Wednesday, May 8, 2013

If You Build It ...

Political sign on public property


One of the other benefits of "The Retreat," a proposed student housing project in northeast Amherst, besides hundreds of thousands of dollars in annual property tax revenues is the short term shot in the arm for jobs, not that Amherst is now hurting with its usual low unemployment rate standing at 3.1%.

But the Hampshire/Franklin district average is 6%, only a little better than state average of 6.8%, and presumably a construction project like The Retreat will draw local labor from all across Western Massachusetts.

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

This "hundreds of thousands of dollars in property tax revenue" - I'm assuming this will not in any way relieve the burden of us regular, middle-income-but-struggling Amherst home owners. If that is true, then my sympathies are with the current Cushman residents. It is likely that there will be in fact a retreat, but not necessarily the one that Cowls envisions.

Anonymous said...

Hundreds of thousands of property tax? Hmm, who is paying to run the sewer lines and pay for all the additional services this development will require such as sewage treatment?

Larry Kelley said...

Water sewer is always pay as you go. Even, ahem, UMass pays for water/sewer.

Anonymous said...

Yes, but who is going to pay to run the sewer lines to the retreat?

Anonymous said...

Rev., lettipAnd who is going to pay the cost of the police, ambulances, etc. that will end up going to the student "Retreat" of 700 people?

Larry Kelley said...

I believe APD is going to start charging for responses on or after the 3rd call to the same location.

Not to mention those expensive $300 tickets they hand out.

Anonymous said...

and we've seen the deterrent effect those nuisance fines seem to be having.

sorry, sarcastic.

have we seen a deterrent effect as a result of the nuisance fines policy being implemented?

Anonymous said...

$300.00 divided by 700 kids equals .42/kid per party!

They should start a fund on their first day of tenancy.

Anonymous said...

I wonder how Cinda would have possibly survived had she had to pay fines for the parties she had in college.

Larry Kelley said...

Anon 1:26 PM

Subdivision developer pays to get water/sewer and all utilities to site.

Even a simple home developer always pays to have utilities pulled from street to house.

Anonymous said...

So does the street have water and sewer? If the existing houses have septic systems then who will pay to put in the sewer system that The Retreat will tie into?

Larry Kelley said...

They will.

Anonymous said...

Interesting. Where do the current sewer and water lines end?

Larry Kelley said...

Sorry, you've hit your three questions max.

Anonymous said...

There is public water and sewer to the retreat property, from two locations, Henry Street and Market Hill Road.

Guilford Mooring
Superintendent, Amherst DPW.

Larry Kelley said...

Thank you Mr. Mooring (by the way, nice tie last night).

Anonymous said...

Rev., lettipAnd who is going to pay the cost of the police, ambulances
AMBULANCE FEES ARE PAID BY THE USER...AND EVERY STUDENT MUST HAVE HEALTH INSURANCE IF THEY ARE ENROLLED IN THE UNIVERSITY...SPEAKING OFF THE TOP OF MY HEAD NO STATISTICS BUT I WOULD THINK THE AMBULANCES BRING IN THE MOST REVENUE..AT LEAST MORE THAN CHERRY HILL

Larry Kelley said...

WAY, way, way more.