Preserve and Protect (self interest)

North Amherst Congregational Church (now under new management).

After narrow back-to-back victories sabotaging the attempted rezoning of North Amherst Village Center to encourage denser, smart growth through Form Based Zoning, the local NIMBYs -- who only need  one third plus one of antiquated Town Meeting to agree with them to block such proposals -- have come up with a new scheme, yet another hurdle for town officials and local developers: Declare the area a "historic district."

A recent article in Preservation Nation portrays the merry band as selfless neighbors fighting valiantly to protect their heritage against "future threats," presumably the evils of corporate greed.

But they fail to mention the lead architect of this gambit, Louis Greenbaum, is a major rental property owner of less-than-upscale housing, who stands to benefit by preventing any mixed-use development that increases the supply of Amherst rental housing.

Oldest saying in capitalism:  "When products compete, they get better."  And God knows, with the squeaky tight housing market in our little college town, home to a very large flagship University, we could use new housing developments to compete with the current supply of aging, expensive units.

Historical preservation, when used correctly, is an admirable, worthy endeavor.  Using it as a weapon against badly needed development is a travesty.

Zoning Deja Vu (all over again)

 Amherst Town Meeting

Despite a last minute compromise motion half heartedly supported by the Amherst Select Board, the North Amherst Village Center form based rezoning failed to clear that high hurdle of a two thirds vote, as Amherst Town Meeting once again turned down a badly needed pro-business measure by a 137 "no" to 73 "yes" vote, close to last weeks rejection of the same zoning change for Atkins Corner in South Amherst, which failed 130-78.

Once again the stigma of rowdy student undergrad housing takes its toll on progress.  Hey UMass, you listening?

Form Based Zoning: DOA

Amherst Town Meeting members call for "tally vote" by holding up cards

Despite 80% support from the Select Board and 60% of Town Meeting members, Form Based Zoning in North Amherst village center and Atkins Corner in deep South Amherst failed to clear the high hurdle of a two thirds vote, going down to defeat after 2.5 hours of discussion with 119 yes votes and 79 no.

The majority of the discussion centered on North Amherst where Town Meeting was told by two speakers that over 100 "residents of Montague Road" had signed a petition opposing the article (turns out to be more like a dozen actual residents), but Atkins Corner in South Amherst also drew criticism because the two new roundabouts are not yet functioning and the noise from the Norwottuck Gun Club was portrayed as a major detriment to health and safety.

Unfortunately the cumulative effect of having two large separate areas involved--each with its own set of NIMBYs--doomed the ambitious undertaking. Perhaps if someone had divided the motion and let each village center be voted on separately one of them could have passed.

Overall, like the demise of the Gateway Project, the fear that increased density of development was not family friendly and would bring more student party houses to disrupt neighborhoods with late night noise, traffic, fighting, vandalism, unsightly trash and body fluids caused the defeat.

Maybe now town and UMass officials will get serious about controlling rowdy, alcohol fueled behavior of the tiny minority of students who are having such a detrimental impact on civility at large.

Selectman and North Amherst resident Jim Wald presented the article

Quintessential NIMBY Mary Streeter cited safety and environmental concerns with Atkins Corner

Atkins neighbor Seymour Epstein cited noise and pollution to a trout stream, calling the planning charrette a "charade"

Former Selectman Gerry Weiss was concerned the village centers would compete with downtown businesses

Bad Form Rising

Select Board member Jim Wald posted to the unofficial Amherst Town Meeting listserve (privately owned by Mother Mary Streeter, protector of all things Larkspur Drive) an ominous sign for proponents of article #17, Form Based Zoning--the most controversial warrant article coming before Fall Town Meeting.

The information packet snail mailed to all Town Meeting members will be slightly delayed because when town staff crammed the quaint 9" by 12" brown manila envelopes with all the information printed on the remains of dead trees, the mailer was overweight by USPS bulk mail standards (and generous are those standards). Yikes!

Of course the main reason was the plethora of paper pertaining to Form Based Zoning. And as pretty as it is with all the color graphs and architectural renderings, as with Godzilla movies, size does matter.

Form Based Zoning is already in trouble because as the name succinctly says it's all about zoning, with zoning requiring a two-thirds super majority of Amherst Town Meeting. And naysayers (NIMBYs) are usually more motivated than calm, rational altruistic members who simply have the best interests of the town at heart.

Town officials should take a hint from the simple two-word description of the zoning amendment and synthesize all the supporting materials down to one single page of text, about the same number Lincoln used in the Gettysburg Address.

Town Meeting is about as simple an institution as you can get, so by all means, apply the KISS principle!

Form Based Zoning moves forward

The Zoning sub-committee of the Planning Board voted 2-0 one absent to recommend to the full Planning Board "Form Based Zoning" for Atkins Corner and North Amherst Village Center be placed on the warrant for the upcoming Town Meeting starting next month.

And a few hours later the full board voted 5-1 to make it so (Richard Roznoy the only "No").

The Select Board will sign the warrant on Friday.

The form based code requires the maintaining of an architectural look and feel for any new development occurring in those village centers. Because it's zoning, the article requires a two-thirds vote of Amherst Town Meeting, which starts November 7.

While the areas impacted are only the two village centers at the far ends of Amherst, the passing of the article will be a positive indicator for the Gateway Project near Amherst center--connecting the commercial downtown with UMass.

The Amherst Redevelopment Authority is strongly in favor of rezoning the Gateway District, and Form Based Zoning will help enable the public private partnership to work .

Jonathan O'Keefe, Robert Crowner, Richard Roznoy, David Webber, Constance Kruger, Stephen Schreiber