Rezone This?

The 5.8 acre parcel is sandwiched between two major commercial developments

Fresh off his setback at the Amherst Historical Commission Demo Delay Hearing the night before, local attorney Tom Reidy appeared before the Planning Board Wednesday night to request they sponsor a Town Meeting zoning change article for a 5.8 acres site -- wide open but wet -- on University Drive.

The property is currently zoned Professional Office Park and the new potential owners would like it rezoned to Limited Business which would allow for the construction of an apartment complex, presumably, gasp, student housing.

In 2010 a divided Planning Board (5-3) supported just such a warrant article but it was defeated on the floor of Amherst Town Meeting where any zoning change requires a two-thirds vote of support, a high hurdle to clear.

The nearest business owner to the south adamantly opposed the rezoning due to concerns about storm water runoff.  

The project proposed at the time was for 44 units of subsidized senior housing at the back of the property and a mixed use retail/market rate housing project fronting University Drive. 

According to the assessor the property is still owned by Mohammad Idrees and it's in (farmland) Chapter 61, so assessed at $3,600, thus generating only $76 in taxes this year.

A major housing development would probably be assessed in the $10 million range and pay upwards of $200,000 annually in property taxes.

Vegetables to Offices

 0 University Drive abuts Newmarket Center

Amherst could get more office space, not that it seems there's pressing demand, if this large 5.8 acre tract of land near UMass on University Drive should sell.  Since it is zoned "office park" that kind of narrows down the options for development.

The Planning Board tried to change the zoning a few years back to a more diversified commercial designation but naturally the NIMBYs shot it down at Town Meeting, where a two-thirds vote is hard to muster.

The land is owned by Mohammad Idrees who purchased it for the bargain price of $22,000 back in 2003 at the Lincoln Pulp and Paper Company auction, with the original idea of building a Mosque.  Since Amherst is not overly flush with Muslims that plan went by the wayside and he briefly tried selling fresh vegetables.

 Mohammad Idrees and his vegetable stand  in 2008 (photo by Mary Carey)

The property has been in Ch61A for the past ten years, and much of it is wetlands, so it doesn't pay much of anything in taxes to Amherst ($94.00).   But the assessor estimates a $40,000 windfall to the town if it should sell for the $890,000 asking price and put to commercial use. 

But these days it seems anytime "open space" goes on the market neighbors simply petition the town to buy it using Other People's Money.

When bad things happen...

UPDATE: Monday 2:20PM

So the Daily Hampshire Gazette must feel bad about Friday's (below the fold) front page puff piece on the 75-year-old hit and run driver. This morning they published an (above the fold) front page sympathetic piece on 33-year-old cyclist Misty Bassi who was tragically killed on Memorial Day morning, written by Nick Grabbe their most experienced reporter; and the Gazette also did a somber editorial on the "tragedy in Amherst".


Original Post: Saturday morning

Having trained for ten consecutive years to summit Mt. Washington on a bike, I spent a lot of time in the saddle. And over the past 25 years probably cycled up or down University Drive a thousand times.

While 'Swift Way,' the bike path connector to Umass, has only been around since 2002 I have never used it; and not simply because of my prior habit of using the shoulder of the road but because of all the activity on the east side.

The west side has its own access road, so it seems less conjested for cars entering University Drive. But yeah, it can still get hairy with folks coming and going to the Post Office or Big-Y supermarket. On Memorial Day morning I took my two-year-old for a ride on the back of my mountain bike, but fortunately went uptown.

Ten years ago when I was on a training ride near Hadley center a driver backed out of his driveway directly into me. And while he was only going 5 MPH or so and I was doing close to 20 MPH a 4,000-pound car vs. 19-pound bike always results in a TKO'd cyclist.

My business partner said the man called the Athletic Club and was so distraught as to be almost unintelligible. And while I did little damage to his car a fully-grown body cascading over the top of a vehicle is pretty hard to ignore.

But apparently that’s exactly what a 75-year-old Amherst woman did when she left her lane, crossed into the southbound lane of University Drive and hit Misty Bassi, 33, who probably died instantly.

Yesterday the Gazette published an overly sympathetic front-page profile—not of the innocent 33-year-old victim going about her daily routine, but of the woman who ran her down and fled the scene. Although a friend did admit it was a tad out of character considering her Mother Teresa persona.

Yes, we all make mistakes and for most of them folks deserve a second chance. Misty Bassi did not make a mistake; yet she gets no second chance.