefer to have data if um, if we can get it. Um So what we did was try to like I was just explaining that we have shared girls What I did was try to get some concrete data on valley cdc outcomes to figure out if the management plan is really Um adequate and I'm fully acknowledging this is a mixed income plan These are the four types of units that laura has explained. She's proposing I think we can get data from existing valley cdc properties that kind of inform us about these So one former property that was sold in 2013 by valley matches up with those two sets of units. It's low income apartments There were three uh four existing valley properties that um match up kind of broadly speaking with those three categories of units in terms of the um incomes and the circumstances of the residents So these we can use as kind of a model for what to expect in terms of tenant success and tenant support This is so we got the the call logs which include police and I think most fire for these residences Um, what I'm going to show you is the overall call rates. These are going to look a little bit different from laura's data We have different data sets. Um laura just shared hers with me this evening a half past five Haven't looked at them yet. I'm very happy to look at hers The data are going to look different because we're working with about 13 years worth of data and laura's only working with about three years worth Ours include fire calls. I'm not sure whether laura's I think she presented with them out Anyway, this is overall call rates excluding motor, which I could be completely irrelevant and excluding medical calls because they You know might represent just the inherent health challenges of some of the talents Um, and what I'm showing you is a baseline, which is the rate of calls per resident per year for ammast The dark green that's light green dark green is the low-income apartments Um, a lot of people have mentioned button-up farms Um in ammast incited it is successful It's possible that dark green bar is a good model for button-up farms and that looks to be correct in the data There aren't too many calls there The other four properties it looks as though there are a much higher volume of emergency calls Um, so the question is about about five times as many as in the town of ammast just under five So the question is, you know, what do we what do we make of this two things strike me? The first thing is that those call volumes are high and when we asked Joanne Campbell about call volumes On the 24th of April. She initially said that there wouldn't be any emergency calls in a typical week or month And that worries me because you know, I think we need to be on top of these metrics We need to really know what's going on The second thing that strikes me is I wonder whether the mixed income Uh model is going to work out if the if the people who are you know in those self-pay units are not so accustomed to emergency services in the middle of the night I mean, maybe it'll work out, but we need to sort of consider whether that model is going to work I will say that um, you know, I don't know that we can make too much of these overall call rates Because they include a ton of stuff that we just don't know what it is. Sometimes those numbers are pushed up by disturbances Sometimes it's by stuck elevators So what we didn't said was decided to look at individual categories and see whether that can tell us more about the safety and by the way Two really important things I'm not doing any of this to stigmatize these tenants not at all As Laura said a lot of the time is probably events where The tenants are actually victims of the activities that are being logged, right? That's entirely possible and I'm also not trying to draw any conclusions about impact on the neighborhood What these data tell me about for sure is whether the you know is a good index of whether the tenants are safe So when we look at individual categories, we have high validity here because we know we're dipping into the call log data for the same exact same call types for the town and for the Valley properties We found 21 categories that we could compare Of those 15 were higher in the valley properties than in the town I'm going to show you 11. I've left out four of them either because they're not very interesting or because they weren't very much Higher in value than in the town And what I'm showing you is the ratio of calls per resident per year In the valley properties to to the same number in the town and what you can see Like I said It's entirely possible. Most of this is the tenants being victims Like the trespassing is four times higher than in the town To me that indicates a need for as Chris was just saying a need for Increased security to to make sure these people are going to be safe And the medical emergencies are nine times higher in the In the properties than in the town and that to me makes me think maybe we need to be offering More support to these vulnerable individuals so um Like I was saying, um, and as you know, a lot of these categories are things that imply We need to be doing better by these residents as Chris was saying We need to make sure that if we're going to welcome new people into our neighborhood under this model That we're doing a good job of it So what I've heard from Melissa and other people with expertise in human services is that we need to be proposing 24 7 On-site management to make sure that we're really doing a good job And I spoke with people who are familiar with this kind of arrangement. It might cost about 150,000 a year We could there's a number of things we could do we could ask the developer to revisit the funding plan We could raise taxes in the town of Amherst. Like I said, I'm from a country that has better welfare states I don't think our taxes are that high I would be fine with raising our taxes to pay for this to do it properly rather than do it in a way that might not work It might and might not fit in, you know, um be Be kind of a good Way for these folks to be integrated into the neighborhood Um, we could ask our neighbor Amherst college to contribute to that So in in summary, you know, there's a lot of things we can do. I really think that there's a need for this based on these data I'm very happy to work more with Laura to compare our results with hers and to look also Laura mentioned time of day I don't know whether she had the motor calls in her analysis Which might explain why the peak was at 1 p.m But why I think we want to do is look at those calls that are between 6 p.m And 9 a.m Figure out what they are. Is it the incidents that are, you know, dangerous presenting dangers for the tenants? Do we need to increase safety? And I would ask the town council that we try and get a concrete plan for this in place before the town votes through The 500,000 dollar seal of approval Otherwise any leverage to get modifications to this plan is probably going to be lost Um, we'll just have to you know trust the the current plan which chris is indicated. He doesn't he doesn't think is quite enough Thank you for your time Thank you. Kate sims Kate also has slides Thanks very much. I'm kate sims from 77 Dana street. Thank you to the town council for this chance to speak As I understand it this development is meant to contribute to two town goals Reducing homelessness in Amherst and increasing affordable housing I share those goals and I also support creating affordable housing at this site I understand that the town council is under a lot of pressure to pass this proposal without modifications because many people see it As making progress towards those goals However, I think it's reasonable for us to ask whether this specific design is really the best way to meet those goals I would like to discuss some financial concerns and propose a concrete solution to move forward at this site That would be to use the cpa funds to acquire the parcel by the town For affordable housing, but redo the process to include meaningful neighborhood input from the start The information that i'll present is based on the developer's budget and some communication with laura I have sent more details today to the council in a point-by-point response and I ask for that document also to be posted online The developer's budget includes $407,000 for the site $407,000 for the site, $3.85 million for the costs to build the building And about $550,000 in developer fees and overhead I worry about whether this project is really fiscally responsible for the region and the town The total development cost is $4.8 million to create 28 units That's $172,000 per 240 square foot unit or $373 per square foot Compared to the list price of current housing that is high The developer says this is because they're building affordable housing small units with kitchens and bathrooms and that they benchmark favorably compared to other properties But all of the benchmarks that they provided in their application refer to their own properties As an external benchmark hud guidelines give a ceiling for what new affordable housing should cost to build Based on actual construction costs from our region Compared to the 2018 numbers in a building with an elevator for a 500 square foot studio unit In the springfield region valley's costs are still 20 to 30 higher So given limited state funds for affordable housing even housing advocates should question whether state funds might be better spent supporting other projects that could build more housing I also worry about the town's reputation in working with a high cost provider We will really need the state's goodwill to obtain matching funds For our schools and other capital projects and we need to be careful stewards of the state funds This development also comes at a high cost to the town Given what we will invest and what we will receive back in taxes in the next 20 years according to valley's own numbers We're paying more than 300 000 to make this happen This number looks a lot bigger if you try to do a full accounting of costs These would include the foregone use of that capital for other projects And the loss of our valuable development rights Remember that this developer is seeking to build at a higher density than is currently allowed And those rights are held in common by all of us Kind of like the public airwaves In this deal, we are paying a developer to take those valuable rights And even though they're nice people that might still be a bad deal for the town If the risks of this project materialize those will also mean extra costs additional social services a change in bus routes And possibly the loss of public use of pratt field as a recreation site Most distressingly, there's no mechanism here to hold the developer accountable if any of those possible future costs do materialize It will fall on the neighborhood and the town If we're going to invest in resources in this proposal, I think we also deserve to take an honest look at what the benefits are From the letters and comments on the town website, I think many people are expecting this development to make a real impact on homelessness in Amherst But we do need to remember that realistically this project will house at most seven people From the Amherst community or four to five percent of people currently experiencing homelessness in Amherst And that's only if the state agrees to that priority for Amherst residents Most importantly, this development is designed to serve only individuals who have vouchers to pay for their rent and who pass screening requirements It will do nothing for the homeless individuals in town who don't pass this screening or don't have vouchers Also in terms of affording affordable housing more generally, this will just add a small number of units Our overall needs really hinge on figuring out how to house the population of students The towns form on homelessness identified several other solutions to homelessness in our town In particular outreach counselors who would work on a case-by-case basis were identified as a solution That would have high impact for low cost and be available to all I hope that we can try to come unstuck from the idea that this proposal is the only or necessarily best solution to reach our goals So how could we find a compromise for this site? Whether it's a good use of resources or not, it's true that an SRO project has been in the works for a very long time But this specific site was only acquired in january. The two closest of butters who are sitting in the front row here actually Objected immediately to no avail Details of this proposal were not presented to a butters until april 24th after key council recommendations were secured And the notes of the c-pack meetings show that no hard questions were asked about this proposal Yet our neighborhood will bear all of the risks if this development does not go as planned Since this time since details were presented neighbors including myself have met with and called valley cdc And asked directly for changes that might lessen risks We have asked for 24 hour supervision We have asked for a smaller scale that would match their past developments or mixing in family oriented affordable housing at this site We have been told that none of these are financially best options for valley They say even tonight that they're considering changes But nothing has actually changed about their plan and it won't unless the town council acts I understand that you're in an uncomfortable spot and you may wish to punt this to the zoning board But valley cdc needs this funding to put in a competitive application with the state If we want modifications to this proposal This is the moment of leverage and as much as anything else This is a key test of process under the new town council Will outside developers determine the outcomes or will neighborhoods have a shade have a say in shaping developments for the better I think the best way to go forward immediately with affordable housing at this site Is for the town to acquire this parcel using the cpa funds discussed The town could commit now to developing affordable housing at this site They could provide a long term lease to the developer, which is just like the deal happening with the east street school site But we would redo this process with meaningful neighborhood input from the start This has benefits for all the developer would be relieved of the risk and carrying cost of the structure They could even pursue other sites closer to public transportation or at larger scale for to have more staffing And if this does go forward as planned there would be no change to their plan budget their acquisition costs would be covered Just that that line item would be taken by the town's contribution attached to a specific line item For the neighbors, this would do a lot to restore trust give us time to work with the town to improve this proposal Instead of giving away our development rights for free We would at least get the land as a valuable long term asset for the town And this would provide more accountability And finally the town could commit now to using this site for affordable housing still making progress towards those important goals Very last slide. I'd like to share a vision for an alternate plan for this site that might be more cost effective This parcel has an existing house on it The current plan is expensive partly because it tries to incorporate that structure into the new one It would be much more cost effective to use that house as it stands Then build a two or three family house on the other part of the site using standard and much cheaper construction The parcel is sloping So a very neat feature is that four of these units could be made fully accessible for families or kids with disabilities Without needing to build and maintain expensive elevators Yes, this would bring in half as much revenue for the developer But it would also cost half as much to build and run and could house about the same number of people The town has lots of crucial housing needs Yes, this would not be an sro But this would meet other key priorities of the town and be a very smart use of this specific parcel I hope you will consider this compromise solution of the town acquiring this parcel and redoing the process to allow for community driven development of affordable houses And the last speaker is hailey hughes Thank you My name is hailey hughes. I live at 30 orchard street This is my very first power point presentation. So my third grader helped me So i'm here to talk about next steps and how we might find a compromise to begin with this has been an adversarial process Valley acquired the property in January Neighbors first had an informational meeting on april 24th Prior to that valley had been the developer had been meeting with the amherst affordable housing trust and the coalition for affordable housing cursory review of the meeting minutes published Said that part of those meetings had spent time addressing and how to preempt concerns from the neighbor of the development Developer already has 65 000 dollars devoted to their budget for an attorney I'm here to stop that i'm actually an attorney But I do a lot of pro bono work at springfield family and probate court and I work on conciliations When we start for a child custody conciliation I really like to tell parents How lucky their kid is because there are two parents in the room Wanting to spend time with them and I look at this packed room And I think that we're actually a lot closer to where we all want to be Then it seems and I think that with a few steps we can find some compromise And actually councillor dumont you brought something up at one of the last meetings I was not that it's lingered with me usually at three in the morning when I'm up Can't sleep Which is what precedent are we setting and I'm thinking about what precedent are we setting with this project? But also the upcoming capital projects with the schools and the library And do we really want to continue this adversarial process? How can we sit and work together? So I want to go over some commonalities and basic understandings as I see them Right now, we understand that the developer owns 132 Northampton Road and that affordable housing will be on that property And we all think that's great We understand that despite almost unanimous support in our neighborhood for family housing that this development will have some single occupancy studios We're there We know that the developer cares about this vulnerable subsection of the population And implicit in that is the 20 hours a week of on-site care management. They're Proposing We all support about support. We all support affordable housing and want to support our residents There are some unanswered questions What happens if the developer cannot fill all the 50 percent and 80 percent AMI slots? That's fine because they can slide down to different income gaps But there's been no proposal on how those that extra population would get extra care If extra on-site care is a good thing can we look to outside funding or grants to extend the care offered? Is there a way to partner with the school of social work or provide class credits to help extend care on-site? There are all sorts of ways we can think outside of the box and try to address this and perhaps offer more care So we're looking at town council to make a decision and I kind of broke it down in my mind into two things You're approving the five hundred thousand dollar bond, but you're also Giving them the approval that they need to go secure state funding And I think that's the most worth more than the five hundred thousand dollars And so we need to figure out What will the proposed bond have on the state regulated bonding capacities of the town? As we look towards other capital projects We need to figure out if the concerns brought up tonight should be addressed prior to funding the approval And look at what the town council's duty to the town is so there's the idea of a fiduciary duty That you we have voted for you We are entrusting you to look out for all citizens of the town and to manage our money wisely There's also what I like to call the fund buster parent, which is the I'm a mom, you know, my kid wrote a report and showed it to me I was like you can do better and I kind of feel like we're at the point We're I'm asking you to be the fund busters and say we're not saying this is bad But we're saying we can do better as a town as a community and as a developer and neighbors I think we can do better Um, and why not wait for the zba? I think about the school debates and I think about how Dr. Morris at the last minute asked if he could change the schools into two Co-located k through six schools as a form of compromise and was told it was too late His funding had been his application had been approved as as is and once the developers secure state funding It's a lot harder to have substantive substantial change In the application, so I think the time to do it is now before we get approval Um, so here's my proposed solution Town council deny funding for this project as presented and invite valley cdc to come back next year When the cpa can fund the project out of cash without having to take a bond And when valley cdc can demonstrate that they have worked with neighbors and addressed the concerns and facts presented tonight What happens in this intervening year the town can pay out of cpa funds rather than taking on a bond and impacting the ability to Borrow for other capital projects Town council I read almost every single meeting minute in preparation for tonight I know that on your agenda is a capital plan and a master zoning plan You'll be able to incorporate this development into that plan This will set the president precedent the developers and neighbors must demonstrate the ability to work together and address concerns Prior to seeking approval from the town because this is not going to be the first and last issue like this to come before town council We can also harness the data and research provided by the neighbors We want this to succeed and maybe we can have some out of the box ways of doing this Finally as stated with seven Homeless residents from amherst. This is not really going to substantially affect impact the funding for craig stores or community connections And other services. We're going to have to maintain those services at level or increase them over the next few years I know the developer would suffer a loss in a year But they could offset some of those costs by renting out the property for a year until we secure funding And this is my aspiration that we create a data-driven landmark generational project using proactive measures What I mean is this I look at the call data and I think gosh, that's kind of a reactive measure. That's Using other resources if we were proactive and had more on-site management as valley said We can reduce some of those phone calls After a year of planning we're a stronger kinder community together. We set the precedent for future development concerns Demonstrating a way to work together and I believe you with this and a successful conciliation Both parties want to feel like they've won but also given a little bit too. So thank you Thank you very much We are It's been requested that we take a brief break I don't know how the bathrooms in this facility are going to handle that All I suggest is that if it's urgent run So we will reconvene at Five minutes of eight. Thank you. We have one more presentation Uh, and then we are going to move to Counselors asking clarifying questions However, the big period that we've reserved frankly is for public comment and questions. I'll talk about that in a moment Uh, christine birthstrip. I've asked her to review the timeline going forward Let me just mention prior to that timeline Uh, actually she has up here We start with tonight's meeting tomorrow morning at 9 30 the finance committee is meeting to review the c-pack proposals And the the c-pack this c-pack proposal We have already reviewed reviewed all the others and we have already accepted and passed them by town council And then on july 1st the town council will be meeting in a regular meeting And it's expected that this will be on their agenda at that time Um, so Given that chris, would you just briefly provide us with additional information? Since you understand the process at this point Sure. Good evening. I'm pleased to be with you. I'm chris breastwhip planning director And i'm going to run you through the uh, the timeline that we envision for this project if it goes forward We've already talked about what's happened a little in the past and what's happening in the next few weeks This timeline assumes that valley cdc will move forward with the project Submitting the required information and documentation to begin the permitting process I have copies of this timeline on the back table. I made a hundred copies I thought that might be too many, but I guess not so maybe you can share with people or we'll put it on the town website And you'll be able to see it tomorrow It would excuse me chris. It was already posted as part of our agenda items for today. Yes So, um The project application is expected to be submitted and reviewed through a chapter 40 b comprehensive permit application process and that would be reviewed by the town's zoning board of appeals This process usually takes about four to six months to complete Um, I put a link on this sheet to the um chapter 40 b handbook for their zoning board of appeals Uh, it was published in 2017 and it has some really good information About how the chapter 40 b process works. You might want to take a look at that on the website. I mean on the uh on the online on that website um So anyway, how this is going to go is and i'm going to highlight opportunities for people to um Have public comment either written or uh verbal So valley cdc would submit its project eligibility request to its Agency and that could be the department of housing and community development or it could be another subsidizing agency And that would begin the chapter 40 b application process. This will be in month one. We're not sure exactly when valley Proposes to submit its application. So that's why we call this month one instead of july So once valley cdc submits its request to the subsidizing agency The subsidizing agency sends a notification letter to the town to the town's chief elected official So in my estimation, that would be uh council president, um, lynn greezmer And um, the the subsidizing agency would schedule a site visit and the site visit would probably include members of the housing trust and members of the town council Then the town has 30 days to submit comments to the subsidizing agency about whether or not People think that this project should get a project eligibility letter The notification letter and project eligibility application will be posted on the town's website And sent to the relevant boards and committees who might have comments on it And that would include the planning board. It would probably include the police department. It would include the fire chief And numerous other boards at committees in town information about this project as a whole including plans and Elevations of the building and plans of the building will also be posted on the website So whatever information we get we'll put up and you can see it Members of the public will be able to submit letters during this 30 day comment period and um I'm I'm thinking that the town planning department staff would uh compile the letters during this period We're planning to put an online comment process On the website so that you can either choose to type out a letter and send it in you can send an email in or you can Use this online process We will compile the public comments and all public comments will be sent to the subsidizing agency We'll send it with a cover letter If you wanted an example of this type of process you could look to the beacon project in north amherst The subsidizing agency will issue a decision Either a project eligibility letter, which means a yes Or a denial of the project eligibility letter And that will happen after the end of the comment period And it can take varying amounts of time for this decision to be put forth The developer of alley cdc the chief elected official the president of the council And the zoning board of appeals will each receive a copy of that decision And the decision of the subsidizing agency will be posted on the town's website Then in months two and three Assuming the subsidizing agency issues the project eligibility letter Valley cdc can submit its chapter 40 b comprehensive permit application to the zoning board of appeals This permit application will consist of a lot of documents an application form A list of waivers that they're asking for from zoning requirements A set of site plans civil engineering and architectural drawings These will describe the project in detail They'll also have to submit a management plan, which would be very detailed about how they're going to manage the property Um and information about the proposed rents that will be charged will also be submitted There's a fee to valley cdc to submit this application And um, we'll be required to we'll be requiring them to fill out an application for a list of the butters And then we will notify the butters All of the application materials will be posted on the town's website for everybody to see And then in months four through six once valley submits its application The zoning board of appeals has 30 days in which to open a public hearing So they have to do all their advertising in the gazette and sending notices to a butters in that 30 days and start the hearing Um the butters within 300 feet will receive a written notification The zoning board of appeals will open its public hearing And it may last for several sessions the last time we went through this process The process opened in october at the end of october it lasted through november december January and then in the beginning of february a decision was made so that was a little more than Certainly more than three months probably about four months Um within 180 days of opening the public hearing the zoning board of appeals must render a decision So in other words they they can't drag this process out forever. They have Basically a six month deadline, but i'm sure that it will take um Probably a lot of of that time So there are opportunities for the public to submit Comments throughout this process And boards and committees can also submit comments To the zba the zoning board of appeals is sort of like the central clearing house for this type of project And you can submit your comments in writing and you can also come to the meetings You've come to all the sessions and if you are recognized by the chair of the zoning board of appeals, you'll be allowed to speak Um a positive vote of three members of the zoning board of appeals three out of five would be required to approve the project The decision of the zba must be filed with the town clerk Within 40 days of the close of the public hearing So if the public hearing went on for say three months then 40 days after the public hearing closes The zba has to file its decision with the town clerk and we post the decision on the town website And then there's the 20 day appeal period in which either the applicant if the applicant doesn't like the decision Or a an abutter or a group of abutters can appeal the decision If a butters appeal the decision, they have to file their appeal with the superior court or the land court And that's that's pretty much the the process and if you have questions You can refer to this sheet bring it home And if you have questions, you can email me or call me and I can answer your questions Thank you. Thank you I want to turn to my colleagues on the council and ask at this point. Do you have clarifying questions? Then we are going to go to public comment during which you may be either called on or have another point You want to make at that time Alyssa I just have a super quick thing about the project eligibility letter. I would just like us to receive notification from town council that that Assumption of chief executive chief elected officer actually as a town council president because that's not usually true and that's general law Fine, so we should just have that we should just have a piece of paper. Thank you Other comments Mindy Joe So I'll ask a question There we go. Um The valley cdc this question is for them if if you would give them a chance to respond if they can We've heard a lot of concerns about the 30 50 and 80 percent levels and that That's the maximum so If there aren't say aid applicants that qualify between the 50 and 80 percent AMI level for those eight units in theory That might be able of my understanding is to be given to Or rented that unit or units could be rented to someone that has A 50 percent or lower Income AMI income. So the question I have in a way is If there aren't enough applicants at the Above 50 percent AMI level for the eight units up to the 80 AMI or above 30 percent AMI for those that are up to 50 percent AMI those eight units What happens do they get rented to the lower to even lower income? And that is I know that is a concern that has been expressed by the residents So what sort of protections does maybe the town have? To guarantee that eight of those units are rented to individuals between the 50 and 80 AMI And that eight of those units in this proposal are rented to individuals with incomes between 30 and 50 AMI I know there's going to be residents are who are scattered among all of us here All of you living in Amherst not just neighbors and abutters But uh, which will probably be the same Around the same question So if you don't mind we'll wait and add to that. Thank you. Are there other questions? Andy I think that it would be helpful if Miss breast strip would clarify that whether Um, the developer valley cdc Has the right to go to the subsidizing agency and seek funding Regardless of whether or not the council approves the community preservation and the act proposal that's um One question and the other is um Based upon other projects because I know it would be um unfair and impossible And this one what types of conditions might a zba apply in uh add to the process Go ahead chris Yes You might want to stick to the first question and then we might do the other one later Um, the first question being what happens if valley cdc can't get enough people at 80 percent or less No, no, what happens if valley cdc does not receive $500,000 voted for by the town council Valley cdc is at liberty to apply for their project eligibility letter whether or not the town gives them The $500,000 they've already received Two sums of money from the town $50,000 and $200,000 To help them with the feasibility study and payment of architectural fees, etc So it's a it's really up to them They need to show their subsidizing agency that they have some Support from the town and so this other $500,000 would go a long way to showing that the town supports the project They don't absolutely need it Thank you And you asked about what types of conditions the town might or the zoning board appeals might put on this project. Yes. Well The example that I'm thinking of is the beacon project in North Amherst. I think there were 130 conditions So there are all kinds of conditions about What level of income various People tenants would have Moving into the into the facility For instance in beacons case They had a certain number of Tenants that were going to be 50 percent or less am I and a certain number of tenants Who were going to be 30 percent or less am I and that was written into the conditions There are lots of conditions about what happens to the site how parking is handled Information that the developer needs to give to the tenants about services in the area as For example bus stops or how the property is managed just on and on and on it's all Lots and lots of conditions. So If there were a particular topic that you were interested in I might be able to answer a specific question Are those conditions available on the website? I believe they should be if you go to The town website and look up 191 94 monogy road. I think it is You will see a special permit application for Beacon communities and their north square project and you should be able to get all the conditions from From that there would be a link to a decision if you can't find it You can call me in the town planning department and I would be happy to Help you to find that on the website. Thank you Are there other questions? Yes, shall any So this is regarding the concern about the number of calls That people living in studio apartments might might be involved in that and Based on one research that I read that We could be saving $6,000 per person because these people are out there already and when they're out facing the conditions and whatnot the likelihood of The calls emergencies and whatnot is really high and so What this study documented was bringing them into housing actually reduced the cost to the cities by $6,000 per person I'm not saying that would be our cause But I'm wondering if the chief of police could be invited to speak to what he thinks in Amherst how would you know what What his perspective is in terms of emergency calls and so forth I know he's here someplace Please come forward Oh, yeah, sure Yes, so, um, the concern is that that if you have 28 people living in that apartment It might increase the number of calls and uh, and I'm looking at the cost to the town currently when people are homeless They're they're still calling. They're still calling on emergency and police and so What is your perception of them being moved into a house and I mean, it's difficult to put numbers on something like that specifically Will there be increases in calls potentially potentially not I can tell you from our experience and any resident or rented unit The biggest factor in call response and the need for officers and probably for fire as well Is management management team So as long as we have good communication and good working Cohesiveness because whoever that management team is I don't anticipate very many problems You know from homelessness perspectives We get a lot of So about, you know, we have average between 17 and 18 thousand calls per year total for police response And about 12 of those are for homelessness issues So, you know do the math, but the reality is Two two individuals are responsible for about 80 percent of those I'm sure we'll come back to the issue of public safety. So don't go away Other Mind Jo Young I'm going to try and put them all into sort of one speech so that then I'm done The the comprehensive permit is not a I don't want to use the word normal and not a There's another option for applying for a permit for this one, which would just be applying for a special permit So I guess one of my questions is Why go through the comprehensive permit process under 40 b instead of the special permit process And I recognize one of those answers might be you only need three votes on the zva instead of four And the special permit would be four, but I'm curious about that and whether if a The the letter from the Funding agency authorizing agency is denied could valley cdc still apply for a special permit under the non comprehensive permit process I would love to have valley cdc address the Cost to develop this piece given the us housing and urban development guidelines that put A affordable 500 square foot house Below by about 30 or 40 thousand dollars On average the cost that is proposed for this unit this project And I'm curious about Whether it would be the zba process that restricts the number of units If the town council votes to fund this project Could valley cdc between now and when they apply to the zba increase the number of units Before the application or even decrease them Where is that limit chris? So my understanding with regard to why a comprehensive permit instead of a special permit Is that valley cdc is seeking to increase the density on the property? Increase the number of units that would normally be allowed in the rg zoning district And I don't have it my fingertips the exact number That they could achieve with a special permit perhaps miss baker knows that But they were seeking more density because it's um, it's easier for them to develop The more units they have Cost to develop I can't answer that I can answer the zba process That restricts the number of units the zba can restrict the number of units again in the case of the beacon project initially They came in I believe they wanted to build 140 units. They they cut that down to 130 for the beacon project For the project aspen heights, which wasn't a comprehensive permit process Process but just to give you a sense of what the zba can accomplish is that they reduce the number of units from Well by a whole floor. So I'm going to say it was um, you know, probably on the order of 44 units That were cut out and then eventually as a result of an appeal if we got became even smaller, but um, the zba can Negotiate with the developer about the number of units Okay, yes, dorothy We may get back to other questions regarding questions. Yeah Okay, I am having a confusion of understanding the roles and responsibilities Um, when the council is asked to vote they're not being asked. Are you in favor of affordable housing? Um, everybody here has said and stated in writing and Person that they are in favor of affordable housing We're going to be asked to vote on this particular project with this plan in this place and Many of us have asked for more specifics about the management plan I cannot for the life of me understand how it is not the business of the town council And yet gets the business of zoning of abortive zoning appeals which has to do with land and zoning And not our business It's human services. It deals with quality of life And we're just being asked to take it on trust And I just find that I would not feel that I was doing my duty if I did not know more about it And um, I've had discussions with valley cdc I know that they're thinking about some of these aspects, but I don't know why we can't get more details Certainly the question. I understand why One live in counselor. I think that is perhaps not a good idea for a lot of reasons that were said tonight but Most of us many of us feel that if there were more a stronger management plan to make sure that The individuals who needed services were connected to those services So that they have a strong chance of success. So I'm not just talking about the neighborhoods and the residents who live around the place I'm talking about the people who would be the new tenants it is Amherst's responsibility to make sure that particularly after all of this. This is a huge process That's going to take months and months a great expense that we actually accomplish something Which is socially good, which is the um as the former resident said the opportunity to put one's life in order So that's I don't see why we can't have some more details I understand things have to be dealt with in more detail as it goes on But why before or by july 1st when we have to vote That the town council members can't have more information so we can make an informed vote on this very important issue Are there other questions from the council at this point? Let me share with you the general broad areas And introduce the concept for public comment So first full We have many people who would like to comment Some of you signed in as you came in just because you were coming in some of you signed in saying thinking that was the Registration for public comment It wasn't okay We are going to try to do public comment by grouping issues Okay, and the issues that I have identified and i'm certainly open to suggestions of additions Begin with the selection of the location Which goes all the way back to how did we get to this location? The second is the size and scale the project The number of units whether there's any possibility of doing some kind of mix And leading going to mandi joe's is there any possibility that we would agree to Some funding that's 28, but you think that the application would actually go in higher The third is how do we screen tenants the process the procedures? And if we can't fill the slots at each of the designated levels, how does that happen? The fourth is the whole issue of some kind of supportive and live-in staff That would be there if not 24 7 a major portion of the time The fifth Is public safety and emergency services The sixth is consideration of financial matters Both initial cost and plans for ongoing support mandi joe. I think cost was one of the issues you raised as well The seventh Is anything i've left out And the eighth is what is the process going forward including any additional questions about the time frame and The permitting process So what i'd like to suggest is that we hear concerns and then I will look for people who have positive and definite information to address those concerns and then move to the next issue I'm sorry no The second thing is and there'll be plenty of time for everyone to comment Except if the point we get to where we're basically hearing the same thing Over and over again And then I will ask that we move on to the next topic Because we've heard that and we need to move on Okay, is there an additional topic that people do not feel I have addressed? Yes the topic The process of Okay Yes Okay, okay Other other topics. Yes John Hold on john We haven't heard from neighbors who favor the project Given given the impression that the neighbors Opposed the project And the second thing is We heard some comments from at least one person who has experienced living In an SRO and one for two people. Sorry. We haven't heard from people who have the experience of working directly with tenants of A project like this Okay There was one more hand back there. Yes I wanted to present some information specifically about the legal obligations under federal and state Antidiscrimination laws that are relevant to the council's decision Okay All right So let's Reorder this and start with are there any people who are in the category of neighbors and abutters who would like to add a comment That's in favor of the project We're going to do three-minute maximums I see a hand all the way back there Come forward please to the mic In favor as it currently stands. Okay. Thank you for the clarification Your name and where you live My name is michael giles. I live on blue hills road 57 blue hills road And thank you for giving folks in favor a chance to speak I I personally know of a large number of neighbors who are Can be thought of as abutters who are in favor of the project as it stands Um And just wanted to speak a little bit.  I think there have been a lot of Good letters written editorials written. Um, I don't feel like I need to keep hitting The issues of the values of s. Rowe's in general I want to talk a little bit about some of the concerns that have been raised tonight Uh, and I think they've fallen a couple different buckets. Um, one of which Just from all my years on town meeting is one of the best ways to stop a project Is to say that you are really in favor of it Except you want a little more time to consider it. Um, and try to tweak it a little bit and and make it a little bit better Which often leads to things not In general leads to things not happening at all I think the way this project has been proposed. Um, I am quite confident to say it is not Perfect in every single dimension. Uh, I think it would be pretty hard to find a better location in the town of amherst When you look at its proximity to services Its lack of really tighter butters Its ability to build a unit at this scale With with a bunch of open space around it But I think, you know, again, I think a lot of these comments stem from this sense that once we unleash this You know, it could potentially just go off the rails in some terrible way I think, you know, a lot of people have a lot of experience with the valley cdc and various Roles they've played in the area They obviously have a deep commitment to supporting affordable housing and to building additional affordable housing units in amherst and in all the surrounding towns They are highly motivated to make this project work If the project as it is proposed, which they believe based on their experience Is an appropriate proposal if things are not working, uh, as as the chief of police said having A partner who manages it who is motivated to make the situation work Tends to lead to things working out over time. You come up with an approach and a system that works So as a butter for me, you know, I think I do trust the value cdc. I've seen their work over many years Uh, and I have faith that if As they believe the project they have a lot of reason to believe this is an appropriate approach with the level of On-site management if that isn't working I also have a lot of faith that adjustments will be made and things things will be adjusted. Uh, and so I think you know, the opportunity for us To house a significant number and again, yeah, yes This is just a drop in the bucket of all the affordable housing needs of the town has But to get started and to house a significant number of people who really have no other options in the town of amherst today Is a really huge opportunity that i'm excited for I am, you know A little saddened to hear so much negative support from from neighbors in our neighborhood as well But I understand people have fears and concerns But I think, you know, there is a heck of a lot of evidence To counter all those around how these Developments tend to tend to work the types of people who live in them That uh, I you know, I can speak for myself and a number of neighbors who weren't able to come tonight Who asked me to come speak? To say that there is also an awful lot of support In the abutting neighborhoods to see this happen and that we feel really great that our neighborhood could Actually support and see something like this through To to really help the ton of amherst get started on the drive Thank you for your comment Others in that same category. Yes, please come forward to state your name Thank you, uh, david afeld. I live at 59 blue hills road right next door to mike actually I've lived there for 30 years I'm within the neighborhood that Mr. George drew on his excellent map With a circle and within that definition of neighborhood And it occurs to me if I drew that a same circle of the same radius from my house It would include the old rafters the recently closed rafters It would include amity place it might even include the movie theater. I'm not sure if it would go up that far I I really appreciate my my neighbors detailed evaluation of the project and thoughtful consideration of Of the many issues that that this rises. I've studied their analysis I've also looked at what cdc has has put out and I've concluded that cpa funding should be approved now by the council One thing I did want to mention Uh, it is about the character of the neighborhood that issue. Mr. George had described I think I understood him to talk about building appearance as An indicator of character and there are a lot of single family homes on north hampton road That or at least appear to be single family homes of that of that architectural style But in fact, there a lot of them are student rentals, which is a different character And that's fine. They've I've been neighbors with with the students as they've come and gone over over all these years and they're great neighbors If you if you if you do my in my count of the of the properties on north hampton road About a third are owner occupied single family about a third are privately owned student rental properties we call student rentals I think I counted 64 beds available if they're at their capacity And the remaining is as mr. George noted our amherst college dorms another and a couple of apartment buildings Yeah, so, uh, you know, it's the nature of uh in terms of the character I think it's the nature of living downtown that that The character changes quickly in other words, I I walked down my street blue hills road I come out to north hampton road Suddenly and I'm in a little micro neighborhood of student rentals. I walked the other way I'm at the jones library. It's it's it's the nature of living downtown That's great. So I welcome this project and I welcome Sorry Other other comments in the category of neighbors butters who are would like to speak in favor of the project Please come forward. It's kathy neal. I um Lived on danis street for 20 years and all my neighbors Hello I left danis street and moved to amity place And uh, I consider myself still in the neighborhood because I walk the neighborhood a lot I would like to say that I support this I worked in public education my whole life Places like amherst Many teachers who are starting out in the profession travel an hour or more To get to our schools because they simply cannot afford to live in places like amherst So, please don't just think of this as the Homeless place. Please think of this as a place that is inclusive of people who have chosen To teach your children Thank you other other comments in this group Yes, I'm sorry, sir. Please come forward My name is david levinstein. I live at 100 woodside avenue I had hope but I knew that I was not Going to be able to resist speaking tonight I support the project as proposed I have a lot of questions about the project. I agree with a lot of people's having spoken That it's a proposal. There are things to be worked out. I'm sure it seems to me that That process will be worked out with the zoning work appeals and the conditions that will be in court when and And that's reasonable to me I do think that there are legitimate questions that I would like Responded to Mandy joe and kate asked about the relative costs For square That's I didn't have three minutes I didn't get it Just I'm not quite sure Mike that was your name It is a great way to prevent a project from proceeding To go we need to make it even better. We need to ask a bit more questions You know, I am curious about what sort of waivers The value CDC are going to request under the 40 b permitting process Why 28 units that'll you know, why is that the right number? I think that there are a lot of alarms that I just can't imagine being Other than just nerves about change occurring that increased Calls these are many people the the the most at-risk populations it seemed to me in the the proposal Are already I believe our neighbors. We just don't see them I mean I know of people who live within this the radius that I'm not quite sure who mr. George, maybe perhaps Described there there are people who live there under trestles already and that's Alarming to me that's more alarming than I think offering a sustainable A safe place to live I think that was a malfunction Okay, okay Oh, it's that real telephone. Oh, thank you Okay Are there others who would like to comment in this category? Just go and how was this is it what do you call it? um That was a call-in speaker I would like to go on to the issues and I am sure that there will be people who are Neighbors and abutters who would like to add to the statements that have been already made So let's start with the issue of the selection of the location Are there people who have questions or concerns about that specific issue? Please come forward So I am not really in a butter I am a very long block away From where this building is proposed I do have a question as to how The location was selected when I look at north Hampton road and I see that there are a number of Not very expensive houses on huge pieces of land closer to University drive for example where there are buses and shopping and all of those things and fewer abutters who would say Oh goodness, this is Not in keeping with my single family neighborhood So my first question is Why that place Why not have Gone to a home that had a big piece of land close to university place and said I know your home isn't for sale But we're willing to give you Eximate money for the property because this would be a wonderful place to build Housing that is very much needed in this town And one of the things I found very disturbing tonight Was that this is has been characterized As an sro for homeless people It's my understanding that there are some units set aside for people who are homeless But that There'll be other people who are employed Who cannot afford rents in town Who would be living there? I lived in new york city a block away from Dozens literally dozens of buildings that had been turned into sros No one in those buildings bothered me for 20 years I was the president of the block association that included their block I was The community relations officer for the hospital that supplied the support In those buildings The people in the buildings very often prayed on each other. They didn't bother the Homeowners who are building owners around The property so I can't say I'm against this But I can't say I'm quite for the location for example if you don't have a car And you live at that site and you would like to use a bus The sidewalk on you need to wrap up please the sidewalk on dame street is incomplete It's a third of the block you have to walk during the winter and during the summer in the In the traffic part of the gutter in order to get to amity street where there is a bus The bus stop is at the top of the hill on the bottom of the hill. Thank you for your comments I just question the location. I don't question the concept. Thank you. Is there anybody else who has a comment about the location? Please come forward I'm abby jensen. I live at 100 Dana street The previous speaker Absolutely said about half. I wanted to say And my understanding of the history of this site Is it's the one property that came available during the period of time that they could buy And so that's what makes it a good property. Perhaps not a perfect property for this development. So Perhaps a better property would come up in the next year for all we know That would be even better for one thing and a second one is I was in favor of changing our town government. It was on town media for many years. You might know me Called the question a lot So, um One of the reasons why I wanted a different form of government is because it could be proactive And we can actually plan Strategically and I feel like this project is not a strategic plan It happened to be the product that this property became available in the time period that they had So I absolutely agree that there are better properties And I my memory is even one of those houses have been condemned at one point and they even brought it back from the brink So there are better properties that I think would Be better for this project. So I am for this in fact I'm not afraid of these potential neighbors at all But another thing that I think people didn't bring up and I don't know why Egg shells perhaps Is the great risk to our neighborhood if amherst college decides to close pratfield to the public I think that's a real risk and The infraction quote could be entirely minor And amherst college will not have to justify their reasons for closing pratfield They will just do it if they think it's in the best interests of their students They are not going to justify it to our community. They will close it and pratfield is an enormous resource to our community I know people even from amity place Use those fields and and the track etc And even people from the wider community use that and so I think it's likely that that will close Probably for very unjustified reasons, however Um, so that's all thank you. Is there anybody else who would like to speak to the issue of location? Yes, my name is william loynaz. I lived for Years with my wife and three kids at 25 orchard street, which is actually abiding the property And is contiguous to it and we now live across the street From that house in 14 orchard street So, uh, I hope this is about On topic the developer characterized the neighborhood is the root nine corridor and it says a big rental will fit in very nicely as steve geord said Most of the neighborhood is not like the root nine corridor among the rentals There are junior faculty rentals houses owned by amherst college and occupied by young families. There are student rentals Which have been spreading along the root nine corridor and frankly have been some some sort of a nuisance The house at 132 northampton road was a is a single family house The not quite historic carriage house of the historic anston morse house that alan barber wilber live in That site could be a site for affordable family housing that would be attractive to families in the neighborhood Batch the scale of the current house and be depressing need for the town In fact, when I first saw the valley cdc had bought the property I thought that's what they'd planned and I was grateful that it wasn't going to be another student rental But replacing it instead with a four story 28 person or larger Maybe development that would dwarf the largest student rental and root nine doesn't seem like it would fit right in They should build affordable family housing at that site Thank you Is there anybody else on this issue? This is the location. Yes come forward, please Good evening, um, connie krueger. Some of you might know me former select board member also worked in the affordable housing field for Probably 25 years or more. So I think I have some standing I had to try to fit what I wanted to say into your categories lindsay. I think site might be The time I have something to offer so There is no perfect site and people have said before and Against that. Uh, well, it's not perfect. It might be okay. Well, actually I looked at a lot of sites Um across the state. I did technical assistance for municipalities statewide I also um did a lot of work Chapter 48 so I have seen A lot of properties and I don't think this is just this is the best one they could find in the time they had I think actually looking at the criteria that um values described that the housing trust has described And what I know about that site on The state highway route nine. It's actually a very good site while not perfect because nothing is I think it makes a lot of the criteria that we would look for for Subsidizing agency. I used to work for or for one of this other state funders. So I think it's a good site. I think it's a good developer and Probably not surprising. I do support this proposal, but I just want to share one thing I've been thinking a lot about this because I know people who live in that neighborhood I know people who have a lot of feelings about this proposal and what's really important to me is that we don't Bill it by each other in this process and that we stay open to having this dialogue The town's really in the driver's seat of what's going to happen here Both in the cpa funding, although it's not the determinant of whether this goes forward or not But also in the 30 day comment period in the chapter b 40 b process And in the comments that the zba is going to get there's a lot of level of detail that we won't have In a chapter 40 b project deliberately you do not ask for A huge amount of detail up front because it's so expensive First you want to know that you have a project that's viable and it's going to go forward and then you Bring in professionals and sort of layer in more and more detail to me What's most important is design and management. We've talked to you a lot about that tonight about Tenant selection you heard from the management company. That's what's going to make this fit into the neighborhood And if we can continue to communicate and be open about this, we're not going to hopefully end up With 10 years who now we're not speaking to each other because we're on different sides of this issue because this is Going to be another neighbor that I really hope is Welcome to the neighborhood, but I want to speak to my friends and neighbors Across our different views of this Excuse me time, please Thank you Yes, this is on the issue of the actual site selection. Yes, I think that site is worthy of Careful consideration and part of what's been so difficult here has been The sense that the project was going to go forward Irregardless of the site And as when we found out about the project being neighbors nearby We had lots of questions and this is the first time that we've actually been able to together talk with the community about that and We have moved as a neighborhood very far from our initial Shock surprise concern to Getting doing lots and lots of research understanding this project coming up with lots of suggestions and ideas And this is our first time to get to discuss this with all with everyone here And it's been a horrible process And I should this should never happen again to any neighborhood group That the fact that you have questions and want to discuss them That you're vilified I've been called all kinds of things because my name was out there And I think that site does matter It's not just the concept of what you want to do, but then you have the process and this needs to be enabled in this town of letting the neighborhood work with the developer On working it out because Ultimately, don't you want all the parties? The town the developer The housing advocates and the neighborhood to be happy about what's happening But we haven't had the time or the opportunity to do that and um It's it's been it's been a very sad process and I agree with connie. Thank you and anyone that's you know Said great tell give us your Your suggestions, but I do want to say we've moved this far and we have not received One concession from the developer They have a bit refused to change anything And that's made it very difficult because as we move more towards our center We are not seeing any movement from the other side and how why should we trust that? There's no what what does that trust mean if you don't see any changes There's not been one single change proposed and I was hoping to be surprised tonight when I came that there would be Some surprise change proposed, but I didn't hear any Thank you. Is there anybody else who wants to speak to the issue of the selection of the location? I wanted just to ask whether valley cdc or someone from your group has any further comment on the selection of this particular site Okay And we're going to ask you to keep it to three minutes as well on the town website about the site selection process Valley, this is our second effort over about 10 years trying to find a site for a property like this We went through a site selection process About 10 years ago identified a site made an offer on it The owner wanted far more than we had the ability to pay We went off to do things in other towns Revisited this one that we should bubbled up again in Amherst that there was a high priority For housing homeless folks So we took about two years. We looked at dozens of different sites Throughout town. We identified the midpoint of north hampton road is a desirable space Because it you could walk into town into the health center, which is in this building But you could also walk down to the shopping area So no, it's not right next to a bus stop, but you can walk in either direction We did solicit a variety of owners on north hampton road We wrote to people asking if they'd be willing to sell their properties Those who had the kind of large houses on large parcels We wrote to them. Um, and we did not receive a response So our universe of where we can build is limited to the properties that people are willing to sell at a given Point in time at a price that works within an affordable housing budget But we did a pretty aggressive look at everything that was available We met with local realtors. We feel like we kind of beat the bushes, especially on north hampton road And it's not just that it happened to come up for sale It's a happy coincidence from our perspective that it did come up for sale But we were already looking all the way up and down north hampton road because it was walkable in both directions It was a major road. It seems to us like a mixed neighborhood having institutional as well as residential uses Thank you. I'm going to move on to the next topic The size and the scale of the project at the number of units and the question about Could there be of a mix of different kinds of units? Alyssa Hi, my name is Alyssa Campbell and officially I'm here tonight representing the league of women voters Which does support this project and voting on it as proposed I won't go on a great length about that because there have been other opportunities I did want to just comment though On the idea of why this number of units why this mix of units, etc It's because There are homeless people in and around amherst who need a place to live There are also people who are not homeless or at least not homeless yet Whose income is very limited This project is intended to meet the needs Of some Not all but some of our neighbors in that situation It cannot meet every need It's not intended to be family housing We do have another project going on at east street that is intended to be family housing No one project can meet every need Each project can meet a little bit of what is in fact a very large and varied need I was quite surprised personally to realize that I would qualify to live here If I didn't already have a somewhat bigger place to live which I can still afford to live in But these are housing has become Ridiculously expensive compared to what people's incomes are And I suggest that if you're not aware that you go find the website for the low income Excuse me. I got to get this website thing right for the Website with the data about what people earn and what rents are It's reports nlihc.org Slash OOR slash Massachusetts and just look to see If you want to rent a one bedroom apartment in amherst now and not have it cost more than a third of your income You have to make $57,000 a year That's what it costs So there is no perfect project This is a good project that we need and we need it now. Thank you Thank you Other comments with regard To the size and scale of the project the number of units Sir I'm John Willoughby. I live at hundred and street Um And I just wanted to share um a survey I did for the neighbors um, and it's um Neighbors and the butters and uh It's it's a it's a selective survey. Um, it was for the people that were Against the project as it stands and so I got about uh I can't remember how many people I asked but I got 34 responses I had a slide for it. It got kicked out of People's presentations They just wanted to share four results from it. Um I start off by saying are people in favor of affordable housing period and it was 30 to two in favor Are they in favor of having it in our in our district 31 to 3 in favor of having it in our district Are they in favor of having it in the district in that location if it was family housing It was 31 to 1 in favor of that. Are they in favor of this particular proposal? No reverse 31 to 1 against this proposal and then I tried to break it down and say if it was half as big if there was if there was um supervision for 10 hours or 24 hours and then some people got there and I just wanted to put that out there because there's been a big Impression that we're anything but and we're kicking back But actually this isn't the only plan For affordable housing that could work. It seems to be driven by the economics of the valley's ctc More than anything else. There is I think there are arguments against having a larger hustle With people that may be former addicts because the more people more people you have living with you the more like you get I'm gonna get triggered. Um, and so I just wanted to share that that Actually the the people who As being against this have been talking about it and are totally Engaged in thinking about hey, what would be the best thing in this location? um, so we don't have Uh a thing against the the project and the ideal in fact, I'm wearing a badge most of us are We're for it. We just don't think this is the right model for this particular location So um, that was something we did. I wanted to add something else It's it's been a little bit mysterious because we haven't heard about it till later I don't want to criticize you guys because you're doing an amazing job at um With new government in Amherst and I can see how tough it is and you're making the laws as you go Not making laws, but you're trying to do the template as you go um But I think the delay in letting us Speak has meant that people have perceived us as being completely against this idea absolutely against it and so it's led to It's led to media campaigns like social media And um, you know, we've been abused by people around town. We've been we've had letters having sent People have been abused and I just want to say I you know We could maybe have more dialogue and try and avoid the situation in the future because it's not the way we want to go Because we're actually not partway towards you Thank you for your comments Uh other people to talk on about the size and scale of the project, please Hi, Barbara grab and wilbur my husband and I live in 126 north hampton road. We are immediate butters um I wrote out what I was going to say because I tend to get a little nervous when I talk in front of people Particularly so many people. I have to say that I didn't pleased with what's happening today I second the thing about the The sort of disrespect that's been shown from one side to the other and I hope that that will not continue um My husband and I would not be where we are today if it weren't for someone who did afford our housing We had a great deal Years and years ago.  What would you do if tomorrow morning the number of people that live there increased from Three to five? No big deal increased from five to 28 The density I think is Way too high Again, I'm not opposed to affordable housing. I'm opposed to that high density If you look at the place that they've just done on um Main street where I think they accommodate 20 People and this includes families and that's a four acre lot This is a less than an acre lot and they're trying to put 28 people on it um I also think that we may be going in the wrong direction or perhaps not looking at the right thing Affordable housing is important, but are there other ways that affordable housing can be addressed? um And maybe we challenge the town and the town counselors to get with developers and say look Stop building these McMansions build something that is more affordable for middle income people um these single family homes that are turned into rentals is it possible to Put some kind of incentive in it for the homeowner that they would allow one of the apartment To be rented at a lower income A lower level Is it possible to work with the local banks? We have a number of local hometown banks east hampton greenfield north hampton a five college Can they do some kind of a loan thing where People with low incomes that they get some additional support That's how we got our place is we were not charged bank fees It made a big difference. We saved probably 250 000 by doing that. You need to wrap up. Okay. Um, that's all that I have Thank you very much for listening, and I appreciate it. Thank you. Are there any other comments on this issue? Yes, pull the mic up, please But I do want to say something about the scale Am I talking in the mic? Yes. Yes the income levels This is 28 people we're talking about eight People will be living in studios those people will Ideally be making 31 000 dollars Another eight people will be living in studios And they will be making almost 50 000 dollars So that's 16 people the remainder Of the 28 so this is we're talking about 12 people And I find it hard to imagine The scale of alarm The scale of fear For what 12 people Are going to do to a community I just feel very sad This is not I do see homeless people on the street and I Do wish that they could Have a house Down the block from me There is habitat for humanity and I was really happy when those houses went up Up the block from me There's university place Which I believe has a large number of low income people living They They do not have a negative effect on my neighborhood The scale is much larger in fact just noises me Have a affordable housing, but as I say My sense of the scale we're talking about 10 homeless people And two people who might need services for mental health. I think the town could be More generous Are there additional comments on the issue of size and scale of the project? Are you coming forward to make comment? Yes, please I was initially pretty excited about the prospect of having an affordable housing project go in and As I learned more about it It started to feel like The town agencies and the committees that have looked at it didn't really do their full set of diligence here And we've seen a lot of uncritical repetition of claims and That's sort of morphed into in this discussion here a lot of lectures on the life of affordable housing is good And why anyone who raises technical objections to the design of a project doesn't like homeless people And there's sort of an implication that everyone who points out problems and potential solutions for those problems here Is hiding their true intent Which is pretty hard so I just wanted to note the project design has pulls which aren't that far into the surface And these concerns all have solutions And they're really new showstoppers when you pretend they don't exist and we resort to name calling questioning each other's motives So the dull work of policy design is a lot less satisfying than denouncing class enemies But we're serious about our community. It's worthy of us. So I had a fun moment this afternoon My kids came home from camp with a flyer About a playground that's going up in kindred park and it invited people to come and join the design of what the Equilibrium would look like and so on. So my first thought was hey great I hope it has a bunch of slides because this would be a lot of fun for our kids to go down And I hope one of them is red because my six-year-old likes the color red And my second thought was well, what if we took a similarly open and collaborative approach with designing Project here so that we could all be proud of it and we could have something. It's a national model that we invite people in From all over the country to come and see And it was built here and he did it and everyone together in those rooms Thank you for your time Are there other comments on the issue of size and scale of the project? I just want to ask there was One question about the possibility of increasing the number of units after It was this was brought up by a council person increasing the number of units beyond 28 after A potential approval of the half million dollars Do either one of you want to speak to that? It may be a very brief Thank you We don't intend to increase the number of units at this site whether a person could between the point of a town commitment and A zoning process. I don't know the answer because I don't know what the commitment letter would look like Um, ultimately the zba is responsible for permitting it and so that has a certain legal weight You know, usually if we have a funding commitment that's for a specific Description and something changes What we would do is go back to whoever gave us that funding commitment and discuss that change with them It's usually pretty minor stuff But by the same token, I think the question is if it's 28 units now And there's been considerable interest in shrinking the project Could we then at the stage when we're discussing with the zba have the authority to shrink the project? I don't know that I know If you guys have an experience with a project that morphs Yeah, I think we'd have to go back to whatever authority had granted us funds and have that conversation with them Um, but since you've raised the question Is it possible to shrink this project from 28 to something lower? Um, I think that there are cost implications with any changes that we would make and I don't feel like it's I can answer kind of Spur the moment. I think anything that we've talked about changing the unit mix changing the number of units Changing the staffing plan for the property We have to look at how we would finance that I just so I don't know the answer to that Okay, thank you Are there any other questions or comments at this time on the issue of size and scale? Moving on to this. I'm sorry, please Two questions that arise around the question of size and scale Given the the size of the units of 240 square feet, it seems to me that for Many of the units it will be seen as transitional housing Meaning that people will take it because it's available and nothing else is available At that price But to the extent that there are any possibilities of moving to another unit Which is larger which is which would allow them to have A maze children any number of possibilities They would want to move on and so One of the things that you have to just consider in this is That it is likely to be transitional for a great number of people. That's not a bad thing But just recognize that that is likely to be the way it would work The second is That There is nothing wrong with housing People in this location I don't have any issues with with the idea of it being For the most part single units There has been some discussion about the naming of it I don't really care whether it's called an SRO or whether it is called a studio apartment, but I've I've dealt with these things over my career for 50 years And There's clearly going to be some Well, let me put it this this way It is not An insult to call it an SRO And it has been described as being an insult More conversations more openness about the way people talk about it is important. I agree with conny I agree with lots of people here This has got to be the beginning of discussions. It's got to be the way in which projects in the future Are considered Don't worry about people who say I don't like the way you did it Let's just talk about ways that we can make it better Thank you Are there any other comments on the issue? All right, then we are going to move on to the screening Of tenants selection and the typical tenant issues And what happens if you don't fill the slots? Comments Questions Come for it You may speak because it's a new issue. I'm sorry. There's somebody back here. Let me get that person first. Thank you I didn't see your answer Come forward. My name is Robert Ryan. I'm chair of the interfaith housing board, which is a non-profit group based here in Amherst We're over 30 years old. We helped start village housing up in north Amherst And we supported many of the affordable housing projects from built in town through seed funding And we support this project and the reason we support this project We support lots of different projects in town But what I really like about this project is it has a mix of income for people of different Different ability to pay for this and that's what makes it. I think a unique project compared to maybe others It might be proposed for the site or other sites in town And I think that's very important because as was mentioned before allows people that work for the town to live in the town People that are teachers aides people that work in the library people that work in town government People that work on the public works department people that can actually Live in the town they work in which they can't Also allows people that are in transition to find a place But I think what you find is these income levels there's not going to be a A shortage of people that will want to apply to these in fact There'll be a long waiting list of people that want to live in these because there's so few affordable housing units at Amherst Our group has looked for housing sites For projects like this in town for at least eight years and had much trouble finding them Why because we live in a town with student housing So there's lots of competition for these units. There's lots of competition for apartments in this town Which is why this is to me a very good project to support And to me it's the mix of units that make it Interactive the other part is looking at the architecture renderings. I also have Sessionary and Nancy Barks are sure planning and and that to me they're rendering speak a lot about the character of what this building will be We work with the the site development before on other projects and their projects are top rate They fit into neighborhoods they're in they have good management And they've been good neighbors Thank you for your comments Yes, there's one way in the back, please Hi, I don't know if I'm the only homeless person here However, I I'd have to support the project And I have something to address the screening and Bob Marley said there's so much things to say right now There's so much things to say But you know the diversity means a lot of things income There's definitely I'm glad to hear that there's going to be a diverse but diversity It means a lot of differe