Wednesday, April 4 the Northampton Chapter of the League of Women Voter’s sponsored a public forum on Affordable Housing and the Community Preservation Act (CPA). The latter is funded by mandated fees collected by all of the Registry of Deeds offices located across the Commonwealth, each time a property is sold or refinanced. The guest speaker was Jack Hornor, Northampton Community Preservation Committee (CPC) Chairperson, State Hospital Citizens Advisory Committee (CAC) member and Paradise City Forum participant.
Jack gestures during presentation
A former member of Northampton’s Housing Partnership, Jack presented a power point presentation and took questions during a roughly 90 minute forum held at the Florence Civic Center where he outlined aspects of the CPA that related to affordable housing and Hospital Hill redevelopment. 18 people attended including CPC candidate Fran Volkmann and Ward 5 City Council Candidate Kathy Silva. Light refreshments were served.
An important highlight of the evening occurred when Jack explained the new Chapter 40R housing district proposed for Hospital Hill. Kathy Silva offered that the 180-200 original units planned for 30 acres would now be condensed onto 16.6 acres, leaving the property where the former Main building was located unused. The increased density might bring Northampton state dollars if Chapter 40R is ever funded, up to $3,000 per unit, but for now the housing will be tightly clustered and the status of future payments remains uncertain.
When queried by Valley Advocate Correspondent Mark Roessler regarding why Old Main underwent a $3 million demolition if land use plans for housing had changed, Jack explained that he (and the other members of the CAC) voted to remove Old Main because at the time he didn’t see how it could have been preserved in its deteriorated condition and that it posed a safety hazard. He added that if Old Main had been converted into high-end condominiums it might have impacted how many affordable housing units could have been constructed as well. He conceded that had the CPA been around several years earlier it might have made a difference in saving Old Main. He further stated that included as part of the enabling legislation written by then State Representative Bill Nagle, years before Jack was appointed to the CAC, were provisions for jobs, housing, and accommodations for former Hospital clients, but nothing regarding historic preservation.
(As an aside, in the year 2000 the City Council split in a 4-4 vote on whether to place the CPA before the voters thereby defeating the measure, and longtime CAC Chairperson Mayor Higgins did not endorse the CPA at that time and in fact spoke against it to my recollection. Someone correct me if I’ve erred.)
Citizen Ed Hagelstein poses a question
The CPC and City Council will have $1.496 million to allocate in the first year and funds can be rolled over from one year to the next. 10% must be designated for historic preservation, affordable housing, and open space preservation annually, and a fourth option exists to use the money for parks and recreation. The remaining 70% may be used for any one or combination of those uses and can be used to leverage other grant applications as well.
Jack indicated one of the first items of business undertaken by the CPC was to institute a public comment period at the commencement of CPC meetings. Thus there is hope that the community will be heard and agreed with when it comes to allocating these optional surcharge tax dollars which can be rescinded if the community decides the CPA isn’t working as intended.
Changes are afoot
Before I became affiliated with the Advocate I served with Jack and Fran Volkmann on the Northampton for the Community Preservation Act Committee. One of the concerns of opponents to the CPA was that the funds would be used to create so much affordable housing that Northampton schools and public services would not be able to absorb increased demands. The redevelopment of the State Hospital has been touted by Higgins as a financially self-supporting mixed use plan that is supposed to generate about $400 thousand in surplus funds at full build out, but there is concern that no commercial development will occur which will increase the negative financial impacts to existing Northampton taxpayers. To partially address this concern there is a companion act for Chapter 40R known as the Chapter 40S Smart Growth School Cost Reimbursement Act which will pay the city for the net increase in costs for children and schools resulting from adherence to Chapter 40R. However 40S will not reimburse the city for increased costs associated with Fire and Safety, Police, or Public Works.
During an Economic Development, Housing, and Land Use Committee meeting held November 2006 Higgins expressed this concern: "The paradox for the developer (The Community Builders ‘the largest nonprofit urban housing developer in the United States’) is that the money maker is housing that allows developer(s) to lose money on the commercial side. Just the opposite is true for the City." Northampton’s Planning Director Wayne Feiden added, "What could be termed the political aspect of this is the fear that the commercial development never happens and the whole site becomes housing." Framed for city voters in 2003 by Higgins as a smart growth project, the Village at Hospital Hill could turn into another affordable housing complex like Meadowbrook, Florence Heights, or Hampshire Heights, where low income residents are clustered together. One notable difference is that 50% of the housing at the Village will be classified as ‘market rate’, however it is unclear what ‘market rate’ will be since the housing types will be mixed together in close proximity. In other words, a market rate home constructed on an affluent Northampton street will have a different value than a like home being located in the Village-the market rates will be different depending on location.
Traffic is another very real concern as increased density means increased traffic. The Village’s Environmental Impact Report was approved at a trip level of 8,616 external trips per day, and increased housing due to density would increase that figure. Recall that the musical Warped Tour concert that visited the city not long ago generated approximately 6,000 vehicles resulting in a day of severely clogged streets for residents.
Clearly aspects of the planned Village at Hospital Hill are changing and community members will serve themselves well if they pay close attention to changes and what those mean. To date 59 units of housing have been constructed with no accompanying commercial development or plans for such announced. During her mayoral campaign in 2005 Higgins stated there would be commercial development on Hospital Hill within 18-24 months so there is still time for her to meet this objective, but that time is of the essence.
Ed Hagelstein signs Fran Volkmann’s nomination paper as Fran and Kathy Silva look on.
