If You Build It

 130 Fearing Street building lot (290 Lincoln Ave house in background)

Some good news for year-round residents of Fearing Street and Lincoln Avenue living in the shadow of UMass: The lot sold by real estate speculator You-Pan Tzeng, after tearing down a "historic" barn, is going to become an owner occupied house. 

So I hope they get a warm welcome to the neighborhood that aggressively laments absentee owner student rentals. 

The new owners spent $140,000 to buy the lot and according to their approved building permit will spend an additional $250,000 on constructing a two-story, four-bedroom colonial.

With that kind of investment you probably are not going to rent it to four students. Besides, you would have to charge way more than going rate (which is already too high) in order to cover overhead -- including Amherst's high as a satellite property tax rate.

Mr. Tzeng is still trying to sell the house at 290 Lincoln Avenue from which the lot on Fearing Street was spun off.

Although he has dropped his price somewhat ($15,000), chances are anyone paying $425,000 for that grand old abode is not going to rent it out -- especially since the house is a "one family" and could be occupied by only four unrelated housemates.

Closing The Barn Door

 290 Lincoln Avenue

After a marathon 3.5 hour meeting last night the Amherst Zoning Board of Appeals decided the bulldozing of a barn in the backyard of 290 Lincoln Avenue was not "arbitrary or capricious," and was indeed within the scope of the Zoning Bylaw.

On September 4 The Amherst Historical Commission declined to issue a one-year demolition delay for the barn because commissioners did not deem it historically significant, even though it was rumored by a real estate agent to have once been used as a writer's loft by Robert Frost, Amherst's second most famous poet.

Building Commissioner Rob Morra issued a demolition permit and the owner quickly carried out the deed.  Neighbors then filed an appeal with the Town Clerk and the ZBA heard the appeal over two meetings.  Even though the barn was history.

Barn Blast

 290 Lincoln Avenue.  A barn no more

Despite a desperate last minute attempt from neighbors for a stay of execution, the quaint old barn at 290 Lincoln Avenue is now kindling, paving the way for the construction of an additional non-owner occupied rental unit.  The other thing neighbors are seriously concerned about.

The Historical Commission decided not to impose a one-year demolition delay on the barn, rumored to have once been used by poet Robert Frost (but a rumor started by a real estate agent, so not exactly a reliable source).  On Monday rookie Building Commissioner Rob Morra issued a demolition permit, but neighbors filed an appeal with  the Town Clerk, setting up a possible hearing with the Zoning Board of Appeals.

That deliberation, however, would only judge whether the Building Commissioner acted properly in issuing the demolition permit, and since the landowner, You-Pan Tzeng, had a legit permit in hand at the time of this morning's demolition, the episode is now moot.

Somewhere in the distance, a Barn Owl wailed.

Lords Over the Land

290 Lincoln Ave, barn on death row in rear

Just in the past five months using two different LLCs as a cloaking device, KH Amherst PE LLC and GP Amherst LLC, You-Pan Tzeng has purchased a half dozen Amherst houses, three of them on Lincoln Avenue -- one of the oldest streets in overly Democratic Amherst, named after a Republican President before a bullet to the back of the head elevated him to sainthood.

Over the past two years at public meeting after public meeting, residents of Lincoln Avenue have brought to the attention of town officials the persistent problem with unruly party houses, usually single family homes that have been bought up by speculators, subdivided into a" two family homes" and then crammed with eight unrelated, college aged tenants (Amherst zoning legally allows four per unit).

321 Lincoln Ave


The term "tipping point" was used often, meaning the number of owner occupied units was slowly becoming the minority on this historic old street that leads directly to UMass, our largest employer.

The recent purchase of three homes on Lincoln Avenue may very well have tipped the balance ... once and for all.

328 Lincoln Avenue

While Mr. Tzeng is keeping his cards close to his chest, he has tipped his hand with the filing of a ANR plan (Approval Not Required) before our Planning Board to jury rig a second building lot in a location now occupied by a historic old barn.

Even more ominous, You-Pan Tzeng testified before our Zoning Board of Appeals when he converted a one family house at 290 West Street to a two family operation that he "uses Eagle Crest Management for all aspects of property management ..."  Yikes!

Yes, although Eagle Crest owner Jamie Cherewatti testified before the Zoning Board for one of his conversions at 156 Sunset Ave last April that he did not want to be know as the "slumlord of Amherst", it would appear he doesn't work very hard at it. 

For starters, moving his business office from 73 Main Street Amherst into space above Stackers Bar, a youthful, less-than-elegant tap room in town center Cherewatti recently purchased using one of his front LLC's.  In addition to Stackers Pub Railroad Street Partners owns another half dozen rentals in town.


Nothing like staying on top of the source of your success:  alcohol and partying. 

Now that Cherewatti has partnered with You-Pan Tzeng (or vice versa), no neighborhood in Amherst is safe.  The town needs to call a moratorium on all housing conversions until this spring, so Town Meeting can takes up Planning Board articles that attempt to tame the Wild, Wild West. 
  
290 Lincoln Subdivide

The rest of You-Pan Tzeng's very recent purchases:

695/697 Main Street (yes, the garage is 695)

42 Shumway Street

300 West Street