Economic Czar Required?

Amherst property tax base is only 10% commercial, 90% housing

With the recent unanimous endorsement for Amherst to hire an "Economic Development Director" coming out of the year long Town Gown Steering Committee project, combined with the Town Manager's strong endorsement in his Letter of Transmittal to the Select Board for the FY15 budget year (which starts 7/1/15), safe bet the position will make it into the town budget in the next year or two.

Of course with the NIMBYs specifically targeting development, the position will be a hard sell at the annual Town Meeting.

While members do not have line-item veto the usual scheme is to move to reduce the budget by the exact amount of the targeted item and then in your speech say specifically what position it is you want cut if Town Meeting approves the $77,100 reduction in the Operation Budget.

Something like that requires a majority vote to pass, rather than the much higher hurdle of a zoning article, which requires the super-majority of a two-thirds vote.  

After the 11/5 Town Meeting, where more than a majority of members voted for a hastily crafted,  ill conceived zoning article to saddle developers with a deal killer "affordable housing" requirement, I'm not so sure anything associated with "development" can safely pass Town Meeting with a majority vote.

Members are also going to say the position is unnecessary because Amherst already has both a  Chamber of Commerce and a Business Improvement District.

And everyone knows, "Too many cooks spoil the broth."

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How they voted:  

1st Tally Vote was to refer the affordable housing article back to the Planning Board (A polite way of killing it).  That failed 83 "Yes" to 107 "No".   Thus the 2nd vote was an up or down vote on the article as presented.  That failed to achieve the necessary two-thirds vote, BUT did garner a majority vote 110 "Yes" to 79 "No". 

And yes, Town Manager John Musante (unlike previous town managers) did vote.  The right way even.

Squeaky Wheel

Stavros, 210 Old Farm Road

The illustrious Amherst Select Board, in addition to acting as Sewer and Liquor Commissioners (an ironic mix) are also "keepers of the public way." So if you wish to complain about road conditions, the tire stops with them.

At their hurried 11/5 meeting, just prior to Town Meeting, hidden away somewhere in the Amherst Regional Middle School, they unanimously supported relatively minor tweaks to Old Farm Road.

The neighbors had complained -- probably for quite a while now -- and requested a four-way stop.

Recommendations of Town Engineer Jason Skeels adopted by Select Board

The impact zone is also the entryway to Stavros Center For Independent Living, a BIG social service agency, even though their $1.627 million property is tax exempt.

The old blame it on Bush

Makes you wonder how the neighbors on South East Street are going to feel about the responses to traffic safety concerns they have been getting.

 Or I should say, not getting.

Let them know how you really feel

Ouch!

Vegetable truck a tad too tall for RR overpass on South East Street

Towed through Amherst town center a couple hours later

What the driver saw from his side. No 10' warning sign

South East Street underpass (no signage) July, 2011

Bike path overpass a half mile away is clearly marked

Steering The Right Course

UMass/Amherst:  A city within a town

The Town Gown Steering Committee held their first public (working) meeting since hearing the final report from their $60,000 consultants, U3 Advisers.

Co-Chair of the 23-member committee, Dave Ziomek, who is also the Assistant Town Manager, set the stage with three simple questions:  "What did you like; what didn't you like; and where do we go from here?"

It didn't take long for black sheep member Rolf Karlstrom to jump in with what he didn't like, proclaiming he was "extremely dissappointed" in the final report.

The neighborhood activist said the report did not follow up on the U3 Advisers preliminary report which seemed to indicate some concern with the impact of developments on peripheral neighborhoods such as Fearing Street, where he lives.

He told his fellow committee members that it is legally possible to define "student rental" without violating Massachusetts strict fair housing laws.  Once so defined zoning ordaninaces could be enacted that would require setback distances from owner occupied, family-oriented housing, thus keeping neighborhoods from being absorbed into a Borg collective of student slums, like Phillips Street for instance.

Others described the document as "visionary" adding they didn't like "dense documents" with too much verbiage.  The idea of a University Town of Amherst Collaborative (UTAC) a downsized offshoot of the 23-member Steering Committee seemed to garner universal support.

Although there was a brief firefight when town Finance Director Sandy Pooler said UTAC should avoid taking on "affordable housing" as a mission since other committees are working on that.

Late arriving member Amilcar Shabazz pointed out that's exactly what UTAC should be discussing -- the plight of the have nots -- rather than just trying to stimulate business development to make the rich, even richer.

Former Select Board Chair Stephanie O'Keeffe cited the camaraderie of  town and University officials coming together at a (large) table to discuss their future as, alone, being worth $60,000.  Kind of like the economic urban myth that it's worthwhile for government to hire employees to dig a ditch while another group fills it back in.

Using Public Private Partnerships (the 3 Ps) whereby private developers would site projects on land owned by the University, thus generating tax revenues to the town also received overwhelming support although some expressed concern that U3 did not better explain how to make it happen.

John Kennedy, Vice Chancellor for Community Relations,  did reassure the group, "The University is actively investigating Public Private Partnerships ... we're hard at work on that."

The U3 recommendation that the town hire an "economic development director" also received strong endorsement (an idea already popular with Town Manager Musante) from the Steering Committee as did the idea of having a broader overall target for where development occurs.  In other words, none of the 5 areas cited U3 should be ruled out (even though they seemed to really favor only two).

The full Steering Committee will meet one last time in the coming weeks to flesh out their final letter of transfer with recommendations to Town Manager John Musante and UMass Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy.

When They Build It

Kyle Wilson presenting to Amherst Planning Board

1 East Pleasant Street, the mixed use mega project proposed as a new anchor for the north end of downtown, jumped a major hurdle late last night with the Planning Board approving two Special Permit applications:  allowing the structure to climb an extra five feet to a total height of 60', and modification to side and rear setbacks allowing the building to sit closer to neighboring property.

Each of the 3 sessions has drawn a large, mostly hostile, crowd

Complaints about the proposed development ranged from the aesthetic, branding the building overly institutional, or not having to provide parking for all 84 housing units, with none of those units set aside as "affordable," to the real underlying concern that has dominated any mention of any development anywhere in town:  rowdy student behavior.

The ambitious project must still pass Site Plan Review at the November 19 meeting, but it's a safe bet now that Special Permits have passed muster. 

There is however a 21 day appeal period for the Special Permits which begins after the permits have been signed and filed with the Town Clerk (sometime in the next 1-3 weeks), so the bulldozers will not be starting up anytime soon.

Archipelago Investments already built Boltwood Place, a 5 story mixed-use development in the downtown a few years back and currently have two other projects underway:    36 unit Kendrick Place, almost adjacent to this proposed 1 East Pleasant Street project, and Olympia Place, a 75 unit housing-only development near UMass specifically targeting, gasp,  students. 

Regional Roadblock?

Regional Agreement Working Group (established 2011) almost final meeting 10/15/14

After three years of spending evenings together discussing the best interests of their individual towns, err, I mean the collective-good-of-education-for-all-children-in-the-four-town-region, you would think the 12 member committee (4 from each town) would be solidly in favor of their plan to expand the Region (currently grades 7-12) all the way down to pre-kindergarten.

At the last Regional Agreement Working Group meeting (10/15) Shutesbury member Michael DeChiara started things off with a stern note of skepticism.  Now one committee member does not make or break a proposed recommendation ... usually.

In this case, however, it could.

Because in order to change the Regional Agreement to allow the educational expansion, all four towns via their Town Meetings have to support the idea -- even if they do not plan to join the expanded Region at inception. 

Now why would Shutesbury rain on this ill-prepared parade and say "no," thus killing the ambitious project?   They are already involved with the Region at the 7-12 level, and could be concerned the expansion will destabilize the entire Region, costing them more financially.

Or the other deal killer expressed by another smaller town is that the newly expanded entity could decide to close an elementary school for the "good of the Region."   And you can bet it would not be an Amherst (who makes up almost 90% of the new Region) elementary school on the chopping block.

At the 10/14 Amherst Regional School Committee Meeting Chair Trevor Baptiste, who is also a member of the RAWG, made it sound like the expanded regionalization report would very soon be coming before the Regional School Committee for their approval, which requires a two thirds vote.

The 10/15 meeting demonstrated they are not close to drafting a final report.  And as of now, no further meetings of the RAWG have been scheduled.  

Bomb Threat ARHS

 Principal Mark Jackson (rt) conferring with AFD Assistant Chief Don McKay and  APD detective bureau chief Ron Young

AFD Engine 1 and ambulance on scene

UPDATE: 3:20 pm  

"All APD units clear from the High School."

UPDATE: 2:35 pm

Assistant Chief McKay and Engine 1 have cleared the scene, terminating command after using four teams of searchers to sweep the building. So that's a good sign!  MSP K9 units are still on the scene doing a secondary search.

UPDATE:  1:40 pm

Police and Fire personnel are going to do a primary search of every single room in the Amherst Regional High School to look for a reported bomb after a threat was phoned in around 12:20 pm.

About a dozen public safety personnel will be involved, breaking up into smaller groups for more efficiency, as well as High School Principal Mark Jackson and the person who knows the school best -- a janitor.

Massachusetts State Police K9 unit is enroute and the dog will do a secondary search.

@amherstac Natick High School, Boston College High School and Boston English High School also were evacuated for bomb threats this afternoon
— Justin Lombardi (@jlom94) November 12, 2014

Five Bomb Threats at High Schools Today

Original Post:

Swarms of High School students cross over to the Middle School under watchful eye of APD

Public safety personnel are on scene at the Amherst Regional High School in great numbers searching the building for a bomb.  A threat was phoned in around 12:20 pm and authorities are taking is seriously.

At first the school went into immediate "lockdown," but then after conferring with APD decided to evacuate the building and walk down the access road to the Middle School.

APD detective was first on the scene

Everyone is safe and school officials do not want parents coming to either school. 

Boston.com reports

How they handled it in the good old days