News About Nothing (Seinfeld)

While not up there with the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the lack of an $ Override question on the April 9 town election ballot is only a borderline miracle, especially in light of the recent outcry over school budget cuts.

Town officials are 1-2 over the past six years with one $1.68 Override passing in 2010; but a larger more hard fought $2.5 million Override campaign failing in 2007 (mainly because of campaign director, Rick Hood).

Any marketing guru will confirm trying to get people to voluntarily raise their own taxes -- especially in a trying economy -- is a tough sell.  Even more so, the prospect of trying to raise money to buy media to sell consumers on the idea of paying more for something most people take for granted:  public services. 

Especially when the town has $6 million stashed away in reserves and the Regional Schools another  $1 million.  The old "why should I take money out of my savings account so that you can keep money stashed in yours" routine.

Of course the major downside now is the April 9 local election, with no town-wide contests and half the town meeting precincts with not enough candidates to fill the open seats, will get an abysmal turnout ... under 10%.

And no, 14 UMass students running for Amherst Town Meeting will not stimulate the vote in the least (other than the 14 who come out to vote for themselves -- if indeed they bother to vote that day).

Last November, however,  the Amherst turnout for a non competitive (in this state anyway) Presidential election was 69%.

But for matters that more directly impact them -- The People -- it's the local election that really counts. And yet there, we always come up lacking.

Amherst:  where even the H is silent. 

Presidential E-X-P-A-N-S-I-O-N

Presidential Apartments, one of the first big complexes to arise fifty years ago in a mutual symbiotic relationship with UMass, our largest employer, has been granted a special permit by the Amherst Zoning Board of Appeals to expand significantly (54 units) from the current 85 units to 139, or an increase of 96 tenants.

The 54 new units will spread out over nine new buildings and consist of a dozen one bedroom units and 42 two bedroom units.  Six of these units will be "affordable" and will count towards Amherst's Subsidized Housing Inventory.

The town is currently at 10.8% and if it falls below 10% a developer can use a state CH40B wild card to build a rental housing mega-complex.

According to the Amherst Housing Production Plan between 1980 and 2010 housing production decreased by 12.8% in a town where 59.4% of the population are college students.

Presidential Apartments is also one of the complexes that is professionally managed by Kamins Real Estate and seldom shows up in Amherst police logs.

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.

Frisky Friday

 

500 Sunderland Road, Amherst (just barely)

Late Friday night around 11:45 PM,  Police were called to 500 Sunderland Road, almost at the Sunderland border, to break up a huge party, sending a stream of kids -- like a zombie herd -- staggering back to UMass via busy Rt 116.

One college aged youth was arrested for "failure to disperse" and a $300 "Nuisance House" ticket issued to the responsible tenant. Obviously neither of these kids read the memo from UMass Nanny -- I mean Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs -- Jean Kim.

 

45 Phillips Street 5:00 PM

And it's still early yet!

800 North Pleasant Street (Minutes before APD stopped to chat)

Strangling Supply

 Rock Farm, South East Street Amherst (note 50 gallon drum with liquid)

The number one reason for the high cost of housing and even higher cost of property taxes in Amherst, with a resulting crop of slum houses that spring up in response, is a bad byproduct of the simplest equation in the sacred book of capitalism: supply and demand.

Amherst is now more than half owned by tax exempt institutions that contribute far less than their fair share of Payment In Lieu Of Taxes, thus homeowners (since Amherst has an out of whack 90% residential and only 10% commercial tax base) have to contribute almost twice as much.

Witness Hadley's tax rate of $10.22/$1,000 vs Amherst's $20.39/$1,000.

Yet anytime anyone tries to build housing in town to stimulate supply, the NIMBYs go on the attack ... trying to get the town to buy the property to maintain their scenic views.

The most expensive taking in town history -- the Cherry Hill Golf Course in 1987 -- is an expensive case in point ($2.2 million). A plot hatched by North Amherst neighbors opposed to a Planned Unit Residential Development that would have added 134 high end housing units to the town.

 Rock Farm (A) South East Street, Amherst

Now after NIMBYs drove developer Scott Nielson into bankruptcy after he tried to build 23 high end condos and one single family house as a PURD, they want the town to buy this 7.4 acre open space off South East Street for $500,000 using $125,000 in Community Preservation Act money.

And it's the typical formula of using a variety of funding sources (much of it public money), including selling off two building lots for a ton of money. So rather than getting 24 units of desperately needed housing the town only gets two. And rather than generating $200,000 in annual property taxes it will only generate one tenth that. A lose/lose scenario, unless of course you live in the neighborhood.

Safe bet Amherst Town Meeting will approve the $125,000 in CPAC spending. The only place you will find more open space in Amherst is between their collective ears.

A Cold Reality

Finance Committee Chair Andy Steinberg Co-Chairing Budget Coordinating Group Thursday morning

Amherst finance guru Andy Steinberg addressed the two town meeting warrant articles calling for many millions of dollars in spending for the eminent domain taking of two properties in town and his brief comment Thursday morning could fit on their tombstone:  "It's hard to imagine how these things are feasible."

Indeed.

But where was he 25 years ago when the town spent the most money in history for an eminent domain taking:  Cherry Hill Golf Course @ $2.2 million, simply to satisfy 100 NIMBYs in North Amherst.

But yes, two wrongs do not make a right, and at least maybe town officials learned something from the Cherry Hill debacle ... maybe.  The taking of W.D. Cowls property in the bucolic Cushman section of North Amherst would cost many times more than the $1.2 million that appears in the warrant article.

Since Cinda Jones has an offer of $6.6 million on the table from a serious developer who wishes to construct high end student housing,  that is how much it would cost the town to take it.  6.6 million.  Dollars.   A UFO piloted by Elvis landing in town center on the 4th of July is f-a-r more likely to happen. 



The taking of Echo Village, which would cost close to $3 million, has a far better shot with Amherst Town Meeting, as the impacted residents who are being evicted will generate far more sympathy than the well off white people from North Amherst.

And the new Echo Village owner, Jamie Cherewatti, is not overly popular with neighborhood groups all over Amherst.  At the Housing & Sheltering Committee meeting yesterday, where about-to-be-evicted tenants presented their case to the committee, Town Meeting member Paige Wilder chimed in, "Jamie Cherewatti owns four houses in my neighborhood that are all party houses."

Social activists Vince O'Connor and Kevin Noonan also spoke in behalf of the tenants urging the committee to support their article for an eminent domain article.  O'Connor pointed out if the town used Community Preservation Act money to fund some of the taking it would place an affordable housing restriction on the deed.

 Peter Jessop, Chair Amherst Community Preservation Act Committee

The CPAC did vote on Thursday night to support an emergency appropriation of $15,000 to help the tenants with relocation.  Apparently the former owner, Jerry Gates, was a tad more benevolent than the new owner and did not require first and last month's rent for new tenants so now there's no savings to rely on for getting a new apartment where that is required.  

But if Town Meeting should override CPAC committee recommendations and use money towards the outright purchase then the 24 units of housing would count towards the town's affordable housing stock, currently at 10.8%. Now in danger of falling below 10% and opening the town up to a Ch40B development.

 Echo Village Tenant Tracylee Boutilier addresses Housing & Sheltering Committee

Either way, with the Residential Rental Property Bylaw bringing a game changing permit system to town also on the warrant, Amherst Town Meeting should be more interesting than a night of network reality TV.

I can't wait.

One Up, One Down

 No, not a bank robbery.  Cruiser caught fire near Florence Savings Bank 

A short while after Amherst Fire Department's new ambulance first hit the road today Amherst Police Department lost a front line patrol cruiser to an engine fire.  Fortunatly the new ambulance was not required at the scene, and in the short amount time it took AFD Engine 1 to get to there the fire was already put down with a fire extinguisher.

The patrol car was towed to a garage and will be more fully examined tomorrow.

APD appeared before the Joint Capital Planning Committee last month to present their capital equipment needs for the next fiscal year, and that included a routine request for three new cruisers.  Hopefully the Dodge Charger is not beyond repair.