AMHERST — Identifying areas in Amherst appropriate for building more housing, including apartments for college students, could reduce the pressure on residential neighborhoods and a growing number of homes that are being turned into student rentals.
At a Planning Board session Wednesday with Planning Department staff, Town Manager Paul Bockelman and Assistant Town Manager David Ziomek, Planning Board Chairman Doug Marshall said he would like to promote initiatives that encourage more people to live closer to downtown and the University of Massachusetts campus.
“My personal opinion is, yeah, Amherst should build more housing,” Marshall said. “We’re going to have to build a lot before the rents in Amherst come down. We might build some and the rent in Hadley goes down, or the rent in Sunderland goes down, because we’ll be drawing people from those outlying districts in town.”
Similarly, Planning Board member Johanna Neumann said she wants students, staff and faculty to live as close to UMass as possible for both the environmental and economic benefits, and that a carrot-and-stick approach could be used to encourage construction of dedicated student housing in certain areas of town.
While the board has previously identified areas north of UMass near Puffton Village and Brandwyine Apartments, University Drive south of Amity Street and the East Amherst village at South East Street as places ripe for development, Neumann said that planners should also consider more housing density on Kellogg Avenue, North Pleasant Street near Kendrick Park and on Triangle Street near the roundabout.
But board member Karin Winter said the board should be more neutral in its recommendations, noting that the development of the Gateway corridor between UMass and downtown Amherst has been controversial, and there is continued worry about the five-story mixed use buildings that have gone up over the past decade changing the character of the community.
Still, Winter said planners need to communicate and brainstorm issues around housing and have conversations with UMass officials. “Our constituents are constantly talking to us about this crisis in town,” Winter said.
Marshall said UMass should be informed about what is being considered.
Bockelman said every week he meets with two representatives from UMass, going over any issues that have come up or may come up. The town also has an on-call meeting with public safety officials, fire and police departments about quality of life problems.
The recently signed strategic partnership agreement cements communication protocols that include each semester having a meeting between the chancellor, town manager, Town Council leaders and town staff.
“That’s an important meeting to talk at a high level directly with the chancellor about issues we see coming up, issues happening in the town,” Bockelman said.
There are also meetings with staff focused on economic development, planning, housing and growth, and public infrastructure, sharing short- and long-term plans for what is happening in town and on campus.
Bockelman said he works from the town’s master plan and housing production plan, and added to the strategic partnership agreement that the town faces challenges from the large amount of undergraduates living off campus.
But Bockelman said UMass feels that in recent years it has met some of the needs, with 2,000 beds of housing production between the dormitories that are part of the Commonwealth Honors College and the Fieldstone public private partnership that is opening across from Whitmore Administration Building this fall.
He also asked to understand whether the Planning Board wants to address quality of life issues, or the dwindling affordability and lack of middle class homes. “I won’t take a posture of being anti-student. They’re an important part of our community,” Bockelman said.
Planning Board member Fred Hartwell said there is a limit to what Amherst can do to try to solve a much broader issue.
“Nowhere is it written because the University of Massachusetts chooses not to house a particular student it is somehow the responsibility of the town of Amherst to create housing for that student,” Hartwell said.
Planning Board member Bruce Coldham said reducing the number of unrelated cohabitating individuals, with the town currently capping at four unrelated housemates, may be a way to reduce the viability of rental properties. Amherst could follow Ithaca, New York, where housemates are limited to three unrelated people in certain zoning districts, though Boulder, Colorado, recently increased its allowable unrelated housemates to five.
A second strategy would be setting a minimum distance and spacing requirements for student rentals, such as allowing rentals only one every 10 properties on a street.
Each would have the effect of reducing the available housing, perhaps also slowing the pressure on residential neighborhoods.
Some members of the public offered views. Ira Bryck of Strong Street said town officials need to be more assertive, as the university’s position has been that off-campus housing is not their problem.
“The town and UMass needs an ongoing and robust negotiation that builds the Amherst of tomorrow,” Bryck said. “We need to learn from the college towns that once fought five-story dorms downtown and now are too exhausted to fight 12-story dorms.”
Rani Parker of North Prospect Street said she loves the diversity and energy students bring, but paying exorbitant amounts of money for small apartments. She feels that town government is not managing oversight well.
“I think the problem really has to do with how their housing is managed,” Parker said.
“In the long term, we need multigenerational residents, and we don’t have that any more,” Parker said.
Maura Keene of Dennis Drive wondered if changing the character of town with five-story buildings built right up to the sidewalk has been appropriate, and cautions against losing the small-scale homes that are on the west side of Kendrick Place. “There are plenty of other places to build higher buildings,” Keene said.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
