Fireground: University Drive

 AFD laying hose

The Amherst Fire Department responded early this morning to a small fire at the Golden Booty Tanning Salon on University Drive.  The call came in at 1:37 AM as an automated smoke alarm but when an Amherst police officer first on the scene reported seeing and smelling smoke, a box alarm was struck, automatically summoning all off duty personnel.

Fortunately the building has a sprinkler system and it extinguished the utility room fire before it could do serious damage.

At the time of the initial alarm 10 of the 13 on-duty firefighters were occupied staffing all 5 ambulances engaged in runs to the Cooley Dickinson Hospital, most of them for intoxicated "college aged youth."

Western Mass Electric was called in to shut off power to the business and the State Fire Marshall's Office has been called in to investigate.

AFD Reports

Strangling Supply

Cowls former lumber mill:  20+ acres in need of development

Adhering to the old PR mantra about repeating something often enough to make it seem true, North Amherst resident Melissa Perot -- who fancies herself a Joan of Arc -- has been repeating ad nauseam the Planning Board's "technical fix" (Article 18) for mixed use buildings, "REZONES the entire Commercial District and in particular the large 20+ acres of Cowls land in N. Amherst."  (Bold caps are all hers naturally.)

Simply put the only thing Article 18 does is to put into words what has been common practice with Building Commissioners over the past 25 years:  allowing offices for doctors and lawyers, government agencies, public service, etc.  Or what Ms Perot refers to as "paper pushers."

The only other change is reducing from "two or more" ground floor dwelling units down to "one," thus encouraging smaller mixed use developments like a business owner living above his or her business.  

In fact Article 18 came about via a request from Building Commissioner Rob Maura and not from any of the developers Mr. Perot rails against.  

 Trolley Barn

Ms. Perot did manage to torpedo an actual zoning CHANGE at last spring's Town Meeting that would have allowed greater density of dwelling units in a mixed use building.  For instance, in the Trolley Barn now under development, instead of the current four units the same amount of space could have been subdivided into eight residential units -- twice the current number. 

And that is precisely problem #1 in our little "college town:"  Too many residents -- more than half of them "college aged youth" -- and not nearly enough housing to shelter them.  As a result, speculators buy up single family homes, expand them into 2 family homes and rent them out to eight (or more) students, some of whom behave in a less than civil manner.   

The skyrocketing rents push out low income residents using Section 8 housing vouchers, single parent households or anyone trying to survive on a minimum wage salary. 

Town Meeting has continually turned down common sense zoning changes that would increase desperately needed housing stock (the town currently has only four apartment complexes with 200+ units).

And even when projects are announced that can be built "by right" (without zoning change) the NIMBYs sharpen their pitchforks, fire up the gas powered torches and make life miserable for the property owner and proposed developer.  

Even worse than Ms. Perot trying to roll back the minor gains made through zoning changes at the spring Town Meeting, another NIMBY -- amazingly enough one with a business background -- wants to tighten (like a noose) the town's four unrelated housemates bylaw to only three.

Yes, in a town with 5,265 rental units -- not nearly enough to handle current demands -- Ira Bryck would reduce total occupancy by as much as 25% with a single stroke of legislation.  Amazingly naive.   

In fact the town should -- under very strict circumstances -- allow more than four unrelated housemates depending upon the house.  But require the owner to seek a "special permit" from the Planning or Zoning Board, so the building commissioner, police and fire department can weigh in on the matter. 

Amherst needs an across the board increase in housing stock.  This housing crisis is certainly nothing knew having been talked about since the early 1970s where the town even briefly flirted with, gasp, "rent control."

Enactment of the Residential Rental Property Bylaw to "protect the health, safety, and welfare of tenants and other citizens of the Town of Amherst" last May was a giant leap forward for the town, setting the stage for future much-needed development.

Ms. Perot and Mr. Bryck's ideas places them squarely in the same league with the Flat Earth Society.  Although ironically enough, the first step in development is to level the site.   

68 Cowls Road

Bring on the bulldozers!

Going, Going ... Gone

It took less than three hours to auction off 40 years worth of equipment accumulated by one of the area's premier landscaping businesses, as the auction attracted over 200 bidders, with some items bringing in $10,000 or more.

 

Heavy duty trucks

The large crowd, predominantly men, consisted of contractors, farmers, landscapers, homeowners with large yards, and perhaps someone interested in buying a memento of an old fashioned family business, now but a fond memory.

 

Fleet of pick up trucks

A Laughing Stock

So I guess if you don't make the short list for recieving a community A+ award from the Amherst Area Chamber of Commerce, the next best thing is to get mentioned by radio personality Monte Belmonte during his -- mostly funny -- monologue.

Although I have a feeling Amherst Select Board members probably did not laugh.

(Just wait until next year.)

Rocks Of Ages

 

15 Fearing Street

You sagacious types have probably noticed the somewhat sudden sprouting of large rocks outlining the lawns of rental property all over town.  The reason is of course to keep tenants or their guests from parking on the lawn. 

The reason absentee landlords take the issue seriously enough to decorate their property with large boulders is because they don't want a $100 fine from the building inspector. Yes, the fines go to the owners not the offenders.  And it seems to be working.

 Corner of Main and Shumway Streets

I asked code enforcement officer, aka the enforcer, Jon Thompson for a breakdown of tickets issued thus far in calender 2013:

Here is the breakdown of the 112 violations / complaints that I have responded to since January 1^st of this year.

Health Complaints:  40 (Rentals), 5 (Owner Occupied)

Parking: 56 (Rentals), 2 (Owner Occupied)

Zoning: 5 (Rentals), 3 (Owner Occupied)

Building Code: 1 (Rental)

So as you can see "parking" is #1, and the vast majority of tickets are issued to "rentals".  But the fine goes to the owners, hence the motivation to actually do something about it.  Like planting a crop of large boulders. 

South Pleasant Street

Of course there are outliers: 

20 South Whitney Street, early October

51 North East Street, early October

Puffer's Pond Tweak

 Puffer's Pond:  Paradise of Amherst

Amherst Town Meeting will vote a creative funding deal for repairs at arguably the town's #1 recreation attraction, Puffer's Pond. 

Last spring Town Meeting overwhelmingly approved $15,000 to repair the fencing around the dam to keep pesky youth (and photographers) from climbing the rocks.

Since that article passed Conservation staff subitted to the state a grant proposal for $36,000 for additional repairs to the trails and beach area.  The grant requires a 50% match, so the town will use the original $15,000 already appropriated along with $3,000 in private donations to cover the match.

 Damn people keep climbing up onto the dam

Article 8 calls for authorization of the full grant amount ($36,000) and applies the $18,000 in available funds towards that amount to cover the matching grant requirement. 

If the state approves the $36,000 grant request, thereby giving us an additional $18,000 to work with, it has to be expended before June 30, 2014.  If the state turns down the application, Amherst will simply use the original $15,000 to repair/install fencing.

Got that?

A Bridge Too Far

 Mill Street Bridge near Puffer's Pond, closed last year due to safety concerns

The Amherst Select Board heard a report this evening from Town Manager John Musante concerning the North Amherst Mill Street Bridge, closed last year by "emergency" order of the state after their inspectors discovered problems during a routine inspection six months prior to giving the town the close order.

Now suddenly they wish to put us on a "fast track" for possible renovation in 2017 (making you wonder how they would define "slow track").

The Town Manager seemed a tad timid about that and responded with a letter saying the town hired a consultant to do an engineering study to outline four possible options:  Simply keep it the way it is, closed to motor vehicles and allow only pedestrian and bicycles; replace it with an improved structure but limited to bikes and pedestrians only; rebuild a bit stronger but only for one lane of traffic; and finally, do a standard rebuild of a two lane bridge with 4' to 5' sidewalk. 

At the 6:30 Public Comment period retired UMass history professor Louis Greenbaum urged the Select Board to reopen the bridge ASAP.  During the Town Manager's report concerning the bridge Vince O'Connor presented the board with a petition urging the bridge be reopened to one-way vehicular traffic while the engineering study process is going on.

 

Some locals would like it to remain closed, keeping it a giant planter