AMHERST — Affordable homeownership opportunities for a handful of families near Amherst center is a vision for the nonprofit Amherst Community Land Trust in acquiring an Amity Street property.
Having already received $65,000 in Community Development Block Grant funding for predevelopment and planning, the CDBG Advisory Committee recently agreed to recommend reallocating $582,000 in unused CDBG money so that the land trust can expedite the purchase of the two-family home at 174 Amity St.
Land trust President Linda Slakey told the committee that the award would allow for scheduling a closing on the property and bringing the “exciting project” nearer to reality.
“It’s an opportunity to generate a very visible and, we hope, attractive cluster of affordable housing right in the middle of Amherst,” Slakey said.
The current thinking is that the existing residence would be converted into two or three homes, with two additional new homes constructed on the site. Each of the homes would then be sold to families earning 80% of the area median income or less, Slakey said.
Built around 1830, the Greek Revival-style home was owned for much of the 20th century by Eleanor and Laurence Grose. Eleanor Grose, who died in 1972, ran a nursery school from the home until her death and founded The Alcott School in 1925. Laurence Grose taught forestry at Massachusetts Agricultural College.
Since the 1970s, the house has been leased for low rental rates to artists, musicians and young professionals, including employees of the Amherst public schools.
The Grose’s grandchildren, who own the property, would like it to go to the town in some form, Slakey said, and have agreed to sell the property for $475,000, less than half of the $1.04 million assessment.
Committee members unanimously supported the recommendation. Nat Larson said the purchase would benefit those who need housing.
“This is the time to take this opportunity because, if not now, who knows what’s going to happen?” Larson said.
CDBG Advisory Committee member Suzanne Schilling said this could send a message to other property owners about doing something for the greater good. Zoy Soulis, another CDBG Advisory Committee member, added that this would have a tremendous impact on a number of people.
The decision came after Walker Powell, a town planner, explained that the money needed to be reallocated after the Department of Public Works was not able to get a design out for various improvements on Belchertown Road.
The only question is whether the land trust can use the money soon.
“I think it’s a tight deadline, but it’s a doable deadline,” Powell said.
The Amherst Community Land Trust, formed in 2014, has already handled one duplex and five single-family homes, including buying the land in North Amherst on which Habitat for Humanity built the duplex.
With the acquisition, Slakey said the hope is to inspire others — and three other families have already approached the land trust in a similar way to the Grose family — so that more housing for low- and moderate-income families can be generated.
“I think we’re on a little bit of a roll,” Slakey said.
The competing use for the reallocated money, Powell said, was to cover “phase three” of construction of a multi-use path running along North Pleasant Street from North Amherst center to the University of Massachusetts campus. But the $582,000 was seen as insufficient to complete that project.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
