Amherst could open door to enlarging apartment complexes

A municipal map shows a cluster of apartment complexes in East Amherst that could be subject to an overlay zone allowing them to add housing units more easily. TOWN OF AMHERST
Published: 01-13-2025 10:21 AM |
AMHERST — An overlay zoning district for some or all existing apartment complexes in Amherst, which if created would make it easier for developers to bring more housing density to those properties, could be considered by the Planning Board.
While two apartment complexes, Presidential Apartments at 950 North Pleasant St. and Meadow View Apartments at 44 Southpoint Drive, have both expanded over the past decade by obtaining special permits, retired planning director Christine Brestrup told the Planning Board on Wednesday that a zoning change might encourage more such developments. Well over a dozen apartment complexes are spread around town, many which were built in the 1960s and 1970s before the town imposed a 24-unit limit on such developments.
Because sizable apartment complexes are no longer allowed by town zoning, the special permit process requires the owner of an apartment complex to request a finding from the Zoning Board of Appeals that a so-called nonconforming property be allowed to become more nonconforming.
“That is a mechanism we have found that has worked, but the question we’re asking the Planning Board to think about is, do you think it would be worthwhile to have an easier mechanism to make these developments that already exist more dense,” Brestrup said.
At Presidential Apartments, the property owner in 2017 used a vacant section on the western end of the 20-acre site to add nine buildings, each with six units, adding 54 apartments to the complex that previously had 84 apartments.
A few years later, the former Southpoint Apartments, now Meadow View Apartments, added a 47-unit apartment building to the 183-unit complex off East Hadley Road.
Brestrup, who is working for the town as a paid consultant, said the site plan review process is less cumbersome than a special permit, which can be denied. She compared it to the mixed-use overlay district being put forward for University Drive to encourage more housing, and which would allow apartments and mixed-use buildings.
In fact, mixed-use buildings have been a common development tactic in Amherst in recent years, including downtown, because more than 24 apartments can be included in these buildings, so long as the ground level has a certain amount of commercial and retail space.
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Planning Board members seemed receptive to continuing a discussion. Fred Hartwell said it’s an interesting proposal, though he questions whether current apartment complex owners would be willing to expand.
Still, he said, a site plan review process would be better than requiring a special permit “because then we would be setting uniform requirements that could be applied to this.”
Brestrup said she understands that the investment, especially if it means shutting down a property to redevelop it and thus displacing residents for multiple years, may be impractical. “I have heard that’s an issue — they don’t want to be without two years of income,” Brestrup said.
Consultants working for the town have previously suggested that an apartment complex owner would need to get three to five times the existing density to make it worthwhile to pursue complete redevelopment, meaning that a complex with 100 apartments would have to expand to 300 to 500 apartments.
Planning Board member Jesse Mager wondered if there are any downsides to the town adopting such an overlay district, aside from possible impacts on neighborhoods and homeowners nearby. Such a change, he said, would signal to developers that the town wants more housing.
“To me that’s a big plus,” Mager said. “If they don’t want to do it, they don’t do it, so what’s the harm?”
Brestrup said the downsides are limited, pointing to more traffic and potential challenges related to sewer and water connections. “To us, it seems like a good thing,” Brestrup said.
“Generally I think it’s a good idea,” said Planning Board Chairman Doug Marshall, adding that he’s supportive of more housing, though said the board should take care to not be uniform in its approach to an overlay zone, and also wondered whether the town has capacity for an increase with the existing water and sewer infrastructure.
“I think it’s a good idea, too,” said board member Bruce Coldham, though he cautioned that in North Amherst, where he lives, some residents may raise objections to having more apartment tenants due to the proximity to the University of Massachusetts and alcohol-fueled events like Blarney Blowout. Still, Coldham agreed it was appropriate to continue the discussion.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.