Williamstown Housing Committee Asks for Action on Lowry

Housing Committee Chairwoman Catherine Yamamoto and member Charles Bonenti. The committee is moving forward with an aggressive schedule for proposals on two town-owned sites.

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Affordable Housing Committee on Tuesday night decided to ask the Selectmen to request that some portion of either one or two town-owned properties be removed from conservation.

The parcels in question, the Lowry and Burbank properties, are in the care and control of the town's Conservation Commission. Each site has been mentioned over the years as a potential site for subsidized housing, and Lowry was identifed by name as a possible housing site in the most recent town Master Plan in 2002.

But Lowry moved into the forefront in November when the town manager mentioned it as a potential site to build replacement housing for residents of the Spruces Mobile Home Park after the park is closed under the terms of a then-proposed federal Hazard Mitigation Grant. The grant since has been awarded to the town, and the closure of the park likely is inevitable.

Since November, Lowry has been the topic of a special town meeting, dominated the meetings of various committees, partly inspired the creation of an ad hoc town committee and, to some degree, divided the town.

The one thing Lowry has not been is the subject of a formal request to the Conservation Commission.

The AHC moved Tuesday to change that.

The committee did approach the Con Comm last fall about having a dialogue on Lowry, but it never asked in so many words that the commission consider lifting the restrictions on the property. The last Con Comm chairman, Hank Art, and the current chairman, Philip McKnight, each have indicated that the commission would not discuss the specifics of the property until a request is on the table.

"I watched (last week's) Con Comm meeting ... and Phil McKnight seemed to suggest he welcomes robust proposals," committee member Bilal Ansari said. "He'd like a dialogue about it. And he said it's going to be on the record when the question is asked.

"He articulated a clear road map ahead — without the key, without the request. I'm saying, let's give him the key. Let's ask."

Committee member Charles Bonenti noted that the Selectmen asked the town not to make any decision on Lowry at April's special town meeting so town committees could engage in further study during a "timeout" on the contentious issue.

"The Selectmen asked for a delay on the special town meeting so we could gather information about Lowry," Bonenti said. "Have we done that?"

Chairwoman Catherine Yamamoto said Bonenti raised a good point and that Lowry's conservation status hampers her committee's ability to get specific information.

"We did hire Guntlow to evaluate a portion of the [Lowry] property," she said. "We could ask the Con Comm to allow us to do the same at Burbank. Beyond that, I don't think any developer would give us their two cents unless the property is available to us.

"Even if the Selectmen were to ask the Con Comm to conditionally lift the restriction on a the properties with the understanding that if nothing happened the properties would revert to their former status ... Allow us to say to a developer, 'If you can present us a plan that meets our needs, the Con Comm has said it will release the property.'

"I don't think any developer will spend two seconds looking at land that has a conservation restriction on it."

The committee charged member Cheryl Shanks with drafting a brief letter to the Selectmen in the hopes that the panel will take up the issue at its July 8 meeting. Ansari at first argued that the AHC should make the request on its own, but Yamamoto made the point that the Selectmen had originally asked the Con Comm to accept Lowry and Burbank under its care and control, so a request to remove the land from conservation should come from that board.

If the Board of Selectmen decides to ask the question, the Conservation Commission could receive the request as soon as its July 11 meeting. But beyond that, it is difficult to say how quickly the Con Comm could act.

"[The Con Comm] is also waiting for a determination from Boston on what procedures are required," Yamamoto said. "They can have substantive discussions, but they won't know what the process is until they hear from the attorney general's office or someone."

Meanwhile, the AHC continued to press forward on two other town-owned properties that are in the control of the Selectmen: the former town garage site at 59 Water St. and the former PhoTech mill site on Cole Avenue.

The committee finalized its scope of services for a consultant to help the panel draft a request for proposals that it could issue to housing developers. And the committee set an ambitious schedule that aims to get those proposals back as soon as Nov. 4.

The AHC plans to ask Town Manager Peter Fohlin, the town's procurement officer, to draft a letter seeking RFP consultants and have it in the mail by July 12. It wants the deadline for applicants to be Aug. 5, and it plans to choose a consultant at its Aug. 6 meeting.

Then the committee plans to use the month of August to work with the consultant, draft an RFP for either 59 Water St. or PhoTech or both and issue that RFP on Sept. 9. Since RFPs for a project that size require at least an eight-week turnaround, the committee has targeted Nov. 4 as a deadline for receiving proposals from potential developers.

"Does that sound reasonable?" Yamamoto asked.

"It's reasonable, but it would require a bit of luck," committee member Leigh Short said.

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