Atkins North It Is!

Coming soon to a former cow barn near you:  Atkins Farms Country Market

After years of negotiations, and rumors, and a recent Internet petition that garnered over 350 signatures, the dream of bringing an iconic century old Amherst business anchored in the deep south part of town has now come true:

 Atkins Farms Country Market will open a 4,000 square foot bookend operation in the North Amherst Mill District -- twice as big as the Internet petition proposed operation would have been in the Trolley Barn.

Pauline Lannon (left) Cinda Jones (right) ink the deal

Atkins will be occupying the former cow barn (after extensive renovations of course) at 113 Cowls Road, and is expected to open in August of 2015. 

The store will certainly act as an anchor magnet to draw consumers to the sprawling North Amherst location that by then will be populated with many more service oriented businesses.  

12,000 square foot Trolley Barn, opening this September

14,400 square foot former sawmill, ready to rock once again

The Mill District from above

No Do Over For You!

 

Helen Berg at Select Board meeting 

Helen Berg's complaint about the Town Clerk not following state law by drawing names from a hat rather than alphabetically placing names on the ballot, would have been dismissed even if she had hired an attorney, as the town received permission to do so in the form of special state legislation w-a-y back in 1975.

 Aren't we special

That of course is why everybody forgot about it, and there was some brief concerned about Berg's threat to overturn the election where she lost by more than a landslide.

Now if we could just get the state legislature to approve downsizing Amherst Town Meeting from 240 to 60, we might actually attract qualified candidates armed with something this larger body is sorely lacking:  altruistic common sense.

The Retreat Marches On

 The Retreat, Definitive Plan

UPDATE 9:30 PM

As expected about 40 North Amherst residents showed up to the Conservation Commission meeting tonight to hear the team of 5 Landmark Properties consultants discuss the environmental issues relating to the property.

 Conservation Commission meeting 7:45 PM

About a half dozen neighbors spoke during public comment -- sometimes questioning the quality of the work performed -- but nothing was settled one way or the other.

 Landmark also hired a stenographer to record the meetings

A town picked "3rd party reviewer"(paid for by Landmark) will go over all the findings, retrace the field work, and report back to the Conservation Commission.   So tonight's public hearing was continued until July 23rd

NIMBYs hope maybe the town hired consultant will discover a unicorn lair on site.

Ira Bryck floats conspiracy theory the Cowls is trashing streams.  Response was, umm, No

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Retreat at Amherst, LLC -- aka Landmark Properties -- filed their "Definitive Subdivision Plan" yesterday with the Amherst Planning Department just under the May 29 deadline to avoid coming under new zoning bylaws (and permit cost increases) since filing their preliminary plan back in November.

They also wrote checks to the town totaling $82,536 for application and inspection fees, which underscores just how serious they take this badly needed housing project, situated on 147.3 acres of woodland in northeast Amherst.

 

Retreat:  plans

Retreat:  More plans

Landmark will also be paying (in the tens of thousands) for a planning consultant to help the Planning Board deal with a wheel barrel full of paperwork.

 Google Earth view.  Main entry now relocated to top left near town water treatment plant

The preliminary cluster plan had 123 lots with a total of 175 housing units with 71 of them single-family and 104 duplex for a total number of 641 occupants.  The definitive plan has the same numbers of units/occupants but spread out over a larger area.

Perhaps the most controversial aspect of the project is the targeted demographic for "occupants":  UMass students. Landmark Properties bills itself as, "one of the leading student housing development and management companies in the nation."

As such they are intimately familiar with NIMBY tactics and don't seem to mind investing years of effort (and tons of money) into making a project happen.   Since the initial deal was first hatched in February, 2013 we are already over a year in with no bulldozers in sight.

A traffic study by BETA Group concluded, "With the mitigation proposed the future traffic conditions resulting from the proposed residential development will provide for adequate and safe access to a public street, and will not have a detrimental effect on public safety and welfare in the study area."

One of the usual NIMBY complaints is higher traffic would increase accidents.

 The Next Steps:

   The Retreat- Planning Board Actions

This evening, Landmark Properties will present to the Amherst Conservation Commission their consultant's "wetland delineation" for the project, and naturally the NIMBYs will be out in force, loaded for bear. 

W.D. Cowls, Inc property off Henry Street.  Under contract for $6.5 million to Landmark Properties

Another "Event" @ ARHS

APD @ Amherst Regional High School

UPDATE:  Thursday morning

According to APD Chief Scott Livingstone the individual involved is one of Amherst's homeless population that police are "familiar with," and since no criminal violations occurred, he is not in custody.

click to enlarge/read

Sweet New Location

Now open for business @ 19 North Pleasant Street

The Glazed Doughnut Shop -- literally owned by a Mom and Pop -- successfully debuted this morning in their new location almost dead center in the heart of the downtown, and they only lost one day of business during the entire transition. 

Who doesn't like doughnuts!

Owners Nick and Keren Rhodes, local Amherst Regional High School sweethearts now also married to their small business, had to move from their former location down the street at the Carriage Shops (233 North Pleasant) after only 18 months due to an impending sale of the entire complex.

 Flat panel menu signs

While they had to leave behind an expensive commercial kitchen hood, fortunately their new location had Amherst Creperie (and J. Jumbo's) as a tenant, and they left behind a bigger, better unit.

Commercial kitchen hood with built in fire suppression

A nifty new neon outdoor sign will be installed within the next week.  But for now the aroma of freshly made doughnuts will be enough to attract downtown travelers.  

 And gather they will

Clowns To The Left Of Me, Jokers ...

 

Ben Grosscup wielding a dangerous weapon

Just our luck that on 5/19 Ben Grosscup decides to show up for his only appearance thus far out of eight sessions of the 256th annual Amherst Town Meeting to sing in opposition of drones.

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.