Williamstown Affordable Housing Committee Developing RFP
 Affordable Housing Trust Chairman Stanley Parese said 'confusion is natural' as the trust and other committees working on affordable housing determine the roles they will play. |
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Affordable Housing Committee is making progress toward finding a developer who would one day build more subsidized housing in town.
At its Tuesday meeting, the committee discussed the elements it might include in a request for proposals the town could issue to attract interested developers.
Committee members Van Ellet and Leigh Short worked with Selectman and Affordable Housing Trust member Thomas Sheldon to draft a list of 26 criteria as a starting point for discussion.
"An RFP is a complex document with a lot of components, and a lot of them are very routine," Sheldon said. "There are a few elements that can only be shaped by the people who know what they're trying to get done. The most complicated of those is probably the list of criteria that would be used to judge the desirability and efficacy of proposals that come in."
The final document would ask potential developers for details of their proposal in a number of areas and provide the "client" (in this case the town) a methodology for evaluating those responses.
"We highlighted seven of the 26 criteria, signaling they may be a little more important," Sheldon said. "Often with RFPs, there's a scoring system and more points are assigned to some areas than others. ... We have to be thinking which of these we value more.
"For example we stress the percentage of low-income and very low-income units. ... We stressed the timing. We stressed the ones that are more transcendent in their importance — that were in view of the three of us."
Although only half of the six-member committee was present for Tuesday's meeting, more potential criteria emerged.
"Another thing that's very important is pets — that it be pet friendly," Chairwoman Catherine Yamamoto said, following up on a concern raised last week when town officials held a listening session with residents at the Spruces Mobile Home Park. "If the developer is also going to be the manager, it might be the manager's prerogative to say, 'no pets.'
"The walkability of the neighborhood concept is another really important aspect."
Committee member Cheryl Shanks suggested the RFP give points for developers whose plans call for a variety of layouts and some degree of variety in the exterior of the development for aesthetic purposes.
Sheldon suggested that the board might bring in a consultant to help develop the RFP, and Yamamoto added the committee should consult outside sources like the website of the Center for Housing Policy that was recommended by resident Suzanne Kemple.
Yamamoto asked Sheldon whether he saw the Affordable Housing Trust playing a role in developing the RFP. He said the trustees likely would help in reviewing the document and creating language that deals with what town assets could be brought to bear in creating a housing project. In addition to $400,000 of Community Preservation Act funds the trust has received at the last two annual town meetings, the town is projecting about $3 million of a $6 million federal Hazard Mitigation Grant will be available to develop new housing.
Division of labor between the committee and trust was the other main topic on Tuesday's agenda as the two bodies convened in joint session for the first part of the evening.
There are currently three town entities charged with addressing the town's affordable housing needs: the 10-year-old Affordable Housing Committee, the Affordable Housing Trust that was created last year and the Long-term Coordinating Committee that was born this spring to facilitate communication among all the town bodies that have a stake in either housing or the use of town-owned land.
"I for one am finding — and I'm on the inside of a number of the committees — it's hard to figure out whether there are certain pieces of this that make more sense for one entity to do," said Ellet, who serves on the Conservation Commission as well as the housing committee. "There's a lot of confusion in the community, and it's growing in leaps and bounds about who does what."
Trust Chairman Stan Parese, who serves with Yamamoto on the coordinating committee, agreed.
"I think the confusion is natural," he said. "There's a lot going on and a lot of separate committees working simultaneously. The LTCC — I don't know that it's finalized the statement of its missiion. We've had three meetings so far."
The super committee's first meeting dealt largely with the unresolved question of its mission. The second meeting was a listening session at the Spruces at which committee members said very little. The third on Monday was spent discussing reaction to that listening session and meeting with an outside consultant.
"One thing I believe everyone on (the LTCC) is cognizant of is not trying to — nor can it — usurp the authority from any other committee," Parese said. "That committee is not going to spend Affordable Housing Trust money. That committee is not going to decide what the Affordable Housing Committee does relative to an RFP. ... But to the extent that the Affordable Housing Committee wants to talk about Lowry or Burbank, you're talking to the Conservation Commission."
As for the relative roles of the housing committee and housing trust, the consensus that emerged Tuesday was that the former deals in evaluating sites and priorities for the types of housing needed while the latter helps make that vision a reality with the use of town funds.
"If we were a private company — and I'm always a little wary of analogies between the public sector and the private sector — it's almost like you guys are VPs for acquisition and development and we're the finance guys," the trust's Parese said.
In other business, the Affordable Housing Committee discussed the next steps on two town-owned sites nearly ready to go to the RFP stage.
At the former PhoTech mill site on Cole Avenue, the next step might be toward tearing down the mill building itself.
"[Municipal engineer] Tighe & Bond submitted a report on the 'cube,' and they concluded that the building was pretty compromised," Yamamoto said.
While the building might be repaired, the cost of repairs and code-required upgrades to the structure would make it uneconomical to develop it, she said.
 Thomas Sheldon is working with Van Ellet and Leigh Short on the criteria of a developer request for proposals. |
"What then is proposed is that we seek bids for demolition," Yamamoto said. "We could get the bids but not act them but provide that information to developers. ... Or the town could [demolish it]. We were in discussion with the state (Department of Housing and Community Development) about the availability of funds."
Before the town gets to the stage of seeking bids for demolition, Tighe & Bond said Williamstown would need to prepare the site for an RFP, and the Westfield engineer quoted a bid of $32,800 to do that job.
"Nothing comes easy, believe me," Yamamoto said. "It's a lot of money to find out how much it will cost to tear down the building."
Yamamoto added that her committee would attempt to negotiate down that price and seek other estimates of the cost to prepare the mill building for an RFP for demolition.
As for the other town-owned brownfield site under consideration for affordable housing, the AHC Tuesday discussed holding a public listening session to seek input from the community about the best use for the former town garage site at 59 Water St.
"The Water Street property is as close to getting ready for development as any piece of property we're looking at," Ellet said. "That's a piece of property with a lot of history and a lot vested interest in the town. ... Prior to putting an RFP out that would include it, it might be good to get input.
"My sense is there are people who have strong feelings about 59 Water St."
Yamamoto charged Ellet with finding a date and location for such a listening session and encouraged him to arrange a similar meeting in regard to the PhoTech site.
Tags: affordable housing, affordable housing trust, RFP,
