HADLEY — A Hadley developer is seeking $700,000 from the town’s Community Preservation Act account to offset the cost of providing seven affordable, two-bedroom units at a 55-and-over development planned for the Village Barn Shops.
The request from the Pioneer Valley Hotel Group, to help with construction of its planned three-story, 50-unit apartment building at 41 Russell St., is one of four applications, totaling just under $1 million, that the CPA Committee is reviewing. The committee is expected to act on the requests at its Sept. 14 meeting.
Other projects seeking funding are for designing a multi-use path that would run along and between Middle and East streets, updating the town’s open space and recreation plan and digitizing the town’s cemetery maps.
Shardool Parmar, who owns the hotel company, said the request for money would help with building the seven units, with $50,000 sought per bedroom. This, he said, could set the stage for a “proscriptive way” of doing affordable housing.
“Hadley has never spent, from what I can find, any money on creating affordable housing; it’s only allowed other developers to pay into it, to skirt the rules,” Parmar said. That references how the Planning Board allows developers to pay into an affordable housing fund to avoid meeting certain zoning requirements, such as the amount of parking.
“If Hadley is serious about creating affordbale housing, these monies will be distributed to a fully approved project, but also developers who are Hadley residents and also creating a pretty substantial amount of affordable housing in Hadley relative to what has been created in the town, which is essentially zero over the past 20 to 25 years,” Parmar said.
Inside the building will be 49 two-bedroom apartments and a single one-bedroom apartment. Parmar said it will cost thousands of dollars to maintain the affordable apartments at 80% of area median income, and $300,000 per unit to bring those online. Parmar said the money would be used directly for constructing the units.
While some committee members expressed support for the concept, they also raised questions about whether CPA funds are an appropriate use for the project.
Committee member Mark Dunn, who also serves on the Planning Board, said he would like to see Parmar go beyond the seven affordable aparments, which represents 14% of the units and is below the 15% minimum the town requirtes. Dunn said he would like to see the use of CPA funds to get beyond minimum requirements.
At-large member Andy Morris Friedman said the concern he has is that CPA funds should be used to get extra and more new units, not to subsidize what has to be built anyway under the town bylaws.
But Parmar said the money would help reduce the risks for his family, ensure a successful project when it opens, and have affordable housing in perpetuity. “The entire amount helps set a better precedent for futue developments,” Parmar said.
Other CPA funding requests
Meanwhile, the other applications include $40,000 from the Cemetery Committee to get cemetery maps scanned and digitized.
Committee Chairman Alan Weinberg said this would moderzize the system of record-keeping for all five cemeteries and will assist the Department of Public Works with burials.
Town Administrator Nate Malloy put in the final applications. One is a project for $180,000 for a multi-use path design and plans and cost estimates.
This would include work from surveying to construction level drawings and design specifications, including 10-foot wide paths, separation from traffic and possible integration into the Norwottuck Rail Trail.
Malloy said this is a high priority project for the town’s complete streets initiatives.
The maxium grant award for the project, estimated at $181,500 is for $150,000.
Another $30,000 would be for completing an update to the open space and recreation plan, last done in 2013. Because this is out of date the town is losing out on grants, Malloy said.
The ask is based on Southwick, where doing the update cost $25,000.
