Can Salamanders read?
The i's have been dotted and the t's crossed (in triplicate) as the town on Wednesday received both by certified mail and delivery in hand the official notice of intent to remove property in northeast Amherst from Chapter 61 conservation for the whopping sale price of $6.5 million.
Yes THAT property off Henry Street -- the one that has aroused the fires of indignation from nearby residents in the historic village of Cushman and a few more from all over Amherst and a surrounding town or two.
The town of Amherst, upon receipt of the documents, has two deadlines: 30 days to question the notification process as flawed, and then another 90 days (assuming the paperwork is in order) to decide if they wish to invoke the "right of first refusal", or pass it on to another non profit land trust.
Either way, an intercepting entity would need to match the current offer of $6.5 million. Yes, dollars.
Kind of like the epic blunder the town made 25 years ago taking by eminent domain the Cherry Hill Golf Course in North Amherst, costing taxpayers $2.2 million. The largest land "purchase" in town history, and to the best of my knowledge the last time the town has wielded the potent power of eminent domain. What some might refer to as "the nuclear option."
Adjusting for inflation the cost of Cherry Hill today would be $4.4 million, still a far cry from the $6.5 million cost of taking the 154 acres of woodland currently owned by the largest private landlowner in Massachusetts, W.D. Cowls, Inc.
And that of course does not include the legal bills resulting from a crossfire of attorneys from two major corporations.
This is one battle the town doesn't need: sound the retreat!
15 comments:
Should it be called "Historic" North Amherst? It's so "historic" that the Cushman Cafe has a sign that belongs at a car wash event, certainly out of place for the building it sits on. The railroad tracks have become a staging ground for track repairs and have become quite ugly with debris. Pine Street is never really repaired, just patched and every spring is like the moon. Many of the homes around there need a degree of landscaping and look like no one painted them or maintained them in years. And of course there is the Virgin Mary in the bathtub on Henry St. Sort of "historic" at the house where the guy does illegal burning disguised as a fire pit all year. Certainly not very "historic".
Really it's just a wooded area that no one wants anyone to build on (NIMBY) but add the word "historic" and you have a fight. Can't be much worse than the mismatch of houses across the street from it and of course the eye sore of a "salamander crossing" made from roofing flashing, black plastic, stakes and bright orange hazard tape. Not very in keeping with a nice looking "historic" area. I guess the high tention wires that run in that "historic" wooded area will not look so nice to the tenants of a new place.
So many tracks of land are owned privately or by trusts in the area already so no one builds. The corner of Flat Hills Road and Market Hill Road come to mind. Owned by a doctor (I was told) and no one will ever build there.
The area in question is really a great place to put some housing. Unfortunately the street that serves it is frankly overcrowded now as it's the way most folks bypass downtown to get to Belchertown and Sunderland, etc. While no one ever wants anyone to ever build in Amherst, eventually it must happen just as the area on the other sie of Pine street was dozed and developed ten years ago against everyones wishes.
But fear not, like always the town will end up screwing it all up and the housing will be built. Now THAT's historic Amherst for you.
Not bad Wally, coming from someone who doesn't even own property in Amherst and is a parasite on the rest of us. nice, real nice.....
6.5 million is only the tip of the problem. If the property were developed it would bring in much needed tax money. As far as those who want to "save" Cushman, they figure they're being selfless by stopping the development and stopping the "big bad" corporations from doing their business. They're actually being selfish, keeping their utopia all for themselves, and denying anybody else the right to live in Amherst. They and town meeting want to micromanage the town. It CAN'T be done. Amherst reminds me of a large exclusive private prep school where that kind of control can be exercised. But it's not.
The point against this development, beyond it being an historic or environmentally sensitive location, is that it is not in an area well suited for intense residential, student housing. There is no bus route, poor walkability, hazardous biking conditions and, other than Cushman Market, no readily available commercial amenities to serve it. This flies against all the principles of our master plan. Though I agree that this kind of development is needed, both to increase our housing stock and augment our tax coffers, this isn't the right place for it. I really wish the village center rezoning initiatives had passed, because that's where this kind of infill belongs.
Walter,
Although I found your “message” confusing…beginning with bad, bad, Cushman and finishing with “But fear not, like always the town will end up screwing it all up and the housing will be built,“ I offer the following:
Historic per Merriam Webster Dictionary … "Of or concerning history; of the past."
And so goes Cushman Village which “Has retained its traditional building patterns: our roads are narrow, our modest homes sit close together and right up against the sidewalks, we have a village green, a three-room schoolhouse and a quaint store/café* in the old railroad depot. Historic farmhouses line the outskirts of the village, up Market Hill Road and Flat Hills Road and more recent infill development has matched the existing patterns.“
*I believe it’s the oldest still operating in Amherst
Where you saw, apparently with disdain, a Virgin Mary in a bathtub (which, by the way, hasn’t been there for many years) others saw (on private property no less) a means for someone without much to honor their beliefs. Such a “Virgin’s Grotto” is still a common sight in the US, Ireland, Canada, and many other countries. And, the grotto wasn’t at “the house where the guy does illegal burning disguised as a fire pit all year “ (he, by the way, also hasn’t been there for many years), it was at what once was an ice house moved from Puffers Pond and located across from one of the oldest houses in Amherst which still bears the scars of musket ball holes in its walls. They are both located south of the old blacksmiths shop (now a family home for over 35 years), which is across from another house (now a family home for over 30 years) which the residents moved in pieces by hand from downtown where it was to be demolished to make way for an office building. That house sits next door to an original Sears’s kit house and around the corner from what is still referred to as Leonard’s Egg Farm. And I could go on.
“A mismatch of houses, the eye sore of a salamander crossing, high tension wires, railroad tracks, homes needing a landscaping and look like no one painted them or maintained them in years”…my, my…sounds like you find our neighborhood off-putting. Is that why you think, “the area is really a great place” to put housing for upwards of 700 students”?
And what’s with this NIMBY stuff? Really? It seems that calling people a pejorative has become as easy way to dismiss their concerns if not the democratic process. Personally, I can’t get past why it’s the Town’s responsibility to provide student housing at all. I would prefer Not in my Town.
Oh, and thanks Tom for referring to our neighborhood as a “utopia”. Spot on!
By the way, just in case someone hasn’t actually been through Cushman or there are still any open minds out there, you might find interesting the photos at the link below:
http://www.savehistoriccushman.com/cushman-village-today.html
anon 8:42 am...
careful, when you say to Walter and Ed "please stop, go away, take a break" they are encouraged to post comments more often, and longer ones too. That's how they show us that we cowardly anons can't affect what they do.
Personally, I can’t get past why it’s the Town’s responsibility to provide student housing at all.
I was under the impression that one private party (Cowls Lumber) was selling property to a second private party who would then spend THEIR OWN money to build private/taxable housing which THEY would rent to students. How exactly does this become town action?
No, it is not the town's responsibility to provide housing to anyone -- but it also is beyond the town's authority to preclude anyone from living in town as well. It is just like a century ago when WASP communities wanted to keep the Irish Catholics out, and I can think of several anti-Catholic cartoons that would fit right in with the mentality of the "Save Cushman" folks.
This is nothing but the narrow-minded bigotry of people who fear those who are different than they. If there is a genuine concern for impact on the neighborhood, you tie future property tax revenues from the project to improvements in the neighborhood, such as street reconstruction.
And maybe even give some serious thought to having Route 9 bypass downtown Amherst -- traffic is a whole lot heavier than when it was proposed during the Volpe Administration, and while my "Trans-Quabbin Expressway" is a figure of speech, UMass is the only major university I am aware of without a nearby divided highway link to its major population center.
"No, it is not the town's responsibility to provide housing to anyone."
Then why do we keep hearing from Town Leaders (i.e. Select Board Chairman and some residents) about our need to? And you don't think the "Town" will be responsible for the impact of up to 700 college-age students living in their own haven (I mean Retreat) who come here for school NOT to "live in town"?
"It is just like a century ago when WASP communities wanted to keep the Irish Catholics out, and I can think of several anti-Catholic cartoons that would fit right in with the mentality of the "Save Cushman" folks."
Now here's where you many be out of your depth. Perhaps we should meet sometime regarding your direct experience with the persecution of Irish Catholics. If you show me yours, I'll show you mine.
"This is nothing but the narrow-minded bigotry of people who fear those who are different than they."
Hmmm...sounds exactly like your reaction to those who have a different opinion (at least on this) than you.
A great Irishman once said, "Where there's anger, there's likely fear."
Don't be afraid of us Walter, it'll all work out one way or the other.
Oh -- as to the "Trans-Quabbin Expressway" -- and my book -- there is this: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/04/mark-leibovich-book-this-town-90660.html
Yep, that's what Ed's doing too...
The proof is in the pudding Ed. You MAY be writing a book but will it ever be publushed? And if it is, will anyone actually buy it? And if they buy it will they actually read it? If it's anything like what you write here- full of anger and disdain- I can't imagine anyone getting past a page or two.
You MAY be writing a book but will it ever be publushed?
I doubt it will be "publushed" but I have had my works published before and fully anticipate that they will be in the futurel
And if it is, will anyone actually buy it? And if they buy it will they actually read it?
I have absolutely no doubt that all of you schmucks will read it, you won't be able to help yourselves -- the need to sputter and self-preen is too great, the insecurity too deep, the paranoia too overpowering.
Now as to your children, products of the Team Maria Schools, well you may have to help them with some of the big words. And I am going to work "antidisestablishmentarianism" in there somewhere just to say I did it.
And I am in no hurry to finish it because I would LOVE to have it come out when Amherst is going into state receivership (like Springfield did) and be able to 'twist the knife' a little bit on the book tour.
Ed. The biggest schmuck of them all. How does one live and be filled with so much hatred? I feel no need to purchase or read your "book." Finally, Maria Geryk is the best thing to happen to the Amherst schools in years. She may not have a doctorate but she certainly contributes more to society then someone who spends his days doing nothing but sputtering on a blog.
If Maria G were so great a leader, if the Amherst Schools were so great, there would be no need to attack anyone who dared question either.
No Ed, again, we attack you because we don't like it when people squat in our town, and contribute nothing to it, and don't work or look for work, and don't go to school, and reveal they are nuts by comparing the way they whittle away their time to the work the Chief National Correspondent for the New York Times Magazine does, and spend their days f'ing up every post by going off topic and criticizing the people who are in good faith working their butts off in this town, and it's because you are a douche bag, and you were a douche bag before you started criticizing "Team Maria", and we want you to leave our town.
There are so many reasons the Retreat is a terrible idea. Aside from the environmental impact, which is not to be scoffed or snorted at, there is absolutely no way the roads up there can handle the traffic (car, foot, and bike) this development will bring. In addition to straining existing police services, the development will hurt the student rental market in town, creating the conditions for town slumlords to let their properties deteriorate even more. That in turn will decrease property values for many single-family houses in town. Above all, there is a tsunami coming to higher education, in case you haven't noticed. Online education is going to significantly decrease the number of students in residence at any given point at U Mass, and that in turn will decrease demand for rental housing throughout the area. In twenty years, the issue will not be too many students in town; the issue will be what to do with all of the rotting houses the slumlords have left behind when the student rental market dried up. None of this will be good for the tax base. These developers are idiots five or six times over, and we should all encourage them to pursue their reckless stupidity elsewhere.
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