 I roll set The chair knows the time is six o'clock. I call this meeting of the Amazonian Board of Appeals to order My name is Steve judge as EVA chair. I want to welcome everyone to this meeting We'll begin with a roll call of the ZBA members Steve judge is present mr. Craig Meadows present Mr. Everold Henry present Mr. Phillip white present Miss Hilda Greenbaum present The quorum is present also attending the public hearing tonight is miss Chris restaurant planning director for the town Mr. Rob Wachella planner for the town and Serving as our counsel on this matter Carolyn Murray of KP law Pursuant to chapter 20 of the acts of 2021 Extended by chapter 2 of the acts of 2023 this meeting will be conducted via remote means Members of the public who wish to observe the meeting may do so via zoom or by telephone No in-person attendance of the members of the public will be permitted But every effort will make will be made to ensure that the public can adequately access the proceedings in real time via technological means The zoning Board of Appeals is a quasi judicial body that operates under the authority of chapter 48 of the general laws of the common Wealth for the purpose of promoting the health safety convenience and general welfare of the inhabitants of the town of Amherst In accordance with the provisions of Massachusetts general laws chapter 48 In article 10 special permit granting authority of the Amherst zoning bylaw This public meeting has been duly advertised and notice thereof has been posted and mailed to parties at interest All hearings and meetings are open to the public and are recorded by Tom staff Any and they and they may be viewed via the town of Amherst YouTube channel and the ZBA webpage The procedure is as follows The petitioner presents the application to the board during the hearing after which the board will ask questions for clarification Or to seek additional information After the board has completed its question the board will seek public input The public speaks with the permission of the chair if a member of the public wishes to speak They should so indicate by using the raised hand function on their screen or by pressing star nine on their phone The chair with the assistance of the staff will call upon people wishing to speak When you are recognized Provide your name and address to the board for the record all questions and comments must be addressed to the board The board will normally hold public hearings where information about the project and the and input from the public is gathered Followed by a public meeting for each the public meeting portion is when the board deliberates and is generally not an opportunity for public comment If the board feels it has enough information and time it will decide upon the applications tonight Each petition heard by the board is distinct and evaluated on its own merits and the board is not ruled by precedent Statutorily for a public hearing the board has 90 days from the close of the hearing to file a decision Or a variance the board has 100 days from the date of filing the foulest decision No decision is final until the written decision is signed by the sitting board members and filed with the town clerk's office Once the decision is filed with the town clerk There's a 20-day appeal period for an agreed party to contest the decision with the relevant judicial body in superior court After the appeal period the permit must be recorded at the registry of deeds to take effect tonight's agenda public hearing on ZBA FY 2024-03 Valley Community Development Corporation Request for a comprehensive permit under Massachusetts General Laws chapter 40b to construct 30 owner-occupied affordable residential units Located in 15 duplex structures Parking areas with 58 spaces common areas and other site improvements on a 9.047 acre site With requested rate waivers from the zoning bylaws general bylaws subdivision regulations and sewer water connections approvals at 2040 Ball Lane map 5a parcel 56 Rn neighborhood residential and RLD low residential low density residential zoning districts and FC farmland conservation overlay districts That will be followed by a general public common period on matters not before the board tonight and other business anticipated within the last 48 hours tonight's first order of business is to open consideration on ZBA FY 2024-03 Valley Community Development Corporation's request for a comprehensive permit under Massachusetts General Laws chapter 40b Are there any disclosures by members of the board? We will disclose it. We've not had a site visit yet, but that will be coming up soon We'll have more hearings on this topic So a site visit will be will be planned. I want to run through the submissions Excuse me. Mr. Judge. Yes, Miss Greenbaum may have a disclosure. Oh See your hand No, I don't have a disclosure, but I have a question I see that there are 30 people in the room and I'm wondering if you could enable the The whatever you call that lets us to see who the other people how who are watching from the audience I I don't know that we have the bandwidth to do that Lastly So if you so if you actually go to your bottom part of your screen Hilda where it says participants if you click on that You'll see a panel up on your right. So if you go to the right You'll see two different tabs and click on one is his panelists and one is his attendees If you click the one that says attendees you can see who is in attendance in the audience. Oh here it is I didn't go down far enough. Okay. Thank you. No problem. I thought you were asking for a video Feed for each of those people Okay, great I'm misunderstood your question It's easy to easy enough done We've received on this application a cover letter signed by Jessica Allen the research project manager Valley CDC or the real estate project manager Excuse me dated September 19th 2023 a project narrative the ZBA FY 2024-03 application form ZBA FY 2024-03 Management plan mass housing project eligibility letter dated 525-23 a property deed a list of development team members We also received impact analysis of the natural and built environment a list of requested zoning waivers pro forma a traffic assessment report stone water pollution prevention plan Architectural plans designed by Austin design dated September 8th 2023 first work plan designed by Joshua Klein PE stonefield engineering and design dated September 8th 2023 illustrative site plan designed by Peter Finkel RLA dots and then Finchler Design dated September 8th 2023 site plans. There are Numerous site plans which include a cover sheet the condition the existing condition plan a demolition plan a site C4 site plan Grading plan stormwater management plan utility plan lighting plan solar erosion and sediment control plan Construction details site management plan site layout plan a planting plan plan schedule in details Site details paving and furnishings site details fencing Truck turning plan including the fuck plans including the fire truck turnaround and a trash truck turn as well as meeting dates and Scheduled as well as topics We also received Several public comments. I want to run through those quickly. We've received public comments from An email on of October 6th from Jeff Fishman and Sarah pillion an email from October 13th from Andy Churchill on 1016 23 we received an email from Jessica Piedade and Carol Lewis co-chairs the Amherst Municipal of Forty-Houden Trust and on 10 18 23 we received an email from Steve King and Meg gauge. I think that's all of them, isn't it? Rob any others? Could you repeat the last name mr. Chairman my apologies. It's an email updated 10 18 2023 from Steve King and Meg gauge that is yep, those are all the comments that we've received so far This application proposes a significant housing development including 30 new homes as such It will require several meetings of the ZBA to complete consideration of a comprehensive permit Members of the ZBA have agreed to meet on alternate Thursdays When we do not normally need to accelerate consideration of this proposal and to avoid delaying other matters They will have that will come before the board in the next few months I want to thank all the board members for their willingness to put in this extra time to hear this important proposal Tonight, we hope to get a general overview of the project from the petitioner Future meetings will have a specific topic such as site design landscape architecture stormwater stormwater management property management, etc And most importantly when we're going to hear how the home ownership program is structured Including conditions under which the homes may be sold in the future Considerations of a comprehensive comprehensive permit is a little different than considerations of most of our special permits For example under 40 be all of the municipal permits and any other matters not governed by state law Are going to be decided by the ZBA One provision of tractor 40 be provides at the ZBA would provide the ZBA With full discretion to approve or deny the request for a comprehensive permit if 10% or more of the town's housing stock is affordable 11% of Amherst housing stock is affordable. So we qualify for this safe harbor The ZBA must make this decision within 15 days of opening a public hearing on this matter I want to avail ourselves of this protection of the safe harbor at the onset of this hearing So we do not inadvertently forget to do so So I would entertain a motion to invoke the safe harbor provisions of Massachusetts general law chapter 40 be and then we can discuss the motion on the safe harbor Carolyn Murray from KP laws here. Perhaps you can give us a The right formulation of that motion. So we make that that mode have the correct motion in front of us Is there anything special we have to say on this? Certainly, Mr. Chairman. I I don't know if I did actually prepare a motion to invoke the safe harbor in writing. I don't know if that has been Shared or put in your packets or not, but I'm happy to read it It could certainly be invoked at that point So the motion would be that the board determined that the town of Amherst has achieved one of the statutory minimum Standards set forth under general law chapter 40 be sections 20 through 23 and 760 CMR 56.033 Because the town subsidized housing inventory as maintained by the executive office of housing and livable communities Formerly the Department of Housing and Community Development on the date that the application for a comprehensive permit Was received from Valley Community Development For the property located at 20 to 40 ball lane comprises more than 10% of the town's total housing units Excuse me, that would be the entirety of the motion Great. I'm not going to repeat that But I think you can if you will send that copy for the record to Rob so we can put it in the minutes I will do that. I would entertain a motion that incorporates Attorney Murray's stated motion. Is there such a move? Is there a second? second It's been moved in second. Is there a discussion if there's no discussion The vote occurs on the motion To invoke the safe harbor. This requires a simple majority of the board. I Chair votes aye. Mr. Meadows Oh, you're muted Craig. I Mr. Henry hi, mr. White hi miss Greenbaum. Hi great So we've got that business out of the way now I'd like to turn to the presentation by the petitioner to give us an overview of the project So who's going to be presenting for Valley Community Development tonight? Please give your name and address and then Proceed with your presentation My name is Jessica Allen May I interrupt just for a minute? I think that Carolyn Murray has a question or a comment. Thank you Thank you. I see ever old Henry does too as well. My apologies, mr. Chair I So as a result of the of the motion that you've made The board because you have achieved a safe harbor is in a position that the board can either Deny the comprehensive permit or the board can elect to proceed with the hearing I Sent by virtue of you calling upon the applicant to present that The board wishes to proceed with the full hearing But understanding that the board does have the right to either deny the application or to approve it with conditions And that the applicant does not have a right of appeal given that situation But yes, do we need that we don't need a motion to proceed to consideration Do we not unless anyone on the board wishes to make a motion to deny the comprehensive permit? If you're going to go forward with the hearing then no, there's no need for a motion all right and Then lastly, sorry, mr. Chairman, and then I promise I will be quiet Lastly We do have to send a notice Formal notice and writing to both the applicant as well as to the office of housing and livable communities Indicating that we have invoked the safe harbor. The applicant does have an opportunity to challenge that if they so choose so I would just ask that The board authorized the chair to execute that letter which Again, I did draft that so I think Christine has that we could put it on your letterhead and get that out if you if you wouldn't mind without objection Unless there is an objection I would Declare that the board has authorized me to send such letter All right. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Henry Thank You, Mr. Chair. So I read the packet in A few times and one of the provisions that the board has been asked to consider is 3.01 which in Couple of our last hearings we had conversations around where the principal uses are clearly complementary to each other and We had issues with that language So I'm a little bit concerned that we are here Concerning that provision. I believe in our last discussions We were going to get touch base with the legal to have some clarity on complementary so I I just want to put that on the record that I Have some reservations given the fact that in our last hearings where petitioning came before us under that provision We essentially deferred because of that language That's an excellent point. Mr. Henry two things number one. We're gonna have several more hearings on this so there'll be number of numerous numerous opportunities to deal with that issue of Complementary use and secondly, I think for our next meeting which is on the 26th, I think we said that will be the topic will be that specific Provision and so you will all have a chance to hear from the building commissioner on his recommendations We can make a judgment at that point in time about how we wish to how we think we should be or advised to To interpret that provision. So I think we're gonna have sufficient time to evaluate that before we move to any decision or To dispense with this motion this application one way or the other So I think we've got some time to we might just start on the process pending the further Information we'll receive next week Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yep Okay Mr. Wachilla Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just want to make the point that in terms of this specific permitting process So usually the zba makes findings under section 10.3 of the amazoning bylaws for any Special permit or variance that comes. Oh, sorry. Just special permits that come before them in this case The findings that the board's going to make are actually from section 4.5 of the zba rules and regulations which reflect the conditions for comprehensive permits under chapter 40 b so Essentially the scope of the findings you're going to be making while hearing this permit today Are slightly different than the ones that we're used to in those other hearings. So just keep that in mind as well And also the zba Doesn't have to be constrained by the provisions of the amherst bylaw as well when deciding on this case So that's another important thing to keep in mind too. So we know section 3.1 was very You know paramount and previous permits, but you know in this one This the board doesn't really have to be constrained by it necessarily, but you do bring an important point about that Um, so I just wanted to say that for the record. So folks can keep that in mind. Thank you Thank you, mr. Wachilla And we can have more discussions about this at the administrative meeting next week And clarify any questions that come up Great all right So I don't want to shut anybody off, but I'm ready to hear from the petitioners at this time Just give your name and address for the for the record and then just please proceed Thank you, mr. Chairman. My name is Jessica Allen. I'm a real estate project manager for valley community development Before I launch into my presentation. I do want to give our executive director an opportunity to Just briefly talk to the to the board. So I'm going to turn it over to alexis here briefly She'll just give out a few minutes and then I can launch into my presentation All right, and miss allen you live where? I live in east hampton Great All right Go ahead Hi, everybody. I'm alexis breitniker and I'm the executive director of valley community development and I live in comington mass two sits um I just wanted to thank everybody for letting us move forward with this project and get to this stage in front of the zba and valley is really excited about this development It's our first homeowner ship project in quite a few years because lining up funding for home ownership is a pretty tricky piece to do and You happen to have a qualified sense track and amorous that lets us be able to even consider this opportunity So thank you again for taking the time and i'm going to turn it back over to jess Great I'm going to share my screen. I have I do have a 27 slide powerpoint presentation. So I just want to confirm with the board that um, you want me to proceed straight through the presentation Um, and then you will ask questions at the end. I shouldn't be pausing at any point and looking for feedback Is that correct mr. Chairman? Yeah, I think generally that's the case I think it's best for you to proceed without a lot of interruptions But if there is something that a board member finds they need to be clarified to understand the point you're making You know as opposed to in-depth And I'm questioning of your proposal, but just for clarification Sure, okay, ask a question at that point, but okay. Thank you. I just wanted to clarify that. Thanks Okay, I'm going to share my screen. I'm going to launch into the presentation If I can find it You see a presentation. Yep. We've got it Perfect Jumped in the middle of it. I don't know why you get a preview Hi, my name is Jessica Allen. I am a real estate project manager here at Valley CDC Um, thank you so much for um, I want to say Meeting a second meeting a month. I know volunteer boards have A lot of responsibility and it's a lot to attend night meetings and not be home with your family and so I just want to thank you for um Understanding the the importance of this project and that it's a priority for us And I think the town is well and sort of expediting that permitting process by Coming in an extra week a month. So thank you for that. So this is the amherst community homes Projects it's an affordable home ownership development Just to talk about who valley is some of you may know we are a nonprofit that was formed in 1988 To serve low and moderate income community members in hampshire county We kind of have three pillars here at valley. We do affordable housing development We also do first time home buyer assistance and we also have a small business assistance program So those are our core programs that we do here at valley To date we have either developed or partnered in the development of 391 apartments or homes Since our inception in 1988 all of those have been 100 affordable And our developments range from small to medium size Um in amherst we have just completed east gables, which I'm sure you're aware of which is 28 studio rental apartments We also have 11 family rentals at valley main street that was developed. I believe in the early 2000s And then there were eight home ownership Homes Program that was done in the mid 90s. So those are the the three programs to date um in Amherst so just to introduce our development team I believe most of them are on the call tonight and if we need to pull them into the meeting we can certainly do that Um, but we are the developer. We have been working with awesom design cooperative out of greenfield as our architects This is the same architects that designed east gables We have been working with sodson and flinker Um at our landscape architects for our site design. They're based out of florins We have a civil engineering team from stonefield engineering based out of salem And we have an attorney Representing us from dority wallace pillberry and murphy out of springfield And they are very familiar with 40 b and condominium associations, which is why we're working with them Our work to date. So this is a project that's been in the work since before I even started at valley about two years ago My colleague laura baker had been in discussions and negotiations with the landowner Doing some minor due diligence In 2002 as it started to look like it might be a real project We started to do some site due diligence including some wetlands investigations some wetlands delineations We did a phase one and phase two site assessment with soil investigations We did soil analysis So we really took a good hard look to make sure that this was a site that was in a work for us Looking at zoning trying to determine How that was going to work what our permitting process was going to be in this project And understanding that we knew we wanted to do a home ownership project It was just a matter of how that was conceptually going to play out We acquired the site in august 2022 Before we even acquired the site. We started to do some community engagement We had a zoom meeting with the butters We had had conversations with some of the Homeowners at the co-housing right up the street. We had some conversations with the butters while we were out on the site So we've had a very robust community engagement process here And I'll show you some of the details of how much work we've done with that Is part of this development project At the same time in parallel we were working on development design So as we were as we were looking at building design how we're looking at site design We're going back to the community. We're going back to a butters and saying does this check out with you? Does this make sense? And so incorporating that feedback in sort of a parallel track We were awarded cpa money in february Of this year and received housing trust award money in august of this year and Combined it's a very generous Contribution to the project We've also received a letter of interest from commonwealth builders who is the primary public subsidy for this project And that letter is in your packet And was provided to us in august although we have been in conversations with commonwealth builder program staff Since 2021. Um, so it's been a long time that they've had this project on their in their pipeline So program goals first and foremost. This is an affordable first time home buyer um project so all of the homes are to be Purchased by first time home buyers that is first and foremost The goal of this project other goals are to um increase BIPOC home ownership Commonwealth builders is really committed to trying to increase black home ownership You'll see from this article from november 2022 just how far off the the percentages are um I was doing a little research before the meeting And black home ownership has only increased by 0.4 percent so less than half a percent in the last 10 years so Most of our equity that we own as households are in our house So for those individuals that I haven't had an opportunity either because of financing because of zoning because of land use regulations To be able to purchase a home has really offset the ability for folks to be able to build assets And so it really provides some that generational wealth So this is really looking to increase the home ownership opportunities specifically for BIPOC homeowners In households and really try to level the playing field Understanding that housing is one of been the biggest contributors to the equity gap So all of this is kind of realized to have a lottery will be run And then some of the deed writers that will be tied to these homes So i'll get into the details of that, but this is the big picture goal for this project So the commonwealth builder program. So, you know, we're going to hear a lot about this program This is our major subsidy. It is the only state public subsidy available for home ownership In 2008 when the housing market crashed The state started looking at affordable housing and really focusing on the rental market And less focus on the home ownership market. So up until recently 2021 There has not been any public subsidies available to build affordable home ownership developments So this this came into play in 2021 What it does is it offers a subsidy of $250,000 per home For those homes that are sold to households that are 100% AMI and lower so It is offered to 100 you can get subsidies for 120 AMI, but the subsidy amount is much lower So we have been in conversations with the commonwealth builder staffers Like I said for a number of years We've been working out the financing numbers with them to see how do we best maximize this program To be able to get what we need in order to build Um It is really based on geographic eligibility. Like I noted before the major Goal of this program is to increase black home ownership So it is only available in a geographic reasons is not available statewide so The regs keep shifting and changing. They have shifted and changed with the arpa money. So The program received a big chunk of arpa money and with that arpa money came arpa regulations And so the commonwealth builders program had to shift a little bit in order to meet the arpa requirements So in 2023 commonwealth builder funds is only available in the city of boston in gateway cities And or disproportionately impacted communities of which there are two and they are an eastern mass When we first started having conversations With commonwealth builders program in 2021 Qualified census tracts were one of the eligible geographic locations for this funding to be put into place Um, they are no longer eligible under 2023. However, because we've been in such great conversations with Maths housing and their commonwealth builder program staff for several years Despite the shift in the program guidelines, they're still willing to support this project With commonwealth builder funds, even though it's not technically located in a qualified geographic Eligible location as of their 2023 regulations So if we were trying to start this project now from fresh If we, you know, we're just starting it and trying to get funds We wouldn't be able to do the project. So we've really been kind of grandfathered in a little bit and We're very grateful that mass housing and the commonwealth builders programs have Allowed us to continue to work on this project As alexa's noted before There's not a lot of qualified census tracts in hampshire county There's only two in all of hampshire county and they happen to be in the town of amherst So this graphic shows where the qualified census tract boundaries are located. There's two of them. It's census tract 8203 And 8205 it kind of excludes you mass Um goes down to about here, but this is our proposed development location. So you see that we are Smacked out here in the qct and making this project eligible under commonwealth builders To give you some context on the site. So we are in north amherst Um location from our perspective is fantastic. It has access to a bus route It's it's along the pbt a route 33 and there is an existing pbt a bus stop right here This is the boundary of the site the yellow Um, it's located about a half mile from parks from other affordable housing projects from other market rate housing Goods and services at the mill district. It's about 1.5 miles from the umas campus. So for those that are looking to study in terms of like homeowners or Let's say like a single parent who wants to continue either who that wants to work at umas or continue an education in umas This would be an ideal location for them The site is about nine acres It's previously developed. It was a formally a trucking and agricultural processing facility There are three buildings That were located and have now been demolished this aerial Like I can't seem to get enough to date aerial photos the best I can do So I just wanted to note that these buildings here are actually now gone And there is an existing 812 square foot house on the property that is currently rented. So we have a tenant living at that property We have frontage on two public ways. So we have pulpit hill road Frontage and then frontage on monogane road There is also a private way, which is ball lane And Right's here onto the back and there's access to the site here There's also access to the site at this existing driveway So this is a private way and then we've got two public ways here There are existing wetlands that we've had delineated There is a country ditch here that has Turned into a wetland over time and then we have a riparian corridor back here with with wetlands here We have public water access to public water and access to public sewer the access to public sewer is off ball lane Um, there is water access off ball lane, but there's also water access off monogane road and pulpit hill road as well So just some site photos to give some context. So This photograph was taken at the edge of the riparian corridor looking out. This is the intersection of monogane road and pulpit hill road And this is at the intersection looking back Um towards the riparian area And then this is a couple pictures of the demolished structures So here's a concrete pad from one of the former industrial buildings Um, and this is a photograph of the existing house with the tenant in it So I noted earlier our community process and um, we believe we've done a pretty robust job reaching out to neighbors of butters and working with the community and getting some feedback So since may 20 2022 Before we even acquired the property we started our our community process as I noted So since that day, we've had eight meetings either in person or zoom with neighbors either collectively or individually Having one-on-one meetings with directive butters to discuss the project We've met with the municipal municipal staff Four times to do a technical review kind of throughout different phases of our design development So we would get to a certain Um Milestone and we say, okay, you know, we need to talk to the town about storm water We need to get some more feedback from the town. So we had a number of Of technical review and I will say that the town staff was very generous with again with their time Spending, you know, up to an hour and a half with us at every meeting to sort of walk through our design questions that we had um, I've we've met with um A number of municipal committees. We've presented to the housing trust a couple of times We've presented to cpa We've had onsite meetings with town counselors that have come and had a site visit I've had one-on-one conversations with counselors as well. So we've we've done that Five times and then we've had multiple emails and phone calls from neighbors throughout the process So somebody that didn't maybe feel comfortable speaking at a public meeting Or just wanted some more information I've received a number of phone calls from people who are just interested in purchasing here and wanted to know How did they get an application? So we have a lot of interested parties that are looking to move here, which is great So i'm just going to dig in a little bit here. You have an architectural building plan set Um, and so this is just a snippet of one of the floor plants So just to kind of walk you through some of our design concepts here when it comes to the duplex building So as I said 30 homes 15 duplexes um, we Very much wanted to make sure that we incorporated Sustainable development practices and really look to do a passive solar design house in a passive solar design Sighting of the buildings in the site design. So what that means is that in the summer Um, when the sun is at a certain horizon the building shields direct sun from coming into the building keeping the building cooler In the winter when the sun is at a lower horizon It's able to capture that solar game and heat the house. So We are very cognizant that we have low and moderate income individuals coming into these homes That may not have a ton of money for operational costs That may not have a lot of money for paying uh condo development fees. So we were really Thoughtful on how we wanted to design to make sure that we kept these costs low as possible For future homeowners here So in this design when we say passive solar design if you're looking on the west You'll see that there's a lot of windows on the side. That's to gain solar heat in the winter Um on the north side. We don't have as many windows um And we've got 18 of the of the homes are two bedroom 12 of the homes are three bedroom. All of them have 1.5 baths There are four different building types in this um In this development really to make sure that we had varied Sizes and heights. So none of the buildings have the same height. There are variation of of height We wanted to make sure there's a variation of massing to keep it architecturally interesting um And then on the site plans those are labeled as units a through d So if you look at the site plan, you'll see a letter on the certain footprints That's what that's in reference to and um And like I said, it's it's mixing it up to make sure that we get kind of an interesting configuration architecturally Six of the homes are accessible. They're designed to be accessible. They're one-story homes with door widths um and bathroom turning Races to accommodate a wheelchair All of the homes are designed to be visitable. So they are at a flat grade Um at the entry so anybody in wheelchair can enter any of the homes We wanted to make sure that even though these homes have a pretty small footprint They range somewhere between 995 square feet to about 1200 square feet for the three bedroom We wanted to make sure that the homes had interior and exterior storage So you'll see that there's these mud rooms that have been designated that can be used for storage If you look at the second floor floor plans, you'll see there's additional storage up there And then every single one of the duplexes has outdoor exterior storage space That can be accessed here. So the idea is we didn't really want to have A bunch of sheds popping up after we left And for somebody to have to keep coming before the zba in order to put in a shed So we were hoping to be able to accommodate Out exterior storage for each individual homeowner by building it into the design Um, we're planning to do all electric utilities. So, um, again trying to to keep the Everything's fossil fuel free. We're not going to be using any fossil fuels And then having individual PV systems for each unit again intentionally looking at it as an individual system Because with this passive solar design Um, not everybody is going to have sort of equitable access to the sun So, um, rather than trying to deal it with it as a condominium association with common solar across all units Each unit will have their own individual PV system We think that will be more fair and equitable for homeowners in the future Um, so somebody's running a lot of heat and they have PV that's offsetting it or somebody who's decides that they don't Want to use a lot of heat at least it's sort of contained within that one home Ms. Allen is PV photovoltaic. Yes. Yes, it is Um As I mentioned earlier also looking at 100% affordability. So all of the homes Will have some deed restriction again going back to that concept of trying to to shrink the equity gap the racial equity gap and trying to create Assets for a homeowner the deed restrictions are 30 years that is part of the commonwealth builder program That is a requirement of the program We are looking to have people not be stuck in in a situation where they're not going to be able to Generate any income off of a sale of a house If they decide to stay there for 30 years 30 years is about the same length as a mortgage So really we really are looking for people to buy these homes stay in these homes And then after 30 years be able to sell get some um some generational wealth in their in their families all of the Homes must be owner occupy. There's no rentals allowed. That is that is built into the deed restriction and part of the commonwealth builder requirements 10 of the homes will be at 80% ai 20% of the homes will be available to households at 100% ami And because we are going through this 40v process all of the homes will be included on amherst shi Your subsidized housing inventory So just a kind of quick look at the different building types I'd mentioned there's four and you'll see on the site plans. There's a letter here that designates. What is what? So we've got two building type a's which is um one a half story On the left side two story on the right side And we've got a total of two of those in the development Building type b We have a two story on the left side a one and a half story On the right side and we have seven of those in the development building type c We have one and a half story on the left side We have a one story accessible unit on the right side and there's a total of three of those in the development and then building type b which Maintains that accessible one story unit on the right side of the duplex But the left side is a two-story Three bedroom instead of a one and a half story two bedroom and there's three of those in the development And if you go into the building plans, you can see renderings and floor plans and details for each of these unit types as for site design, so we spent A lot of time on site design and received a lot of feedback from the community The concept really is we wanted to preserve That beautiful meadow in the front that you can see from the intersection of monogy road and pulpit head road As much as possible and try to concentrate development on areas that had already been developed already had concrete paths Already has seen some some level of development in those locations So that is the sort of big picture Concept that we were going for was a matter of how is it going to be configured to create a community? We were really looking at pocket park Designs as an inspiration. We were looking at co-housing as an inspiration You know, how can we make these pedestrian friendly? How can we try to intentionally create a community through design? so Preserving this sort of frontage and reserving a part of it for storm water infiltration Um, and then continuing to have access through the driveway Um, there would be access here off pulpit hill road with two common parking areas Um, the rest of this is all pedestrian. So this is a 12 foot pedestrian Um pathway means spine that kind of connects the development with secondary pathways throughout These secondary pathways help to create some of these quasi public spaces. So we have areas of common lawn That have been intentionally created and designed within each of these sort of clusters of homes um, I think the trickiest part of this whole process was trying to Use the passive solar orientation without making it look too cookie cutter So how do we try to maximize that solar access without having it be too rigid looking? So we spent a lot of time tweaking and that's why we ended up honestly with four different building types It was because how do we need to be able to to maximize our solar gain? And keep this sort of a very intentionally New england village sort of look a co-housing cottagey look um So this 12 foot pedestrian path would be paved. It has three foot shoulders on each side. That was a request to the fire department Um, the parking areas have handicap parking Actually, I'll get to that in a second. Um, I know it's right here. Yep So we've got 58 spaces three of them are temporary So these are temporary spaces and the reason they're temporary is we need that we need that for the once a week Trash delivery or trash pickup and recycling pickup. So these spaces can be utilized on non pickup days But um need to be left open on days that the trash is collected um, we have Five handicapped spaces total we intend to provide eight electric vehicle spaces so wired and with The infrastructure for ev And then providing another ev ready so wiring for but not putting in not installing the actual Information or the information to the pedestals Um for utilities, we are looking to have electric and telecommunications access coming off of route 63 Water would be a loop that comes in off 63 and connects through And then sewer is coming from ball lane We attempted for a long time to try to completely stay off ball lane for any reason and I'll explain in a minute Um, it really has to do with the the legality of it and the fact that it's a private way um But due to the the high ground water in some locations due to the the slopes and Trying to minimize how much fill we would need to bring in in order to make the storm water work At the end of the day, we needed to um to make the utilities work at the end of the day We needed to bring in a small line of sewer and tie in in this location And when we get to that utilities and storm water discussion our civil team will will really dive into the weeds of that And how we ended up there um So how did our design shift and change with public comment? So as I noted, we had a lot of meetings. We had 17 meetings over the course of a year and a half um Where we landed and how things shifted and changed. So one um Not having any vehicular access Through ball lanes. So we had contemplated using ball lane as one of the access points for a while And had some concept designs that that looked at that But after conversations with the town After conversations with some of the the neighbors We decided to that it wasn't worth it in terms of the financial impact that it would have to the project To have any access on ball lane because it's a private way We would need to upgrade it to be a public way, which means taking which means putting in a um a um What's called? called the sack at the end It was just infrastructure that didn't seem to make sense And seemed to be more than what the project needed and more pavement than we really wanted to use. So There and there's some varying opinion of residents on ball lane itself on whether they wanted it to be upgraded to A public way versus those that did not want it to be upgraded to a public way and liked it the way it was So at the end of the day, we decided Let's just stay off ball lane You know, let's for legal reasons. Let's just really focus on access on the existing driveway Um, but as part of that as we heard during the community Meetings is that there were neighbors that wanted to at least have a pedestrian pathway that connected ball lane To the development. So we incorporated that pathway as part of our design changes um a lot of discussion revolved around How would people safely get to the pvta stop from the project? development so We went back and forth should we put in a pathway? Should we not put in a pathway at the end of the day? What we decided to do is add a sidewalk on the on the um Eastern side of monogu road. There's an existing sidewalk on the western side but In discussions we determined it probably didn't make the most sense to have a mid block crosswalk To get people to the western side to then go down and then cross again So we have incorporated a new sidewalk as part of the project to get people safely to the pvta bus stop We had a number of one-on-one meetings with um one of the director butters And we've put in significant privacy screening for him including an eight foot fence in robust landscaping So that has been part those were changes that were added to the project over time One of the other requests were also to site one-story homes That were adjacent to the closest butters on the eastern property line rather than have a two-story home There was concerns that people might be able to see into their backyards from a two-story home So we intentionally sort of shifted The buildings around a little bit and made sure that those at that location there were one-story homes So that there wasn't any concern there For the main pedestrian way is we had discussions with the town. We added three-foot shoulders for fire trucks We were also considering putting in removable bollards because it really is intended to be a pedestrian way We don't want people driving through it. That's not the intent of it or the design for it. So But at the end of the day the request was not to have removable bollards Instead use multiple curbs and put some robust signage there to make people understand that it's for emergency vehicles only I was also brought to our attention that the number of Electric vehicle spaces that we had initially had in our plans did not meet the stretch code. So we added Wiring so that we'd be able to meet the stretch code requirements for EV vehicles And then we received another comment about the solar capacity for this project So we met with pd squared and they helped us to determine that yes There is in fact solar capacity for the individual homes We asked them about was their capacity to put solar over the common parking areas And they indicated that there really was not so there'd be more infrastructure than what the grid would be able to handle So we decided not to explore that because that was something else that was brought up by community members So we've talked a little bit about zoning exemptions It sounds like there's some dialogue that is happening at the board level and regards to one of those provisions But really the reason that we're here is that to allow more than one dwelling on a single lot to allow 15 duplexes on 30 homes So across the street The co-housing is in a different overlay zone that allowed them to do Multiple structures on one lot on our property here, which is outlined in yellow and shows that split zoning We did not have that ability and we really wanted to make sure we had concentrated development here On that lower density zoned area and also that farmland conservation Because we want to utilize what's already there and kind of protect that beautiful meadow in the front Which actually encourages a higher density of development. So we're kind of flip-flopping the development design from what the zoning wants us to do we've also requested waivers For the cluster subdivision requirements because we're not creating a new public way So in the zoning if you're doing a residential development in the rld or in the fc overlay It wants it to be a cluster subdivision. Well, we don't have a public way So it doesn't make sense to have it be a cluster subdivision We're also requesting waivers from the some of the overlay district requirements in the farmland conservation overlay district um, we're looking for waivers from the dimensional regulations um, another way waiver requests is to um increase the fence height For this front property line here, which I believe is for under the zoning is four feet We're looking for an eight foot fence for doubling that again That's been based on conversations with that with the butter and their desire for screening and we've accommodated that in the plans um, other smaller waivers is um understanding that we're building exterior storage into each home So no need to require community bike racks And then waving all of the separate approvals that would be needed for special permit site plan review or any other local permits Incorporated into one comprehensive permit decision So a lot of the waiver requests have to do with trying to package this into one decision So let me take a breath here. We'll drink the water so diving here into home buyer requirements, so The commonwealth builder program these are the three primary requirements That a prospective homeowner must meet in order to be eligible to purchase one of these homes First is I mentioned earlier. They have to be a first-time home buyer. There's some definition clarity there, but essentially a first-time home buyer They must have assets less than a hundred thousand dollars and they must be quality must be able to income qualify so They must be you know an 80 percent or 100 percent AMI Homeowner, but they also have to be able to qualify for a fixed-rate mortgage loan They have to be able to provide a minimum of three percent down payment or be approved for a down payment assistance program They must be able to pay all closing costs And they must be able to complete home ownership counseling by the time of purchase and luckily for us here at valley That is a service we provide So I've been kind of beating the drum at community meetings saying to people or anybody who calls me and says How do I get one of these one of these homes? my response has been You need to make sure you've got your credit in check and in line and to be able to start saving money because Just because you're a first-time home buyer just because you have assets less than a hundred thousand dollars You'll still need to be able to qualify for a fixed-rate mortgage, which right now is at 7.25 percent when I looked the other day So, you know, these are these are these are tough for anybody to meet but in particular We're hoping that people are starting now Understanding that we're just beginning this permitting process. It's going to take a little while for us to get into construction But individuals that are interested in purchasing one of these homes Should be talking to Donna Cabana, who's our home ownership counselor To try to figure out how they can get themselves lined up and in good position to be able to get into one of these homes later on So the commonwealth builders program as of 2023 has a couple of home buyer preferences And again, this is these preferences are a result of that influx of the arpo money that came into the program a couple years ago So one again Fortunate for us is households living in a qualified census tract. So any household that lives in either one of these two qualified census tracts and amherst um Would be a preferential home buyer under this program Um, I looked at the data just to get a sense of what that meant for the town of amherst It's 35 of the total town population and 35 of the total land area in amherst So a third of amherst living in the qualified census tract would have a home buyer preference under this program Um, another preference that could be utilized is households that qualify for certain federal programs So if there's a program that's um that qualifies for snap or free reduced lunch Um, any of these federal programs They also would be a home buyer preference and would have a higher preferential in the lottery process So quickly on anticipated sale prices so These are not set in stone The final sale prices are going to be set by mouse mass housing when we get to the time of marketing Which will be a couple years from now And they're going to reflect what those current HUD income limits are and what the market conditions are So when i've been in discussions with mass housing about setting these sale prices They're looking at they're taking a pretty conservative approach to determine What the sales price can be based on not just income level But um the income of somebody paying no more than 30 of their household income on housing Looking at interest rates looking at putting down 5 down payment Um, and so they're really kind of figuring out like if you take in all those different considerations That number kind of fluctuates in terms of what somebody is able to buy so Say interest rates either go up in a couple years That number shrinks that that that gap kind of shrinks if interest rates go down That number would open up a little bit more opportunity for individuals So it's really based on market conditions So understanding that as like a Just sort of as a side note here This is the these are the numbers that mass housing has most recently provided me So looking at the two bedroom one story 80 percent AMI $150,000 um the two bedroom 1.5 story 80 percent AMI 163 4 The three bedroom two story 80 percent AMI At 179 four so for the 80 percent AMIs we're ranging from 150,000 to about 180,000 It's about $30,000 difference For the hundred percent AMIs We're ranging for about 190 To 232,000 um So lowest lowest price for the one story accessible 80 percent AMI is 150,000 highest is 232 This is still way below what's on the market right now in Amherst And I look at the mls every day And I do not see anything that of this price point in Amherst Except for potentially a vacant land every once in a while maybe a condo So this is really hitting a price point that people within this income Bracket would be able to hit So as I was explaining earlier about restriction terms um 30 year restriction term from initial sale again This program is not looking to put a 99 in perpetuity restriction on it because they're looking to for people to be able to Create that intergenerational wealth to create some asset for their family um Because we are going through a 40 b process here The restrictions are going to be probably a little bit different between the 100 percent AMI and the 80 percent AMI So under the commonwealth builders program typically what they like to see for those moderate income Individuals is years one through 15. There's some pretty strict resale and buyer restrictions It has to be a first time home buyers still has to hit certain price points. It's kind of similar to The requirements is when they bought in but after year 15 There's unrestricted sales amounts You can sell to the buyer market opens up But you're subject to an equity sharing with public funders So that would also mean the town of Amherst because you're a public funder because you've put in CPA money because you've put in trust money some of that Equity sharing would come back to the town So for the 80 percent AMI Unfortunately, we don't have this the same sort of dual level um And it's it's strictly a resale and buyer restrictions for 30 years Um, and this is again a result of being permitted under 40 b. This creates this restriction Um, but that being said, you know, this is still a lot less of a restriction in terms of years Then what was typically done prior to 2008 when the market fell when you had affordable home ownership projects They were off in 99 year restrictions. So this, you know, even now with this sort of limited for the 80 percent AMI It's still giving that ability for a homeowner in 30 years when their mortgages paid off To be able to gain some equity in their house Um within this 30 year term Again to try to create this intergenerational wealth There is buy right transfers to immediate family during the term It must be owner occupied. But if a parent wants to grant a child The house they're able to do that Typically if you have an affordable home ownership Our home come up on the market now. I believe it's to the first person who puts in the offer That's what I've discussed with Donna Kavana. That's typically how it works for this project You wouldn't follow those same processes. You could be you could transfer it to an immediate family member The term has the ability to reset. However, the municipality has to exercise A right of first refusal and elect to do so. So as the home comes up for sale There is a provision that if the town of Amherst wants to reset the term for another 30 years They would have the ability to do so So that language gets worked out with mass housing and we are happy to have mass housing Staff and attorneys talk with your town attorney to figure out what makes the most sense in terms of that language But that is that is an option for the town And then all the resales are completed by mass housing. So There's no staff time that would be required for the town of Amherst to assist on any of the resales It's all completed by mass housing So marketing so We follow kind of a similar pattern to the rental processes for the rental Apartments that like we did at east gables. We need to create an affordable fair housing marketing plan That would be drafted by us valley and then it gets reviewed and approved by mass housing as the primary subsidy provider Mass housing at the time of marketing will set those maximum sale prices based on the market conditions and based on the income restrictions at the time We would follow a similar lottery process There would be a waitlist that would be maintained by mass housing And then mass housing would be determined to be the affordability monitoring agent To valley to make sure that we're in compliance with the marketing plan so as for future governance of the of the development so per the commonwealth builder regulations it can either be a Straight fee sale for a single family home or if it's a condo association It's required to have a professional management company with that condo association So we intend to draft condo docks that meet the mass general laws There would be a board of managers. We would have a master d bylaws rules and regulations Valley is already hired an attorney to assist us on drafting those condo docks there They have expertise in 40d projects. They have expertise in drafting condo docks And something I actually failed to mention when we were talking about the site plan Is that every home will have a limited use area associated with it? so we have these common spaces, but then every home has a A small square footage That is considered their own yard. So how What is maintained or what is maintained and what is regulated within those limited use areas versus the common areas Will be different and those will be all spelled out in the condo docks So for the common areas, we're looking at the parking areas We're looking at pathways at the common lawns the Protected meadow in the front any common infrastructure storm water system So, you know ice and snow removal trash and recycling Landscape mowing utility storm water maintenance and as I mentioned earlier again We're looking to try to keep these condo fees very reasonable. We don't want to overburden somebody who's already putting All the skin in the game that they can muster to own a home to then cost burden them with outrageous condo fees So we're really trying to keep the condo fees as reasonable as possible But not letting the property just go foul either so balancing those two things together And as I mentioned earlier with the homeowners, they would have their limited use limited use areas that they'd be responsible for and then the their home itself So property management. I think as part of this application packet you receive the property management documents So we'd be looking to work with the condo association to hire a professional management company We would certainly assist the condo association on that Right now we're looking to have trash and recycling completed once a week. We've had many conversations with the local holler About truck radiuses and whatnot and all that's been incorporated into the site plans Looking to have snow removal and storage her storm event You'll see on the site plans that there's three areas already identified for snow storage And we can talk about that at a future meeting and get into the details of that We've provided a lighting plan a photovoltaic plan We're looking to have that lighting mostly just be in the common parking areas and then smaller ballard Lighting along the pathways really trying to keep it as Light as possible limited as possible in terms of light But also trying to make it safe. So trying to find that balance between the two Landscape maintenance looking at the mowing of common areas seasonal cleanup Stormwater systems need to be cleaned twice a year and you'll find all of the operation of maintenance information in the stormwater plan We are also proposing to have a mailbox shed Who of them actually on the site plans near the parking areas and in these Sheds we'd look to have common mailboxes a community bulletin board where people could post information for the rest of the community and then storage for utility cards because if you're unable to Drive your groceries to your front door. We want to have a way for people to be able to Bring them. So having a storage area for some common use utility cards So this is again mentioned in the application But just hitting on some of the highlights that have been noted in community plans and how this project meets those needs Um in the 2015 housing market study There is a note about providing small two and three bedroom college style units at a higher density than traditional single family housing in the housing production plan of 2013 Encouraging the encouraging private development of cottage or bungalow style cluster developments Incorporating universal design and disability standards using sustainable development principles using high energy efficiency for reduced operating costs And communication with neighboring properties during development process all of these that we've hit in this proposed development In the master plan and housing chapter it talks about encouraging a greater mix of housing types sizes and prices It talks about encouraging development of economically diverse neighborhoods It's it talks about supporting development of affordable units with equity building provisions Developing housing in an environmentally sound manner and encouraging the visit the visitability of units So timeline here so as I noted we in 2022 2023 Focusing on acquisition community engagement site and building design Local funding requests and here we are at local permitting Um once we get through permitting then we would start working on our final construction documents We would go out to bid with the general contractor and figure out what that pricing is Um, we would still continue to look for grants and foundations to support the project And then we would be putting in an application to an official application come with builders Um once funded we'd start closing for financing start construction marketing lottery construction completion and sales to selected buyers sometime between late 2025 um 2026 So Takes a long time to do these these deals. We've heard that before over the affordable housing. It's never something that's quick It takes time And that's the end of my presentation. So I'm happy to answer any questions of the board at this time Great. Thank you very much miss allen. That was Really insightful. I appreciate it. Um What I'd like to do is just turn a little bit to the sort of the The home buyer preference slide that you put up and I'd like to understand a little bit about the income restrictions as well as the sales restrictions and what I would get probably in accurately term a limited equity model, but um Look, can we go back to that? So the anticipated Uh sales prices is that that's a good place to start. Okay. I'm going to do it in uh in a pdf and see if there's some Rather than the powerpoint itself. Does that work? Do you see this sure? Okay, great. The first question I have is understanding that this is going to change But by the time it goes out to uh to actually for people to uh purchase these homes But as of today What are we looking at for an income required for the first unit here the two bedroom one story? 80 percent of area median income at $150,000 For that night for that just shy of a thousand foot square foot home That's going to be required to To do that. Um, I believe it's in the project narrative and let me just pull it up so I can confirm Just Hold on. I'm going to stop for a second Just pull it over here so I can see what I'm doing. Um, I want to say that it's starting at 62 and going to 90 So for those for the 80 percent Bucket of houses $60 to $90,000 of income required to Make the downpins make the monthly payment and include the condo fees Yeah, and it's It depends on the family size so there's all you know under HUD That's the one through the eight families and so it's going to depend on how many members are in the household Um, and really it's going to depend on how much money like if somebody's able to bank $50,000 or If they're able to come to the town and go for down payment assistance through your cdbg or cpa Or potentially reparations committee as that's being discussed in the town Um, you know, if they're able to bring that number down Then they are not even paying $150,000 They're going to be paying less than that in a mortgage and that makes a difference In terms of what their mortgage payment can be So and how much they're willing to to be able to but I can get back to you on the on the exact numbers as of now I would want to go back and look in the math housing's worksheet and the numbers that they've pulled up So i'll make a note of that and I will follow up with the with the exact numbers for you Would you do that for all the difference? 80 and 100 absolutely i'll do it for i'll show you what the um the calculations were that math housing developed for each of the Amis i'm happy to share that information and you're using the current interest rate for mortgages, which is about You said seven and a half percent now that was as of last week when I I like um math yeah math housing The last time they updated these numbers was I think right before I submitted the application So things could have changed in the past month, but I can give you um I'll tell you what dates these numbers are as of and how they've um and how they figured it out I'm happy to do that it gives me a ballpark to try to understand this better and I know Qualifications that I know it's going to change over time. Yep the second thing is talk to me a little bit about the sort of the sales restrictions and then the The um recapture of equity because you're trying to balance two things You're trying to provide the ability for people to build up some equity and some wealth in a house which Which is difficult for a large sloth of society to do And I understand but at the same time you're trying to Preserve this as housing stock that's affordable for lower 80 to 100 of median income families and those are two kind of competing or conflicting goals as attention If nothing else between those two goals Part of that is recapture part of that is limiting who you can sell it to let's go through that again for just Run through it with me again Where those limitations are sure so um in terms of the right of first refusal Part that was actually added later on it was not in the original commonwealth builders regulations in 2021 It was something that was added later on because a lot of municipalities asked for it So the initial intent of the program was really to create that equity Sharing ability not sharing ability but be able to for a household to build equity in their home That was the goal But there was too much question and pushback from municipalities and saying we want to have be able to have some control To be able to reset that if needed So that's why I think it might be it would be useful to have the mass housing Attorneys or their staff sit down with town officials and sort of hash out what works best for the municipality They have already offered to do that because I think each municipality has a little bit different of a flavor of how they wanted to work um So whether it's it comes up for sale at mass housing They notify the town saying you have a right of first refusal if you want to reset The 30 year provision starting on this house Then you can certainly do that and it would be set for the next 30 years Or if it's somebody who's maybe selling in that 16th year if it's 100 percent AMI Home and they're selling it um in that 16th year and there's an equity provision It's going to be it's in the deed restrictions and I can certainly give you the examples I can give you copies of the examples that are provided to me there's a calculation on on who gets what and how much and commonwealth builders is putting in Eight million dollars plus The municipality is put in million dollars. So a little bit more than that. So, um, You know, it's it's going to be based on sort of what that contribution already is and go back go back to your I think was the PowerPoint page after the one you just showed Yep that outline of those restrictions a little bit walk me through those again Sure, but it's it's easier. Yeah, this is easier Okay, so yeah, so you see it the 30 year restriction. Okay, so we have a 30 year restriction term so What makes this complicated is because we're permitting under 40 b The 80 units have to meet the 40 b regulations. Um, so um That has to be restricted for the full 30 years with the resale and buyer restrictions For those projects that are 100 a.m. I households Yeah, um Those really need to stick with the commonwealth builder regulations They are not willing to allow all units to be just 30 year restriction I've had this discussion with them because I said to them seems a little weird that those that are lower income are going to be held to this longer restriction With more there aren't you know, their hands tied a little bit longer versus though that might be more moderate income and have this ability to You know, so it's it's a little weird Um, and their response was well, we're going to hold hard and fast on that 100 percent We don't have much leeway with the 80 percent Um, and their response was let me put it to you this way We're allowing this project to continue in a qualified census track That doesn't actually isn't an eligible geographic location anymore. So this is kind of like the um The price you pay for that What's that? It's kind of the price that the project pays for being allowed to go forward in a you know, what would otherwise be an un um Non permitted area right right right right, so For the 100 percent years one through 15 it has to be sold to the same kind of Same kind of restrictions same kind of income levels as they bought it now Those will change over time, but the same percentage restrictions. Yep. And it has to be a first time home buyer First time home buyer. Yeah, and 15 through 30 um, you you can sell it to other people, but that is when the equity sharing with The state as well as a town comes in and they can the town can decide whether it wants to share to Grab some of that money or not the state wants to do it so can recycle the money Okay, I understand and in years one through for the 81 through 30 You have the same uh buyer restrictions as you did originally you do If somebody holds on to it for 30 years arguably they bought the house Correct, they own it outright correct for whatever price they wish and do ever they wish correct Unless the unless the town Set or exercise is the right of first refusal Okay, that's yeah, thank you. Okay. Lastly another in order to create sort of family wealth Allowing to buy right transfers to immediate family members That is another way in which we seek to create some kind of subgenerational wealth correct correct Got it. Okay. That's very helpful. Thank you. You're very welcome Um, that's my first set of questions. I want to open it up for other people on the board Mr. Henry had his hand up first Go ahead. Mr. Henry Thank you, mr. Chair Just to piggyback off some of your questions um for valley With the right of first refusal does that give the town permission to say We want to buy this property and we want to maintain it as low income I don't think so we We can again I can check with mass housing and I think it's worth having a conversation with direct with them directly because as they've indicated to me It can kind of be framed on what the community wants and they desire for this piece but my sense is that um I don't know if the town wants to own it themselves And I don't I think the whole idea is that you set the the right of first refusal again for the next buyer So that they have to now adhere to the deed restriction itself It would be restricted as affordable It would continue to have the the same restrictions as the initial buyer It would just be kind of read that 30 year clock would reset again with a new buyer Does that am I making myself clear? Did I answer your question? You did okay, and Staying with the same line of questions So in in years 16 to 30 if the restrictions are lifted Isn't there a concern that if I mean people realize okay my house now has some equity I can sell and get something maybe perhaps bigger um, isn't there a concern that Somebody who has money can buy these properties and then After a while it is no longer affordable housing. It's just people with money just buying all these properties. How do we safeguard against that? um It's a great question. Um, I think again, it would be have to be sort of tied into that right of first refusal Language or something that's tied into the deeds if if you I mean again the whole idea is for somebody to be able to gain some generational wealth So 30 years from now this might not this would no longer be an affordable housing development potentially I think that is a true statement If all the buyers stayed in place for 30 years and waited for the restriction to lift And then decided to sell They'd be able to make a profit as of anybody else who was a market rate buyer who buys a house and Stays in their house for 30 years and pays off their mortgage and then Sells their house for for equity. So um, again unless the town wants to elect to utilize their Right of first refusal anytime a home comes up for sale and then they can reset that clock for another 30 years of a deed restriction So that would be up to the town to do that and make that decision every time a home comes up for sale Okay The the income requirements Is that is that income per family? What if there's an individual? Person trying to buy this. What is that income requirement? So again, I can I'll send you the I'll send the board the The numbers that were been provided by mass housing and how those calculations came out But if somebody I think it actually might be very difficult for somebody who's a single just a single person at these income levels to be able to be um, have enough money for down payment closing costs be able to Qualify for fixed rate mortgage. I think it's going to be tough. Honestly I think if you look at the numbers as of today You're looking probably at two person households and higher that are able to afford again It could it could depend on the individual if the individual has 75 000 dollars set aside scrolled away for down payment That they can put on top of that $150,000 Sales price They've just cut that price in half and they might be able to make those those monthly payments So it really is it's kind of individual in terms of On on the individual situation in terms of the purchase If you've got a if you have a huge amount of money that you can set aside for down payment That really brings the housing cost down for somebody and what in what mass housing is really looking at Is they want to make sure that you're not paying 30 percent more than 30 percent of your household Income monthly income. So they're looking at all those different factors the interest rates your down payment How does that all factor into what that bottom line number is for you as an individual purchaser? Can you make your monthly payment? I'm in this sort of window this income window with all of those other factors taken into consideration Does that am I making myself clear is that I understand what you're saying. Yeah, okay, which leads me to my other point in question And and I will say this for any BIPOC person that's watching. I don't mean to offend anyone but I I'm very concerned about People having to be able to qualify for fixed-rate mortgage because BIPOC people The average person doesn't have 50,000 7,000 saved for down payment on a house. That is quite significant And at the same time more often than not there are credit restrictions to fixed-rate mortgage that a lot of BIPOC people will be challenged to meet their requirements They do have debt. That's why they have very low income because they're not making sufficient money So to be able to so the requirements to be able to qualify for fixed-rate mortgage loan I'm concerned that we're going to be excluding significant amount of people that This project is meant to help So there's that concern and the second thing with that is I understand that there's credit counseling which I actually welcome And would like to see what that entails But are we working with any banks have Valley discussed this with any banks to say, you know, here is a project. It is meant to help Low-income people understanding that there are going to be some credit challenges But they have stable employment How do you work with them to make sure that they can afford this property? And again, if a if the average person applies for a mortgage Credit score, they're not going to have a credit score for a commercial mortgage, right? Right. So again, another excellent point that you make To answer the first question in terms of the amount of money somebody might have for down payment assistant Again, I'll sort of harp on CBG funds that are available at the town of Amherst CPA money. That's available at the town of Amherst Alexis, please jump in if you want to tell me what those amounts are in terms of available In terms of available Per homeowner. Is it $25,000 per homeowner for CPA? Yep. Yep. So valley currently works with a number of municipalities to do Mortgage down payment assistance Amherst is one of them and we're funded through CPA to provide up to $25,000 of mortgage assistance To low-income buyers to purchase a home in Amherst That has been true for a number of years and quite honestly We've had a hard time using it because there's almost nothing affordable for our first-time home buyers in Amherst That's part of the reason that we're so excited about this Development because we're hoping that it actually gives first-time home buyers a place to buy in Amherst Thank you. Um, and then sort of going back to um Also mentioning the reparations committee. I mean on Monday night the the report went to the finance committee I saw in the paper Um, I've had conversations with certain members of that committee about first-time home buyer down payment assistance being like a real key Um component um that or something that could really be utilized at this project given the goals that we're trying to to utilize So that's another um Another aspect in terms of the banks. I think that's a great point We haven't got to that part yet in this project, but I certainly will try to make a note of that And um, I think that's that will be part of our next step As we start once we get through permitting and we're really start having a real project that we can we can have conversations with I think that's a great point. Um, if you have if you know of any banks that have programs that we should be talking to I welcome that information. So please send that my way um Can I just sorry can I just go ahead? I do want to note that our valley as an organization and particularly our current home ownership manager has a 20-year record of helping first-time home buyers and has A really good working relationship with a number of local banks. We as an organization also have a good Um, uh relationship with a number of local banks and she Has been able to facilitate mortgages with a number of first-time home buyers Because they You know, it's just it's two decades worth of working together and trying to get people into homes So while I don't I can't say like, you know, these three banks are absolutely going to do it I will say that on a case by case basis. We've been able to move people forward And in terms of the credit worthiness again, I hear you and I um I think I'd go back to harping to what we've been talking about at community meetings And again trying to get people financially ready now knowing these homes won't be available for two years And what can folks do now to sort of clean up their credit score so that they can be Financially ready and credit worthy in order to qualify These are requirements under the commonwealth builder Program, so we don't have a lot of flexibility in changing these requirements in terms of the credit worthiness um, so Again, I think between our relationships with the banks as a lexus noted and if you do know of anybody that is interested Please send them our way to talk to donna donna loves nothing more than sitting down and helping somebody figure it out It's like her favorite thing to do So really, you know send her send them to donna and she would assist somebody to try to get lined up now You're not going to get a great credit score in a month When all of a sudden these houses come online you really need to be thinking about it now And understanding that this is what you need to do over the next couple years to get yourself in a position That you're ready to go when the lottery opens up so in in in that sense would it be fair to say that There is significant interest from BIPOC community for this That they can actually start now working with credit counseling to your points to be ready in two or three years Absolutely We're waiting for the doors to start banging. We and I keep sending out information and we we've gotten I don't know if anybody's reached out to donna directly, but I have had by yes How they have we have at least three folks right now already. Okay, great. Yeah, that's awesome um, my my other question um is given that this is low income and I think I heard something about Solar issues or not using or not doing solar but the properties themselves are going to be all electric So we're going to do solar on each of the homes. It was there was requests from some of the community members to try to incorporate solar on the common parking areas and try to do like covered parking with solar and based on You know incorporating the homes and what they're going to be what their systems are and then looking at the what the systems needed to be for the common Um parking areas are kind of two different levels of system And they're it just didn't make sense to do it for the common parking areas So I kind of wanted to just nip that in the bud because it came up a couple times at our community meetings that people wanted Solar on the parking areas, but it's just not It's not feasible given my conversations with pd squared, but on the units Yes, that is our intent as long as as long as we have enough money to to install them. That is the plan They'll certainly be wired for it Our hope is that construction pricing isn't so crazy that we'll be able to afford it at the end of the day and we're also exploring options with Representative dom to try to figure out a state funding source to be able to do solar rooftop solar for all of the units Okay, um, thanks for that clarification the other question is Can transfer to family How do you envision that working because if Say if I'm one of these buyers and I'm the owner of this property I have a mortgage interest which means I have a financial responsibility to the bank I can just transfer to family the bank has to sign off on it because I again buy all the bank money This person who was given the transfer needs to be able to qualify Based on the bank's requirements. So how do you envision that working? So I think really what this um under the restriction term what this um Kind of gets rid of is if right now if there's an affordable home that goes up for sale It's kind of a first come first serve So if you can if you can show that you can purchase this home It goes to that individual in this case. We wouldn't have to go through that process The first person that it could be offered to is a family member But yes, I can look into it But my understanding is they would still need to be able to pay the mortgage and they still need to be financially viable to be able to do that um So, you know, again, I can ask mass housing for more information about how that process has worked Um, and I'd be happy to get that to you Okay, um and this may be um a small thing compared to the larger thing But I I heard about community and anything about laundry or is there a plan for an unit laundry community laundry? Laundry is in each of the in the homes They check their own individual laundry Okay, and then in terms of the bus I heard about a sidewalk get into the bus Is there no ability to say have The bus stop somewhere closer to the property than having you know Because again that area at night is dark. Um, that's that's a very That's the same issue. Sure. Yeah, I did um talk to the regional bus coordinator for pvta and asked him if he'd be willing to put a bus stop right at the end of the parking area off a pulpit hill road And their answer was there's two bus stops that are too close to that to add a third one so there's one up at the at the Co-housing development and then there's another one at the intersection. They were not willing to put a new one on pulpit hill road Right at the at the end of the driveway. So I did ask and was denied that request so You know, we talked about putting a pathway through the meadow But then it was like, you know, then they're going to have to mow the meadow and who's going to do that And what happens if they don't mow it? So what we determined is that just the easiest thing to do Would to be put a sidewalk and let me just share my screen. I'm not sure if we're going to be able to see it Well, but we can try um Let's see if I can blow this up a little bit All these zoom things are in the way Can't see my screen. There we go so the sidewalk comes here And then connects here and follows the edge of the of the property to here So that's where the would end um So that is that is where we ended up at the end of the day in terms of The best the best way to deal with the pedestrian access to that location And I'll make the last point before I stop If we're going the sidewalk option I would ask that we put in those lights at the sidewalk that people can Clearly push the buttons to indicate someone's crossing like we have downtown because again Um in winter that's going to be very dark where that is Great. Um, I just want to keep on the financing for a second that I'm going to go to you're done right mr. Henry I am mr. Chair I'm going to go to miss green bomb. I just want to follow up so we don't lose the thought on this So the income requirements are only a time of purchase if somebody is Fortunate enough to have an increase in their wage that they go above 80 percent or 100 percent of whatever is applicable. They still remain may remain in that housing, correct? right That's one thing secondly if you do get down payment assistance To do this the 20 or 25 thousand dollars Is that repayable or is that a grant? It depends on the source that it's coming from I would say yeah Right and I care do you can you answer that question? I was going to sorry. I have a child may be coming in so I apologize if there's a noise in the background Don't apologize for that He's very loud so Uh, I I don't I can look so it depends As I mentioned we have this program in amherst eastampton and northampton And each municipality has a slightly different twist some of them are repayable Some of them are grants and I quite honestly can't remember off the top of my head What amherst is but we can certainly respond to you There is also depending on the municipality then a lien against the property Particularly if it's a repayable instead of a grant So we can give you more specific ways that towns approach it in different ways Approach it in different ways and there's different programs too. There's could be statewide programs And you know again, I'm going to talk about reparations, you know They haven't determined how that would that could be a gift that could just be a grant with no repayment at all So, um, you know, it depends on how the program wants to structure itself And one last question on financing and then I'll we'll go to the screen ball So, um, you're looking for banks that would be interested in this It seems to me that this would be a classic thing Give them credit for their community reinvestment act Scores is it not it is is that if they found that that is have you found that banks find a positive effect from their Participation in these programs that will help them in their cra scores. Yeah, I would see that that would absolutely be the case I mean remember though that cra goes on a cycle So depending on where it hits on the cycle and if they've already hit their cra credits for the year They may have a different opinion But yeah, I definitely get if we get to them ahead of time so that they know their cycle is two years from now Yeah, it could be really helpful. Yeah. All right. Thank you. Ms. Greenbaum. I'm sorry. Go ahead So you're you're muted Oh Um, I've done along those two questions too, and I'm very conscious that other people may so Stick to my biggest ones And make it quick Thank you for explaining about the 30 year restrictions, but I'm confused how that fits in with the master deed as after 30 years it may had to Fewer people would qualify under the affordable guideline What if as things change as they do in 30 years? and the newer homeowners want to Or the new management committee or whatever of the condo association want to add more units How does that Fit in with whatever is in the master deed So the master is that confused? Um, I think I can answer it So the master deed is going to be tied to what is permitted under this project If the homeowners decide that they want to do something different They're going to need to come back to the zba under 40 b And request changes to the existing permit Um, I personally don't think that there's probably the ability or are you talking about like subdividing Off of uh, public hill road in that meadow. Is that what you're what you're sort of referring to? It's a nine acre site sure So it may be nine and maybe eight it may be eight and a half. I read all three in there. Whatever it is That's not important at this point. Um You've got 30 units now And times change and we need really dense housing and they want to add Six units or whatever sure in the in the plan that you guys approve Well, we approve actually now Can they come back in 30 years as You know, the law will be either but the way you're structuring it now can they come back in in 30 years and um Add more units if needed or are they still under Your control after 30 years. We we're not going to be in any control of this We it is once the home buyers purchase they are going to be They're going to make up the board of managers for the condo association. So this is different from any other That's what I'm asking. It is different Yeah, it's absolutely different. So we will help assist in setting up the condo association We will assist in trying in in finding a property management company to assist the condo association But once all the units are sold valley is no longer a management entity here The management turns over to the homeowners As the purchasers of the property Um, so if in five years they decide that they want to build a community house They're going to have to come back to the zba and get an approval for that and modify their permit in terms of extra More units I would say that the land would have to be able to accommodate that and we had a really challenging time to make the stormwater work With the number of that we had so any more pervious surface that's added to here Whether it's driveways, whether it's houses the stormwater and the land need to be able to accommodate for that And i'm not sure if it has the ability to do that. So Um, so that would be my my comment on an additional units Looks like Something that'll apply Miss green bomb's question. Yep. So, uh, miss green bomb does bring up some some Good concern. Well concerns that are legitimate about this permit. So I just want to reiterate that You know as we move on through this public hearing process We're anticipating at least four more hearings that cover different topic areas and one of the topic areas Will be property management, which includes the the condo association Which will include how you know, uh ownership will go from valley to this condo association how they're going to find their property management company that's going to facilitate You know any road repair or uh repair to the access way and maintaining the landscape and stuff like that So I just wanted to keep that in mind too. Hilda in case You know You wanted to ask any further questions about that or if you want to wait until that hearing but totally up to you No, I I wasn't bringing up that at all. I was more concerned about how the bounce to the continuing affordability was going to work And the other thing is about the storm water plan now We know can change rapidly in two years Has the whole weather system has changed very rapidly in a very few years And some of these houses could be underwater. Who knows but but That's my other big question that I don't been an issue of mine over the years is The whole issue of using the census tract To determine who could live in these units on one for always questioning the local preference So does the way these Units are being picked from two census tract means that we can have 100 local preference Well, let's put it this way that the program has a preference for anybody living in a qualified census tract And amherst certainly isn't the only qualified census tract in in the pioneer valley region So if somebody lives in a different qualified census tract in a different community, they would also be given a preference But it's not the whole commonwealth which does cut the population down a little bit Well, if somebody wanted to relocate from a different qualified census tract on the eastern part of the state They could potentially be in that preference category Well, then can can we have something like a 70 percent? That's not part of this program It's a 40 b project so the board has the ability to set that standard I would encourage the board to think about how this project is carefully cited Already in a geographic location that gives priority preference to households so I'll leave it to the board to decide Well, will somebody explain that father down the line Explain what The whole the local preference versus the qualified Whatever from over the states so the dba has the ability to set local preference with any 40 b Um permit and they can set it no more than 70 percent So um that has that was enacted during the east gables project Valley has had some reboss robust discussions about local preference and how it depending on a community can Enforce the inability for those of who are people of color to get into a unit because it's if it's a If it's a majority white community and it's a local preference, then you're going to have majority white Applicants so, you know, I think for this project given its goals and given that it's already located in a qualified census tract I don't believe there's a need to set local preference, but I'm not the decision maker The zba is so the zba as a board will need to have that discussion and determination On what makes sense for this project, but it would not be something I think valley would advocate for We think that we have we have the ability to pull from the community already under Being located in a qualified census tract I have one one last question you originally Had 120 percent area meaning at median income and Most of the need or a huge part of the need in the town is for workforce housing people who live who work here Can't afford to live here And and and so I'm curious. Why did you or were you forced to delete the 120 percent category? Um, good question. So under the commonwealth builders Program, the subsidy that they provide for 120 a mi is only $150,000 per unit With construction costs close to $500 a square foot We could not have we could not find enough money under commonwealth builders to be able to provide that We also had market rate at the beginning of this project. Um, you know a year and a half ago We started out with a project that was 80 120 and market rate. I can't remember now so long ago, but we had market rate units Our market study came back and said you can't sell these houses at the price that it's cost to construct them The market even though the market is so high and amorous the construction pricing is so out of control I know but the numbers don't work. So so sitting down with the commonwealth builders staff They helped us figure out. What's the best mix of 80 percent a mi and 100 percent a mi To maximize the amount of subsidy that we can receive from commonwealth builders So really some of these decisions are a financing decision on our part on how to be able to fund the project We wouldn't be able to fund the project or receive enough subsidy If we kept 120 a mi in the project May just follow up on a question from mr. Greenbaum With a census track um Am I hearing correctly that's Actually, let me just use the springfield as a preference If someone from springfield qualifies it could actually relocate to amherst and be qualified for this one of these houses, correct Okay, that is concerning to me and um going back to um The homeowners association um I lived in a Community that had an h.o.a. And those fees um increased significantly over time and How what is what is the measure what's in place here? I mean, this is a low income property um What is the development going to do to make sure that whatever? management company Develops this h.o.a. Understands that this is a low income property and as such That's expectations are there that this is not going to be your standard h.o.a. With those kind of costs Sure, so I think that will all come down to when we're drafting the condo docs Which will definitely be part of our discussion. I believe later on in this hearing process We've hired an attorney. We've had some initial discussions about what's incorporated in those condo fees Uh, we're a hundred percent with you on that. We do not want these fees to to to creep up over time We understand that these are low moderate income households that probably don't have a lot of extra money to pay um A condo association fee on top of their mortgage payment on top of their food On top of all the other things that it takes to survive these days. So um So we have designed this project in such a way to try to minimize the amount of maintenance That's going to be needed and you'll hear about that a little bit more as we get through the process You know picking no mo grass that only needs to get mowed twice a year um other things like that to to really try to keep the maintenance As low as possible and putting the responsibility and the homeowners themselves in terms of those limited use areas They are responsible for maintaining those areas. The condo association would not so the condo association really is dealing with plowing Um, you know snow ice removal making sure the pathways are safe to walk on um minimal landscaping to the to the best that we can under the common areas Um, you know, we've been really thoughtful about that as we've gone through this design process Bring it up again and again and again. Well, what if we added this? Well, how much is that going to take to maintain because we don't want to be adding things here in this development That's going to take a lot of money to maintain So it has really been at the forefront of our design process And I think we can get into that a little bit more in terms of the document itself and what we can put into those documents I think that's a conversation that we can have with our attorney team to see how do we craft language within the master deed To and and try to keep that information Or to keep those costs down as much as possible. It truly is a goal of ours and that would Go ahead. I'm just trying to go ahead and follow up the people, aren't you? Not a follow-up. I I it's a it's a different question. So if you have a follow-up, you can go ahead I do just real quickly on that number one. I think that'll be That's a whole series of issues that we're going to have a An additional time to spend some time on in another meeting and but these are good identifiable questions but when it really comes down to it Once you once you've sold off all these homes the homeowner association is going to be made up of the homeowners It's not going to be run by run by the Contractor so they will have the ability to make a decision as to what they can afford how much they want the rents to go up Unless there's restrictions within the D that require them to take care of certain things But they'll be able to control those costs to some extent themselves. Correct. Correct Go ahead. Mr. Henry So in the application, I believe I read that there's an anticipated nine kids within this community Is there anything In the development for kids a playground a park. I think the closest park at mill valley mill river is not is never close to this and Most of these people who expect to live there may not have transportation. So what is on site for kids? another good question, so Again, we sort of intentionally left areas unprogrammed Because we think it's important for the people who end up buying in this development to have some Say and some control of how they want common spaces to be utilized So we have multiple common lawns. Any of those can have a play structure on them at some point They can certainly put up a basketball net in the parking lot We did add a water spigot for community garden We're not going to build the community garden because we don't know whether the residents here are actually going to want a community garden Not everybody wants to have that. Maybe they'll just do it in their limited use area But we did put in the infrastructure In a very specific location In case that is something that the residents wanted so You know this we really are designing this with the intention of it having to be a community So our hope is that these homeowners really gel together as a community and make decisions together about what makes sense for For their spaces and for those common spaces and what they'd like to put where And with that understanding is there a commitment from the development company to say We won't put anything in there But we'll leave some money so you guys can decide and you can you have some money to if you want to playground You can put a pickup. It's a basketball court. You can put a basketball court in there. Can you guys make that commitment? I can't make that financial commitment now But what I can do is we have money set aside for contingency That is money that is used in case there's some unforeseen condition that we need to deal with We have a pretty robust contingency set aside. If you look at the pro forma, you'll see what that number is If there's money left over at the end of the day That's kind of what we use contingency money for is those little extras that we weren't sure whether we were going to have Money for in the beginning, but if it's something that we think makes sense um We can certainly think about how to how to do that for the residents if that again if that's something they're desired It could be that no children live here. So does it make sense to build a playground when no kids end up there? um, I don't think anybody wants to Utilize money and not have something to be used. So um, You know, I think it's something for us to think about but once we get closer to the end and see how much money We actually have left over out of our contingency budget Thank you Other questions from board members We will have some public comment. We'll have time for public comment max with the number of attendees I expect we'd have some robust public comment on this but um, we have some more time here for questions from board members until before we go to public comment And one of the things I do want to do at the end before we adjourn Today, I want to run through some of the topics that you are interested in in having Set aside or specified for some of our upcoming meetings. So make sure we cover some of these things we've talked about in more depth All right, um, if there are no other Questions from the board, I'd like to turn this to public comment And if members of the public wish to comment on this, uh, please Raise your hand by either through the zoom raise your hand function If you're on the phone do it by pressing star and nine Um, the staff with will assist us in identifying attendees when you are recognized, um, please Say your name give your address for the record Try to keep your comments to about three minutes. I will endeavor to Tell you when you've gotten close to that time So we can have as many people speak as As wish to So if members of the public wish to speak, this is the time to So indicate Time for public comment So we have one person so far I can go ahead and give that person speaking permissions Yep, please do All right Hello Is that me? Yeah, uh, you you're identified as laurance if that's you Yes Okay As i'm sorry the the lighting is not uh, I don't know how to do this if can you hear me we can You just need your name address and then you can proceed I'm laurance quickly 35 ball lane in amherst great Bless all of you for Doing this, uh I'm not, uh A professional at this I am on a butter, uh, and I live on a private lane Uh, uh, I want to make it clear that I support this endeavor and I'm Astonished at uh, just Jessica allen's ability to Keep all of this in her head Uh, and grateful to everybody who stays up late. Uh, I'm I'm up late. Uh, I want to, um I Point out uh that there's a wildlife corridor the state tracks the bears that come through I just like someone to be paying attention to what happens to the wildlife corridor Uh, and I don't know how to ask someone to do that, but would someone Please track the wildlife corridor that's going to be disrupted uh The other Part of this is that, uh, I have a covenant on my property Of who gets to pass through Uh, I'm at the end of ball lane. So I'm the end 35 is the end. There is a 40 which used to be 20 just so everyone Used to be a 20 on the building the the apartment, uh at 40 with it's the the The two got taken down and a four got put up Uh 20 used to be the medusco's garage uh, but uh my understanding my lawyer's understanding of who gets to walk by my house is uh for the residents at 40 and the residents at the 38 and 36 get to walk by uh, but not the uh Agents of 40 or 36 or 38 So there's going to be a question of a public A byway out of this development along ball lane That's going to be contested I wish you would change the Address to 190 monarchy road where you're going to be coming in from and uh Whenever there's any advertising about 20 to 40 ball lane cars Come through for days looking for 20 to 40 ball lane Down the lane. It's a private lane If you change the Advertising address to 190 monarchy road, they would go in that way and it would not be an interruption. So Uh, those are my concerns thank you all for Doing this very good thing that I'd like to support and uh, I'd like I don't know who to talk to about those concerns and uh, Jessica if you don't mind I'll call you tomorrow and ask who to talk to in the town about those concerns the the wildlife corridor and that I have a covenant to my property that allows Some people to go by and nobody else and I'd like That concern to be addressed. So I I turn it over. I I don't really I'm gonna try to go back to unmute or Try to go back to mute Mr. I can I can answer the question about the address if that would be helpful What we'll do out, uh, Ms. Allen will give you an opportunity to respond to all the public comments Yep, so keep uh notes of what you want to say to that. That'd be great um Other people who wish to make a statement express the concern Going once Going twice Oh Oh, never mind. There was one. Yeah, there was one. Oh raise hand again. All right. Mr. Stephen King. I will allow for you to talk Mr. King you're muted Yeah, I see So thank you. I'm Stephen King. It's actually my wife who's sitting next to me who was who is going to speak All right, um, we don't want to reiterate the letter that we sent Age 208 Montague Road Thank you We own the property on pulpit hill road 28 pulpit hill road on the both sides of the corner abutting this And I want to encourage you to read the letter that we sent and uh, I don't want to repeat the whole thing But we're very in favor of this project For all the reasons that have been stated But we also think it's really important for north amherst to have uh, these 30 families who own their homes, um, so I don't want to repeat the letter, but this is a terrific project. Thank you Thank you very much Other other people who wish to speak Not seeing any No All right Ms. Allen, do you want to respond to the question that we had from Lawrence? regarding address and Sure So it was our hope to be able to switch the property address to montague road Number to be determined by the town How before we filed the permit we really wanted to try to keep the address the same throughout this entire permitting process And when we get to the building permit process The complexity is that the property that we um, the rental that is on the property has an address of 40 ball lane So, um, we need to be able to subdivide That property as part of our proposal and I should have put that in the one of the waivers It's kind of one of the major ones and that's an oversight on my part is to be able to subdivide The the rental Off of the rest of the property because we intend to sell that and use those proceeds to contribute to the construction of the project So we can't subdivide until we get approval from the zba to be able to do that because it's on a the frontage isn't meet the frontage requirements And it's on a private way So we would either have to come before the zba to get a separate variance But we'd like to try to incorporate it as part of the the um, comprehensive permit So that's hence why the address continues to be on ball lane for the moment until we get to permitting and we're able to Officially subdivide that piece off then we're able to change the address We've already had conversations with dbw to be able to do that and they're fully aware of it Mr. Whatchill you want to respond? Well, I just want to reinforce what she's saying about the change of address so You know It's not uncommon for these permits to be granted and i'm speaking more about other land use permits as well That the address gets changed because they usually create more units Or if it's a subdivision Usually you would create new addresses and usually the person who determines street addresses is the building commissioner and In this regard if the zba wanted to accommodate the change of address they could condition it if they wanted to Just so it's on the record Usually a way to identify this property in the future is using the parcel number from the assessor's map Which is the most accurate way to determine, you know to identify the property It's very common for street addresses to change pretty often throughout a property's history. So, I mean this wouldn't Uphold anything down the road, but it's wise to consider it as a condition If that's what the applicant wants to do Mr. Henry and For for you rob and for jessica if if the current property gets subdivided and the address gets changed to um The monarchy address does that satisfy that about his concern about The walk by and access Then he gave the need to have people walk by that probably I think part of what mr. Quickly was was referring to when you put in your gps system 2040 ball lane. It's going to take you down ball lane So with the property address changing to Whatever it is 200 monarchy road and having unit numbers associated with that address It would take you to that parking area Versus bringing somebody down ball lane. So I think that's what mr. Quickly's biggest concern is is that people see the address 20 40 ball lane plug it into their gps and it's going to send you straight down that road And ball lane is that private way? It's the private way. Correct And also the existing curb cuts according to their site plans were off of either monarchy road or um pulpy hill road anyways So I guess the butter was just concerned about people just going down the wrong road because that's where the gps says The address is even though the entrance isn't actually on ball lane so that might be is that something that can be resolved by um Just a tagline on When we refer to this as or when you refer to this property is currently 20 to 40 ball lane and it's going to be can you say something to That it's going to be 200 monarchy road Or some way indicate that that number is going to change that people who are interested in driving by looking at it No, not to go down But there's another address to look at you can't keep them from going down ball lane But you can point them and their gps to a different address so they can stop on monarchy road Perhaps and look at it. Sure. Maybe some of you can think about doing to relieve the pressure on ball lane It's also why we changed the project name about halfway through so for Many presentations in front of board as we were calling it ball lane community homes And then when we when we made the determination that we were not going to be accessing this property off ball lane We tried to scrap that but I think unfortunately it's still stuck in everybody's heads because that was the initial name that we gave it so Um, that's why it's it's it's called amherst community homes in the permit application and no longer following okay all right Any other responses from the applicant or any other questions from board members? All right. Well, this has been um, really helpful, I think and a good introduction to this project much needed project in our town um So what I'd like to do is is just before we move on before we continue this meeting um, right now we have plans to Go over we have some several subjects which we know we we need to have a focus on in some of our upcoming hearings Site design and landscape is one. I think that makes some sense um architecture And maybe we could combine those two but the site design landscape and architecture certainly are sort of the physical plant In the physical location of this project is something I think we could probably start with sooner rather than later stormwater management there's And the other utilities I that may not take a whole meeting, but I think we could perhaps Identify some time for that property management and conditions and property management I think is something that we will want to have some more discussion on There was obviously not concerned but questions from board members about property management in the future not just in the um Initial setup but long term how it's going to be managed and held and I think there's some questions there I also think there's more questions that's been identified today about income limitations more information about um About this resale and and we do have questions about local preference We know that's going to come up and we meet we'll need to have some time to spend on that in the future And then we'll have to have a meeting on conditions and findings going forward, but What I'd like to do is task our staff to rob and chris to come up with this a Plan for when we over the next Several meetings how we approach each of these issues and then dedicate some time to them Discretely so that we can focus on them and move on and not kind of scattershot all over the place And I think that'd give us a better way to approach this It'd be more concise and I think would focus our attention on specific things rather than kind of bring up whatever Something that I do all the time is just break up whatever comes to mind And I think if you can focus me and the rest of the board that'd be helpful to all of us So rob if you can do that I'm going to send it out to the board perhaps before our next meeting Our administrative meeting and we can go over this at that time and approve a schedule of meetings and topics Yeah, so mr. Chairman. I already Sent so I include this in the packet and emailed it to the board earlier, but I have a list of Meeting dates here over the next a few months So as you can tell most of these are the first and third thursday with the exception of ember 30th Which is the last thursday in november And we have this january 4th, which is meeting number six, but before the statue limitations of what we can have for the public hearing Before we have to vote to extend it and have the applicant agree to do so So january 4th is kind of like that last date and that's reserved for if we need it In terms of the topics just just touch back on what you said So I recommend keeping architecture and site design landscaping separate because there's a lot involved with architecture as well And they talked about having like four or five different types of units And there's probably a lot of discussion It's going to take place as well in the interior design and layout And then the site around the buildings themselves and whatever features exist there But I know site design landscape is going to take a a big chunk of time itself Store more management will also take a big chunk of time too because they have such an intricate system They're they're placing there, but there's also the concern about A high water table too And there might be some discussion on utilities that might be roped into the storm water part of it as well So that probably will be a whole meeting itself as well And then as you say conditions and findings will most likely have to be the last one because that's usually what precedes the vote So we could do this one of two ways. Mr. Chairman We could do it where we just pick What topic is discussed at the next meeting according to the schedule that I provided you Or if you wanted us to put together like a mock schedule and then bring that back at the next zoning board meeting We could do that as well I personally think I'd like you to do that That way you can you can coordinate with the applicant about when there are people that can address this can appear at the meeting I there was some Mention that somebody wouldn't be about I thought there was a mention earlier that one of the people that would need to be Um, couldn't be one of the meetings. I believe it was a um Jessica if i'm wrong about this, was it your architect that couldn't be there for november 30th Um, we we are we are okay now. It was our landscape architect that we could not be available on november 30th But that conflict's been resolved. Um, I also just want to make a note to the zba that we're also parallel permitting in conservation commission so um Just being aware of that and what's going to be discussed at the concom And I don't I want to make sure that those are kind of coordinated in terms of their Discussions, I think that's mostly going to be the stormwater piece so So what I think is the best is for you guys is for rod for you to work with concom and work with the applicant Figure out a schedule that works which what I think is most important for board members Is to make sure that the topics you want to have discussed or discussed are on your list and aside from additional sort of income restrictions uh restrictions on sale and Those are I think that we need to have a have a a specific At least a topic. Maybe we don't just spend a whole meeting on it, but other than that. I think you have a good list of topics And I open that up for anybody. It's another topic that somebody wants to discuss I put it on and then let rob Come up with a schedule and we can review it next week It's green bomb I may be dull some off or something, but did you talk about a site visit and I missed it or We I said we have one, but you didn't miss it yet. Um, we one is not scheduled yet We will have that much. I knew I didn't know whether you just discussed it now on the list to the list It's it's something we need to schedule. Yep. I I mr. Chairman if I could Interject real quick. I think it'd be wise for us to have a site visit before We get into the topic of site design Yep That would definitely make the most sense maybe do like the week of or if not the week before Um, I can always coordinate that with the applicant and just see what works for everybody um And just go from there and I mean does the board have like a specific order? They want to go in with the exception making conditions fines last or do you want staff to determine that for you? You know, I think this is it looks pretty good as it is. I mean, I think the way you've laid it out with the additional discussion of you know Applicant selection preference All those issues regarding Who's going to get how people apply for this how they're subsidized? And how they can dispose of their property or sell it that nice is a another topic that's not on here But I would go with the site design and then architect does this make sense and I'd add the uh the financial Okay, so what if we group that with property management? I mean would wouldn't that make okay All right. I believe uh, mr. White Yeah, I just looked at this the other thing we need to do is probably We need to go through the waivers that are requested. That's probably The topic that should be We should understand that and have that have a discussion about so we understand discussion amongst board members So we understand what waivers we are Granting because we can grant waivers across the board in this In this application So we'll have to find a place that fits in as well with that one Just because it'd be wise to save that last meeting spot for when we need it I believe I believe mr. Henry and mr. White also had their hands raised. Uh, mr. Chair Mr. White Thank you, mr. Chair. Uh, so at some point I would like to have a discussion about the comment from mr. Lawrence about the wildlife corridor being disrupted Um, just a little bit more detail on that. Um, kind of what we're looking at with that Great, I can probably be done in the site design landscape. Yeah, that'd be a good spot for that. Yeah Thank you, uh, mr. Henry I think you mentioned mr. Chair the financials. I'm very interested in that and how people will qualify. I also believe that Miss allen committed to providing Details on the deed so if we can add that into that conversation as well Um, I'd also be interested if there's any HOA documents being discussed at some point that should be added to um Part of that conversation as well And also, um, the credit counseling that's been provided For people to qualify all I think are involved that same general They can be all grouped together like yeah All right, that's great. Okay. That makes sense rob Yep, so we'll um Put a schedule together mr. Chairman and then uh, we'll bring that to the next zoning board meeting and have the board review and improve it. Um It sounds great. I will stop sharing my screen Miss allen, I see you have your hand up Yeah, I just want to know if there's any comments from the town Departments and I'd like to request that we potentially have those pretty well in advance before we talk about that topic So that we have adequate time to respond to them As of today, no comments and the transmittal was submitted More than 30 days ago That's great. Okay, perfect Miss murray, you have your hand up You're keeping keeping us online here. So Where are we where are we varying off course? No, no, no, miss chairman. Uh, one other topic that that um, the board might want to discuss is Whether or not you see a need for some peer review consultants And if so, you know, what areas of peer review because that might be something That um rob and christine could start to line up and that might also affect the schedule as well That's you know, it's a good point and it's especially good with storm water. Um Nothing that we don't have that expertise on the board. It's pretty specialized So Another good reason rob to have the storm water and the site design Up front, uh, because those are the ones that would probably require That I think might require some peer review, but I would say as of right now, mr. Chair Just from staff review of the application materials. It seems like Storm water might be the most likely but I would say it'd be wise to have I guess that hearing first and then the board can determine after the fact that they want to do that But it's good. We save that less meeting spot just in case we need it Yeah, I'd say the ones that those places that we might need peer review should be Clean the schedule. Okay, and they you'd want them first too, correct? Absolutely early in the schedule. Ms presto So I just wanted to mention that this project is going to the conservation commission So they will also be doing an examination of storm water So um, you may want to wait until they get into their process a little bit so that we don't have parallel third party reviews of storm water management That's just a suggestion How long is that how long will they that take you do you have any idea? Mr. Presto, I don't know what their um schedule is. I don't know. I miss allen Probably knows better than I do about what the concom schedule is for reviewing this project So I think right now we are tentatively penciled for Their second meeting in november We would have made the first one, but the check didn't make it to the town until Oh Lost in snail mail. Unfortunately. Um, so yeah, I think we're looking at the I think it's the 22nd um for uh first concom Well, that means that we might be able to have the second meeting on storm water management on november 30th Is a possibility I think that would make sense. It would be nice to have them sort of tag teaming but And the reason it's going to concom is because they get with a lot of state laws that we can't waive Is that correct? We have some yeah, and there's yes. It has to go to concom because their state ranks exactly Okay, miss green bomb Yes, I understand that Wildlife corridor is also of state interest and I don't know whether concom still carries Still is in control of that. They used to be years ago There is a very active wildlife corridor that goes from podic on the west side of 116 all through the PRP in my backyard up through the golf course And I can tell you it is very very busy with other things besides bears and uh I wonder if we might want to think about having somebody Tell us more about that or are they are they required to go and see if they're or Species there that are being protective I'm just Asking that as a question Who's per view is it? I'm a under a 40 b Ms. Brester, do you have an answer for that? No, but I was going to suggest that Rob Wichila and I talked to um, Aaron Jacques who's the wetlands administrator and um talk to her about the wildlife corridor and and wetlands issues and Stormwater management and figure out how we can kind of cooperate in managing that This is a good example of one of the complications of 40 b is that it requires the staff Principally the staff to coordinate with all the other boards that would normally be Ones that would have to grant the permit or grant the permission to do this When we have the many of these issues, you know 40 b all come to us And so it's incumbent upon us to reach out to all the other bodies in the state in the town government to make sure that we're a prize of their views and that really falls on the staff to do that and so They have a big job whenever we have one of these and so It's a it's a example of this is just one example of the kind of work We have to do the coordinate across committees in town great all right Rob will see a schedule next and you'll do some talking with the other The bodies that we need to talk together the commissions, etc. And we can review that schedule the at our next meeting All right, if there's any other questions I mean if there's no other questions and other comments What I'd like to do is entertain a motion that we continue this public hearing on zba let me get the Zba fy 2024-03 valley community development corporation Until our next A date of our next meeting date, which is november 2nd at 6 p.m Do I have such a motion? So moved mr. Chair. Is there a second? second It's moved and seconded. Is there any discussion? If not the vote occurs on the motion Chair votes aye mr. Meadows. Aye Mr. Henry. Aye Mr. White. Aye Ms. Greenbaum. Aye Votes 5-0 motion carries. It's continued to november 2nd The next order of business for us tonight is public comment on any matter not before the board tonight This gives an opportunity For the public to speak on anything they wish other than the application that we have tonight so Any public comment on any topic? I see none The next order of business is any new business And that's principally what I normally what we do at this time is Go over the schedule of upcoming meetings And so rod can you just run through it with us for the next couple of meetings of what we have planned? sure so Next week october 26. We have a administrative meeting We're also going to have a discussion on recent zoning topics that came before the board We're still trying to figure out what some of those topics are the building commissioner was hoping to To keep it sort of open to in case members had concerns they wanted to address And we can have a discussion on it and also the building commission is going to give us His perspective on on thinking for a lot of ways certain sections are interpreted and then November 2nd is This hearing continued and that will most likely be the site design and landscaping portion And then after that's November 9th We're anticipated to have a two special permit hearings scheduled The first one is for a change of property management for a rental property Which supposedly needed a public hearing in order to change property management for some reason And then the other yeah, I know it was a condition from 2018 that's why And the other one is for a converted dwelling that's non-owner occupied on Lincoln Avenue And then we have potentially 62 Taylor street coming back That hearing was continued for that date as well And then after that's The next meeting for the board won't be until November 30th, which is Most likely the stormwater discussion for this 40 b permit And that's pretty much what we have scheduled for right now. Mr. Chairman And then obviously next meeting we'll have more information for the meetings after that. That's all I have All right, that's that's good to know Okay, any other questions for staff or any other new business that members of the board wish to address There in our administrative meeting is ms. Murray going to be there Yes, he will be present and He may or may not be sending me specific sections tomorrow that we're going to discuss that will include in the meeting packets The meeting packets will be digital because there's not many materials are going out um, and of course full membership is Expected to be there, but it's not mandatory unless Steve you want to be mandatory that is up to you It's it's also the time to ask questions and you know to generally talk about The operation of the zba and that all these topics are open But we should focus on some of the hot topics that we've had before in the last couple of weeks There's also meeting minutes that are overdue for approval, too And this would be a good time to approve them really quick. Um, do that at that next meeting. Yep. Yeah All right Okay, again, I want I want to thank the board members for their willingness to meet on a weekly basis I know we all like each other, but this is a lot to ask and um, I appreciate all of you doing that We're going to get to see a lot of each other over the next couple of months and Your dedication and commitment is appreciated by Me and I'm sure by the town. So thank you very much. Maybe we can meet live and have a priority in the winter time Well, we maybe we could do that maybe we could do that All right, thank you very much. Um, I would entertain a motion. Oh, I didn't entertain a motion to adjourn They're moved Is there a second? I All right, it's moved and seconded that motion is not debatable and it requires a roll call vote Chair votes. I Mr. Meadows Hi Mr. Henry Hi Mr. White Hi Ms. Greenball Hi Motion is carries voted unanimous. We are adjourned. Thank you all and we'll see you next thank you Good night everyone. Good night. Thank you Have good night