In Lieu Of Experience: Education

 Trailer for sale or rent, rooms to let 50 cents ...

Perhaps the major problem with the highly lucrative rental industry in a college town like Amherst is an overabundance of rookie renters who flood the market.  Annually.

And just as carnivorous coyotes can smell fear, Amherst slumlords can smell naivete. 

Enter UMass/Amherst, like the Lone Ranger on his trusty white horse, doing what they do best:  education.

Now students can take an online course designed to enlighten them about taking up residence in a rental unit away from home and the university.  Probably for the first time.

And this innovative online program is not just for students moving into off campus housing, but also for the landlords who will rent to them.  A win win situation.

Now students can learn from experienced professionals rather than learning the hard way, and landlords can show off their Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval from UMass, thus creating trust that they will uphold minimum standards of quality control.

Sort of like the Rental Registration & Permit Bylaw Amherst Town Meeting will enact next month.

The tide is changing. 

So Far So Good

APD having a chat with college aged youth carrying a 12 pack Townhouse Apartments

The long weekend went a l-o-t better than I thought it would as far as (serious) rowdyism goes.

Sure there were the usual problems associated with our annual spike in population, returning Amherst to a "college town" after a quiet summer:  zombie herds traipsing up and down Phillips Street, North Pleasant and Fearing Streets, large gatherings in the west quad of Townhouse Apartments and of course old standby Hobart Lane.

Townhouse Apartments Saturday afternoon

But there were no serious incidents of drunken mob mentality manifesting itself in the form of rocks, bottles and cans being hurled at police officers, aka Blarney Blowout.

Although Amherst Fire Department had the usual tie up in services due to drunk runs with ETOH students. 

Amherst police stepped up their game as they always do.  APD Neighborhood Liaison officer Bill Laramee worked with UMass Neighborhood Liaison Eric Beal to keep a lid on the usual pressure cooker areas.

The Rental Permit Bylaw ordinance that went into effect 18 months ago is making a significant difference by holding landlords accountable for the (late night) activities of their tenants.

And UMass, by building newer plusher accommodations on campus -- North Apartment (800 beds) and Commonwealth Honors College apartments (1,500 beds) -- gives young tenants a reason to be proud of their humble abode and much more likely to treat it with respect.

Revived my Twitter audience

The Tide Is Turning

No single issue has dominated the public discussion in our little college town over the past too many years like the problem of unruly off campus student behavior.

Yes, let me quickly interject that it's only a small minority that indulge in downright dangerous antics, tie up emergency services for preventable alcohol related calls and disturb the tranquility of neighborhoods all over town.

But when the majority of your population consists of "college aged youth,"  that small percentage adds up to significant number -- especially problematic considering our woefully understaffed Public Safety Departments.



Plus they all seem to want to get out of control around the same time:  Thursday night through early Sunday morning.

In response to problems emanating from student rentals the town, 40 years after it was first proposed, enacted a Rental Registration and Permit Bylaw.  As of today 100% of the rental property in town is registered and have a permit that can be revoked.

Neighbors now have easy access to contact information for those adults who are owners/managers of Party Houses and a simple mechanism to file complaints with the town should they not get satisfaction from them.

UMass, the Goliath that provides the vast majority of housing consumers, has also started taking things seriously after student bad behavior started receiving the continuous attention it deserved (kind of like the bad behavior of Bill Cosby should have been exposed many, many years ago).

For over four years now I have focused attention on the weekend circus with my "Party House of the Weekend" reports, naming names of both the arrested perpetrators of the mayhem and the landlords who own the property.

These days I get requests almost weekly to take down a post because a Google search brings it up and prospective employers are probably not overly impressed (although we all were young once I suppose).

March 8, 2014

The Blarney Blowout was also a major turning point as my spotlight on rowdy student behavior was amplified a thousand times over by national and international media coverage.

In spite of the $160,000 Davis Report suggesting overwhelmed police overreacted, the average citizen -- both taxpayers and students -- knows full well the alcohol fueled mayhem was a significant black mark for the University and its student body.

 But you can still buy UMass branded shot glasses at the Textbook Annex

And it has served as an unmistakable wake up call,  or some would argue an attention getting slap in the face.

So why do I, a grumpy old get-off-my-lawn cynic, think things are improving?

Last year between August 15 and November 15 Amherst police responded to 322 noise complaints, while issuing 91 Noise Violations and 33 Nuisance House violations.

This year between August 15 and November 15 Amherst police responded to 214 noise complaints, while issuing only 17 Noise Violations and 25 Nuisance House violations.

In other words total number of $300 tickets levied have dropped from 124 to 42 in just one year.  A stunningly significant decrease. 

Now that's worth partying over!

The Glass Is Half ... Full

 

Pat Kamins landlord, Rob Morra Building Commissioner

While half the 1,570 rental properties that need to register with the town and acquire a permit have done so since the new bylaw went into effect Janurary 1st, that still leaves about 785 who have not complied.

According to Amherst Building Commissioner Rob Morra:

 "All property owners who have not submitted permit applications will receive a letter from me with a deadline of March 31st to respond.  The letter is intended to be the final reminder however will clearly state that without a permit from this office he property is not in compliance with the Bylaw.  I will initiate standard enforcement procedures for all properties in violation after March 31st which will include fines, noncriminal disposition, court action, etc. as needed to gain full compliance with our program."

In order to oversee this critical new program Morra has hired two additional employees: Jennifer Gannett, Management Assistant (started early January) and a new inspector, Terry Avery who will start February 18th.

The two positions cost $88,689 (not including benefits) but will be easily covered by the $157,000 generated in $100 annual permits for the 1,570 rental properties.

$2000 Fine vs $100 Compliance Fee

 25 Butterfield Terrace

The last of the housing holdouts paid their dues and the town's rental stock is now 100% in compliance with the new Rental Registration and Permit Bylaw, overwhelmingly passed by Amherst Town Meeting last year.

   Amherst Housing Court Docs

On Monday Amherst Building Inspector Jon Thompson appeared in Eastern Hampshire District Court before a Clerk Magistrate.  Of the six cases he presented, one was continued to August 29 (Kathleen Maiolatesi), with all the others ended favorably for the town.

Deborah Kruger failed to show up for the hearing, costing her $1,700.  The three parking citations were all upheld and the perps paid $100 each.  And Alpha Tae Gamma (25 Butterfield Terrace) settled before the hearing by agreeing to pay $2,000.

FY15 only started July 1st

One Million Down ...

So I should have stayed up a little later last night because sometime just before midnight the milestone one millionth visitor came a calling.  Not that my sitemeter gives me their email so I can award him/her a prize.

Over the past seven years I have tried to cover the stories that my friends in the bricks and mortar media may have missed, or to cover them in a way that offers more of the backstory.

Living here all my life and having operated a small service-oriented business for 28 years gives me Google-like institutional memory and a fairly extensive list of ultra-reliable sources.

Sources who trust my use of "off the record," knowing that North Koreans could hold a flamethrower to my head and I would never give them up.

If you looked at my widget for "popular posts" (which is continuously updated real time) four months ago, six of the top ten stories had nothing to do with  "rowdy student behavior."

Cowardly Anon Nitwits constantly accuse me, a proud UMass grad, of being "anti-student" where all I ever write about is the tiny minority of students who screw up.

So I kind of liked that I could respond with, "60% of my top ten stories have nothing to do with students behaving badly."  Well unfortunately, that is no longer the case.  This year's Blarney Blowout -- not exactly a "tiny minority" of students -- pushed not one, but two new posts into the top ten.

Now 60% of my "popular posts" do involve student bad behavior (4 of them specifically related to Blarney Blowout).

But I take great journo pride in the two stories that were pushed out of the top ten:

The potentially catastrophic basement fire at a Hobart Lane (students) apartment that exposed a (well known) landlord coverup of shoddy conditions -- including orchestrated violations of the bylaw restricting one family units to no more than four unrelated tenants.

A case that came at just the right time to help pass the Amherst Rental Registration & Permit Bylaw last year, the most important piece of legislation enacted by Town Meeting in a generation.

And the other case that you have also read about here more than any other media outlet:  A working class family unfairly sanctioned by an overly PC Amherst School system.  A sad story that is still ongoing.

I hope to be around to bring you a conclusion.

Party House of the Weekend

24 Summer Street

This party house bust at 24 Summer Street in North Amherst is kind of a throw back to the bad old days in our little college town prior to the Rental Registration and Permit Bylaw.  A few years ago there would have been three or four more events just like this on the same weekend.

Progress is a good thing.

In Eastern Hampshire District Court on Monday all four of the arrested had their cases continued until later this month as the Commonwealth has to confer with the police officers assaulted during the event.

   Amherst Party House

Jensen Gauthier and Bailey Smith (female) stand before Judge Hadley

 Dennis Trujillo

 Mychal Carter

Steering A New Course

The Town Gown Steering Committee met this afternoon, appropriately enough, in the "Amherst Room" on the tenth floor of the Campus Center, bringing together 22 committee members that reads like a "who's who" of heavy hitters.

Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy

And to top it off Chancellor Subbaswamy and Town Manager John Musante attended the inaugural meeting.  Although the Chancellor left early with the parting comment, "May the Red Sox win, and may our students celebrate peacefully."

Co Chairs David Ziomek and Nancy Buffone (center)

The committee is charged with developing a Request For Proposals to hire a consultant (for $60,000 or less) who can create a blueprint for mutually beneficial action steps each partner can undertake to deal with growth and change.

Problems that need to be addressed include the creation of more (taxable) student housing, economic development and the quelling of rowdy student party houses in residential neighborhoods.

8 Qualifications for Town/Gown Consultant

The Committee will issue the RFP by December 1, review the proposals and interview finalist through January, and award the contract by February 1.  Over the following three months the Committee will continue to meet and hold public forums with a completion date of May 1st for a new joint Master Plan.

This Steering Committee follows in the wake (with many of the same members) of the successful Safe & Healthy Neighborhoods Working Group that crafted a precedent setting Town Meeting approved (by super majority) "Rental Registration and  Permit Bylaw" that goes into effect January 1st. 

More Hats Than A Haberdashery

 Larry Kelley, Amherst Town Meeting member, Precinct 5

So yes, I consider myself a digital first reporter who mostly uses Blogger as a publishing platform, although these days strongly supplemented by Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. 

Basic principals of journo are sacred:  Seek truth and report it -- especially when the powerful wish it kept secret -- mitigate harm to the innocent, and protect with your dying breath confidential sources.

But I can assure you other roles on occasion override my role as reporter.  For instance, if a tornado hit Crocker Farm School this morning my role as a Dad would come first should I be early on the scene.  As a matter of fact even if it was not the particular school my daughters attend, my initial actions would be to help rather than report.



Landlord Richard Gold who spoke against article #29 (Rental Registration Permit bylaw)  Monday night bitterly complained about my actions on the floor of Town Meeting and called into question my journalist ethics:

"As a so called reporter who chooses to sit in the front row designated for the press it is your obligation to keep your opinions to yourself and your mouth shut. Not to interrupt speakers so as to disrupt and discredit what they are saying. It was your voice alone that first objected to a portion of my speech."

First off, the moderator clearly states at the beginning of every town meeting the front row " may be used by members of the press or town staff" (with special ID showing they are "non voters") but does not suggest regular town meeting members should not sit there, as about a dozen usually do.

In fact I have been in that location for almost all my nearly 20 years as an Amherst Town Meeting member.

As to my "point of order" (which yes, a few savvy members of Town Meeting use as a weapon to distract speakers), I was invoking the Rule of Decorum that clearly states a speaker should "refrain from characterizing a member's motives or impugning the character of other members."

And as you can clearly see it was not long after that the moderator himself interrupted Mr. Gold for that very reason.  Twice.  So I think his real problem is what most people refer to as "sour grapes".

Over on the Town Meeting listserve Amherst landlord and ZBA member Hilda Greenbaum who was a staunch opponent of article #29 wrote: "Where were the unhappy folks last night against a well-oiled neighborhood? Everyone (including myself) seemed to be cowed by their persistence. "

Mr Gold also lamented "Most of my landlord colleagues were unhappy with Article 29 and it went beyond self-serving. In the end they turned out to be summer soldiers when it came time to speak out publicly."

After all the sound and fury leading up to the epic vote, it was almost anti-climactic.  Notice the somewhat stunned silence immediately after the resounding voice vote:

Voice vote was overwhelmingly in favor

The voice of experience

Story of the Year 2013

 APD, State PD and UMPD gather at west entrance to Townhouse Apartments

The war on off campus student rowdyism took a serious turn during 2013 and that turning point was the Blarney Blowout, Amherst's version of the Mardi Gras or Florida's Spring Break -- only seasoned with a tad more violence.

As usual good weather was a contributing factor but by far, marketing was the #1 reason for the out-of-control debauchery.

Downtown bars -- most notably McMurphy's and Stackers -- used social media to hype the "Blarney Blowout" promotion, a bait and switch name change from "Kegs & Eggs" which had drawn sharp criticism over the previous ten years for promoting bad behavior i.e. drinking in the morning.

In 2012 the Blarney Blowout had contributed to awful visuals in the downtown and an unusual strain on public safety, including an incident where a drunken college aged male hit on an 11-year-old girl.  The Select Board used their bully pulpit to chastise the pernicious promotion, but as the town's Liquor Commissioners did nothing to penalize the offenders.

So it should not have been too hard to figure out , even if you don't have sitemeters, that the Blarney Blowout, March 9, 2013 was going to be bad day for civility.  Really bad.

The promotion started at 11:00 AM (my first published report was 11:07 AM) and all eyes were focused on the downtown.  Meanwhile crowds, mostly dressed in green,  were gathering at Townhouse Apartments in North Amherst where violence had erupted the year before.

 Entire quad taken up by revelers

The crowd grew to over 2,000 taking up the entire quad and beer cans (some of them full) and snowballs started to fly.  A young woman in the center of the mob passes out from too much alcohol (ETOH) and AFD is called.

 Note UFO

When police and EMTs try to get to the young lady lost in the crowd the mob became uncooperative.  Objects now started flying in their direction. Public Safety personnel retreated after pulling the young woman from the crowd.

ETOH female (age 17) loaded into the ambulance under police escort

Over the next few hours, under the influence of a lot more beer, the crowd would only get surlier.  Vandalism starts to take place.  APD had put out an SOS after the incident with the ETOH female, with many State Police and UMPD officers responding to the call -- all of them dressed in riot gear.

A little after 5:00 PM they uniformly moved in, quickly dispersing the huge crowd while making six arrests.

Moments after police dispersed the unruly crowd

At the following Select Board meeting irate members -- particularly Chair Stephanie O'Keeffe -- blamed UMass for not putting out sternly worded emails to students and parents before the weekend.  UMass -- via a Letter to the Editor from PR guru John Kennedy -- blamed the town for allowing the promotion.

Of course the Select Board, unlike previous years, had not given the bars permission to open early that day and since advertising via social media is protected by the First Amendment there is little they could have done prevent the promotion.

But the acrimony led to UMass announcing it would donate $40,000 per semester so AFD could run two extra ambulances on weekends; and more importantly, the disturbing incident convinced the two major powers that something structural needed to be done.

 Chancellor Subbaswamy addresses Amherst Town Meeting 5/15/13

For the first time in history a UMass Chancellor came to spring Town Meeting to champion town/gown relations.  The $30,000 warrant article (matched by $30,000 from UMass)  to hire a consultant passed, leading to the formation of the Town Gown Steering Committee, a heavy hitter group of top UMass and Town officials that mirrored the ultra successful Safe & Healthy Neighborhoods Working Group.

The SHNWG formulated a Rental Registration and Permit Bylaw, the most important legislation passed by Town Meeting in a generation, and a direct outgrowth of last year's "Story of the Year".  

The Town Gown Steering Committee finished up a Request For Proposals a few weeks ago and will continue to meet after the consultant issues a report.

After all, implementation is the key. 

Party On Dude

APD Captain Jen Gundersen, UMass Associate Dean  of Students Sally Linowski

The Amherst Select Board, although they never formally voted on it, gave their wholehearted support to the new joint initiative between UMass officials and Amherst police to start a weekend Party Registration Pilot Program in September for students living off-campus.

More than half of the 29,000 students who attend our flagship University live off campus.

According to Captain Jen Gundersen APD responds to between 700 and 1200 noise complaints annually and each one requires at least two officers, sometimes as many as four.

And in the vast majority of cases a simple verbal warning solves the problem.

Now that verbal warning can come first via a telephone call to the registered party house giving them a 20 minute deadline to end the party or at least quiet it considerably.

With the advent of Rental Registration Permit Bylaw the town has already seen a dramatic reduction in Party House rowdy behavior, so this experiment can be the icing on the cake.

The Select Board will hear a report in January about how well the program performed over the Fall semester.

Blarney Blowout 2014:  Party gone bad

New Sheriff In Town

Umass Amherst:  Getting out from under a cloud

UMass Amherst, our proud flagship of higher education, just announced the new "neighborhood liaison," aka "off campus Resident Assistant," and they could not have made a better choice than Eric Beal.

Eric Beal Chairs his final ZBA meeting (June 11) after 8 years of service

. 

Modeled after the Boston College program of having a school employee who is a hybrid of a cop and bar bouncer, Mr. Beal will patrol the usual suspect neighborhoods adjacent to the UMass campus to try to head off rowdy parties before they hit the stage where APD is required.

Mr. Beal will be paid a $62,000 annual salary.

18 months ago Eric Beal chaired the ZBA meetings against a prominent local landlord who appealed the hefty fines imposed by the Building Commissioner for having too many students packed into an apartment, without proper safety precautions. 

That case became a turning point, and helped in the creation of the successful Rental Registration & Permit Bylaw which is now at 100% adherence.

#####
UMass Press Release

Aug. 3, 2015

UMass Amherst Chooses Attorney and
Former Town Official Eric Beal
as First Neighborhood Liaison

AMHERST, Mass.

Eric Beal, an Amherst attorney and former chair of the Amherst Zoning Board of Appeals, has been appointed to the newly created position of neighborhood liaison at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, effective August 3rd.

Beal, a UMass Amherst alumnus, will work with town and campus public safety officials, responding to incidents and complaints involving off-campus student behavior in neighborhoods near campus. He will serve as a liaison to off-campus students and neighbors during evening weekend patrols and will assist campus partners with proactive programs on student behavior, educational campaigns and community service activities.

“Eric’s deep knowledge of the neighborhoods around campus both as a resident and as a former zoning official makes him uniquely qualified for this new and important position,” said Nancy Buffone, associate vice chancellor for university relations. “This position is another step forward in our town-gown efforts and I am confident that Eric’s skills and experience are a great fit for the university and our campus neighbors as well.”

The creation of the neighborhood liaison position was a key recommendation in former Boston Police Chief Edward Davis’ September 2014 report to campus and community officials on how best to handle large off-campus disturbances. The neighborhood liaison’s role is to work directly with community members, hear everyday concerns and build relationships to deter disorderly student behavior. Similar positions have been successful at Boston College and Georgetown University.

Beal will be a nighttime mainstay in the neighborhoods that traditionally find students gathering during fall and spring semester weekends. He will collaborate with Amherst police and fire officials on proactive approaches to student-neighborhood issues and with the university’s Student Affairs and Campus Life office on its successful Walk This Way and Team Positive Presence programs.

“I fell in love with the Amherst area while a sociology major at UMass Amherst in the early ’90s, and it’s been a dream of mine to work for UMass,” said Beal. “In my eight years on the ZBA, I worked closely with town and public safety officials, residents and property owners. I learned first-hand about the issues affecting our neighborhoods and efforts of residents, the town and the university to improve quality of life. I look forward to joining UMass to continue that work.”

A graduate of UMass Amherst and the University of Connecticut School of Law, Beal has a background in human services, including a stint as a resident assistant in the Southwest Residential Area and work as a mental health counselor in the Holyoke area.

In his law practice, Beal represents clients in appellate matters, including children and families in care and protection appeals. Beal previously was an associate with Axinn, Veltrop & Harkrider in Hartford from 2001-07, representing Fortune 500 clients in litigation, government investigation and appeals, and an associate with Bulkley, Richardson and Gelinas in Springfield from 2007-10.

An Amherst resident, Beal plays alto saxophone in the Amherst Community Band under the baton of UMass Marching Band director Timothy Anderson. He has served as a member of Amherst Town Meeting and is a supporter of the Friends of Puffer’s Pond. He is an avid cyclist and trail runner and serves as a lead coordinator for the 2015 Amherst Regional High School Cross Country Invitational.

 Beal lives with his daughters, Lillian and Ella, and his long-time partner, Shelley, and her two sons, Peter and Eric.

Status Quo Housing Allocation

Amherst Housing Authority Board of Commissioners

The Amherst Housing Authority Board of Commissioners voted 4-1 on Monday to set the HUD voucher payment standards for 2016 at 113% of Fair Market Rent for Amherst and 97% for Extended area which covers 388 total vouchers and gives all of them a few dollars more in monthly subsidies.

Commission member TracyLee Boutilier voted against the motion saying the Board should show "more compassion," pointing out a $10 month increase in payments for a family living in a  three bedroom apartment is too little.

The problem is Housing and Urban Development is only giving the Amherst Housing Authority an extra $38,443 in 2016 going from the current $3,077,917 up to $3,116,360.

And with the approved payment standards for 2016 the 238 Amherst vouchers will cost an additional $25,812 and the balance of them another $10,260. To suddenly increase the subsidy any higher would mean defunding some vouchers to make up the difference.

If the AHA went to 120% of the Fair Market Rate for Amherst, Executive Director Denise LeDuc estimates 35-40 vouchers would need to be terminated to fund the increase in monthly payments to the other 200 or so Amherst recipients.

Last year the average cost paid out for all 388 vouchers came to $649/month or $7,788 annually.

The problem in Amherst is too little housing supply combined with too great a demand.  Students who wish to live off campus pack themselves into sometimes sub-standard units and drive up the prices, forcing out families and blue collar workers who cannot compete.

 Click to enlarge/read

Although the recent passage of the town's Rental Registration Permit Bylaw and the successful completion of Kendrick Place, with more large mixed-use buildings on the immediate horizon, the future for affordable housing is starting to look a little brighter.

Five story mixed use Kendrick Place (mostly residential) opened September 1st

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!

ZBA Drones On

Crotty Hall rendering looking from the Northwest

As usual the Zoning Board of Appeals meeting last night went on for over four hours, and as is also somewhat usual they did not come to a final vote on any of the three major items discussed.  And you thought Amherst Town Meeting took forever!

First up was Stephan Gharabegian, arguably the most notorious absentee landlord in the town of Amherst.  Mr Gharabegian owns almost half the houses on Phillips Street, the most notorious street in Amherst.

33 Phillips Street

In this case he wishes to expand capacity for 33 Phillips Street, probably the most notorious house in all of Amherst.

The house is a 3-family unit meaning it can have 12 "unrelated" tenants.  But Mr. Gharabegian had, without official permit, refinished the basement for a 4th unit, thus increasing monthly rental income significantly.

And since the bootleg apartment had major health/safety violations -- no second means of egress in case of fire -- it came to the attention of Building Commissioner Rob Morra who shut down the basement apartment until the ZBA hears his case.

Which started on October 2, continued to November 6, continued to last night, and now continued yet again until June 11.

 Stephan Gharabegian addresses 3-member Zoning Board of Appeals last night

Neighbors repeatedly pointed out the detrimental impact that 33 Phillips has already had on the surrounding neighborhood (Fearing Street and Sunset Avenue) as a 3-family, so allowing it to become a 4-family will only make matters worse.

Besides, town officials should not be rewarding bad behavior, since the 4th unit was illegally created to begin with and only comes before the ZBA because he got caught.  Member Tom Ehrgood, waiving a police summary report, said the location was a "magnet for police attention."

The board was a little more receptive to another rental property with a less than sterling reputation, 164 Sunset Avenue.  They generally came to the conclusion that formalizing the house as a two family unit was reasonable, with some conditions that will be hammered out at the hearing continued to February 12.

The most surprising event of the night was a 2+ hour discussion (borderline heated) over Crotty Hall, a sleek new building proposed for 418 North Pleasant Street at the very gateway to UMass.

The Dover Amendment allows religious and educational institutes to pretty much run roughshod over local oversight except for the setback zoning requirements, which are enforced by the Building Commissioner.

In fact they are made even more stringent as the requirements in the Amherst Zoning Bylaw have to be doubled since educational and religious buildings are oftentimes HUGE and can be plopped down in the middle of a residential neighborhood.

In this case the designers did not realize that the 10 foot side setback touching Phillips Street needed to be doubled to 20 feet.  But the Amherst Building Commissioner did. 

Gordon & Crotty Hall. Dotted line top right Phillips Street property

Thus the building was totally designed, at a current investment of $222,000 (85% of which is lost if the building requires redesign), with a 10 foot side setback in mind.  Neighbors on Phillips Street are not happy.  The ZBA is caught in the middle.

Neighbors also complained that the twin building, Gordon Hall, has a noisy HVAC system that drives them crazy from April until October, and the new building will be much closer to them.

Sounding troubled, ZBA Chair Eric Beal said, "This is a hard case for me.  You relied on the 10 foot setback in good faith."

The proposed building is named for Jim and Pam Crotty, who have lived in Amherst for 40 years.

Mr. Crotty, UMass Professor Emeritus of Economics and Sheridan Scholar, spoke about bringing faculty who now work in Thompson Hall to the new building to work alongside colleagues in Gordon Hall:  "It would be superb to get this synergy between faculty and grad students."

Two members of the ZBA, Mark Parent and Tom Ehrgood, seemed convinced the extra intrusion into Phillips Street was not  "unreasonable", especially since the main UMass campus is only a snowball throw away.

Chair Eric Beal was not 100% convinced, however, and wished to see "renderings" of the new building.

The board took a five minute break so architect Sigrid Miller Pollin could pull them up from her computer.  But when the meeting resumed the renderings only showed the impact from North Pleasant Street and not from Phillips Street.

The appeal hearing was continued until February 12.  The building plan will also need review by the Amherst Planning Board for a Site Plan Approval.

Render Unto Ceasar

Echo Village:  Under New Management (and ownership)

So I guess it should come as no surprise that the first thing Eagle Crest Management does with their recently acquired $3 million property is to raise the rents, thus forcing out most of the clientele in the 24 unit apartment complex, many of them low income, Section 8 tenants.

Quite the ecosystem at work:  Jamie Cherewatti buys the property, valued at $2.1 million, from Jerry Gates who is on the Board of Directors for Craig's Doors Homeless Shelter.  Good thing the Amherst Select Board recently ignored Town Manager John Musante's less than enthusiastic support and allowed the shelter to expand from 16 to 22 beds.

When he appeared before the Zoning Board of Appeals last April to testify in behalf of his successful request to double occupancy at 156 Sunset Avenue, Jamie Cherewatti said plaintively, "I don't want to be known as the slumlord of Amherst."

So maybe he plans to invest millions in the Echo Hill apartment units and rent to upscale blue bloods.  Or maybe not.  Perhaps he will just replace the current, sometime problematic clients, with his usual Modus Operandi, students.  

These days Cherewatti seems to be diversifying his property holdings using a variety of legal entities:  He moved Eagle Crest, his real estate management company, to above one of the more rowdy bars in downtown Amherst -- Stacker's -- after buying the building.   Plus ownership of a slew of expanded rentals all over town, as well as managing a number of units that have earned my prestigious,  'Party House of the Weekend' award

No matter what his final plans are for Echo Village Apartments it's clear the 24 units will no longer be considered "affordable" by state definition.  And when Amherst is already less than 1% above the threshold for the ultimate bogeyman, a Chapter 40B development coming to town, every single affordable unit matters.

This will be used by some landlords as ammunition to try to shoot down rental registration/permit system bylaw coming to Town Meeting this spring.  The argument will be that Amherst strangles developers in red tape so no one will want to build housing in town -- affordable or market rate -- thus increasing the likely hood of falling below the 10% threshold.

Of course after the Gateway Project was scuttled by NIMBYs, perhaps a 40-B development is the only way to make serious gains on our chronic rental housing shortage.

Bring On The Consultants

 

Chancellor Subbaswamy addresses Amherst Town Meeting

If the goal of the $60,000 joint Town/Gown study is to enhance relations between the town of Amherst, founded 1759, and our largest employer UMass/Amherst, founded 1863, then we can save ourselves a lot of money as Chancellor Subbaswamy's nearly ten minute speech before Amherst Town Meeting already accomplished that.

Schmoozing with town officials just prior to town meeting start

But the real goal is to enhance relations between the town citizenry and UMass students, and that's going to take some work.  And you don't build something solid and workable without planning.

The motion to spend $60,000 for the joint study, split evenly between UMass and the town, easily passed  by a recorded tally vote 122-46.

 UMass & Town officials huddle during tally vote count

The overwhelming nature of the vote sends a positive signal about the most controversial and most important article of this entire town meeting -- probably in a generation -- Article #29, Residential Rental Property Bylaw, which brings a permit system to the lucrative rental business.

A market driven by the presence of so very many students.  That article comes up May 20.

What's in a name?

Town Manager Musante, SB Chair Stephanie O'Keeffe, Pat Kamins at yesterday's meeting

"Permit," "license," or "business certificate" -- call it what you will, but the success of the much needed rental housing bylaw coming out of the endless meetings of the 'Safe & Healthy Neighborhoods' working group comes down to that simple concept.

Rental registration and licensing go together like auto registration and licensing.  Can you imagine the problems if anyone, regardless of license, could drive a car simply because the vehicle was properly registered?

Member Pat Kamins (a mid-sized local landlord) sarcastically asks his fellow members to think about businesses in Amherst "that require licenses or permits that can be revoked if their customers act inappropriately."

Well first of all, think about all the businesses that are not in Amherst because their customers could act inappropriately:  Strip bars, porn shops, head shops, etc. 

In fact, the Board of Health crushed the 'Smoking Ban in Bars Revolt' (by the more rowdy bars) a dozen years ago by threatening to revoke food handling permits for not enforcing the smoking ban.  Since alcohol licenses are tied to food handling permits, the bars quickly caved.

The rest, as they say, is history.  And the town is immeasurably better for it.

 
Crowd of 20 showed up for last night's meeting Safe & Health Neighborhoods working group

Party Permit?

Meadow Street Mayhem last Spring

The Safe & Healthy Neighborhood working group is furiously formulating a rental registration and permitting system bylaw for approval at the Annual Spring Town Meeting, to deal with that age old blight on Amherst residential neighborhoods -- the Party House. 

One of the other ideas being worked on (hopefully not too hard)  is a joint effort of the town and UMass to have students pre-register off campus parties.  Presumably if a party gets out of hand, the police will be a tad more accommodating because at least the party hosts had registered the event.

But if police are called to the atypical rowdy party going full blast and the hosts have not registered the event, then police will be a little harder on the perpetrators, and have one more charge to add to the roster. 

The latter will of course be the norm.
 
Some states have tried to "tax" illegal marijuana over the years by requiring dealers to pre purchase "tax stamps" for their contraband.  If cops bust a dealer without the stamps then officials can seize their personal property, or something like that.

It doesn't work very well.  Amazingly.

Kind of like trying to keep guns out of the hands of pernicious perps. Whatever rules you impose on the vast majority of law abiding citizens will be ignored by the wackos or hard core criminals.

And it only takes one of them to do astounding damage.

With "party registrations" Chief Livingstone recently told the Amherst Zoning Board, "I'm guessing we're heading in that direction".  But he was quick to add it should be overseen by the Dean of Students office because he didn't think the students would voluntarily come to the Amherst Police Department to register their event.

Safe bet.

 Sober Shuttle for one 2/17 1:22 AM

Perhaps a reason why the 'Sober Shuttle' in downtown Amherst seems to be having a hard time attracting a whole lot of student ridership:  the presence of a uniformed UMPD officer.

Early Sunday morning the 1:20 AM shuttle had only one rider and the 2:00 AM shuttle, if it did show up, would have had zero. 

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.