Williamstown Conservation Commission OKs Cole Avenue Project
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The effort to create 46 units of subsidized housing on a town-owned site cleared an important regulatory hurdle on Thursday night.
But it likely will be a couple of years before any shovels go in the ground.
The Conservation Commission has approved the development plan for the former Photech mill property at 330 Cole Ave.
The commission is responsible for reviewing the stormwater management plan both during and after construction as well as how the project will impact the flood control and the habitats associated with the Hoosic River, which runs alongside the 5-acre property to the north.
On Thursday, it continued a hearing on the 330 Cole Ave. project and reviewed rulings from the commonwealth's Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program and Fisheries and Wildlife.
With the condition that the developer follow those state-issued guidelines along with the rest of the 88-page development plan, the commissioners voted unanimously to allow Berkshire Housing Development Corp. and Boston's Women's Institute for Housing and Economic Development to build four new town-house buildings while constructing apartments inside the existing former mill building, known in town as "the cube."
What is unknown to town officials or the developers is how long it will take to secure financing for the project. But planners want to have all the permitting in place and make sure the project is "shovel ready" for when that day comes.
BHDC President Elton Ogden told the Con Comm on Thursday that the developers hope to submit their application to the commonwealth's Office of Housing and Economic Development this winter.
"The intent is to be able to file the major application, which is due Feb. 16," Ogden said. "That will be for the lion's share of financing, including the tax credit allocation. … The generally make their announcements in July. Then it typically takes four to five months to close.
"The best case scenario is that by late 2017, we could be ready to mobilize and start construction.
"The reality is the line is long for that funding, and it's more likely it will go to a second application. That would extend the timeline out another year."
The last time Williamstown was home to a tax credit-funded project, the senior housing project at Highland Woods was approved by the state on an expedited timeline because it was helping to replace some of the homes lost at the former Spruces Mobile Home Park.
There is not the same urgency this time around, but Ogden said that he still thinks the developers have a strong case to get funding — if not in the 2017 allocations than in '18.
"This project has many attributes the state supports," Ogden said. "It's taking a vacant, brownfield site and putting it to use. It's producing housing that has great need. Frankly, there hadn't been a lot of affordable housing in this town. The town has been supportive of it of late. That makes a huge difference to the state as well.
"I don't anticipate a major, major delay."
The next stop for the developers is the town's Zoning Board of Appeals, which will take up the project at its Dec. 15 meeting.
While the Con Comm helped clear the path for the housing project, it put a roadblock in front of a proposal to create a hiking trail in the town-owned Linear Park along the Green River.
The president of the Hoosic River Watershed Association asked the commissioners to approve a plan to cut a trail of about 2,000 feet that would go from Main Street (Route 2) to the vicinity of the Linear Park playground.
Andy Kawczak said HooRWA wants eventually to connect both parts of Linear Park — on Water Street (Route 43) along the Green River in the south and on the Hoosic River in the north.
The commissioners agreed that such a link would be beneficial to the town, but they were concerned about the grade of 2,000-foot segment on the table.
The non-profit was before the commission with a Request for Determination of Applicability, which is the process that determines whether a project can proceed without triggering the costly Notice of Intent (the same process to which the 330 Cole Ave. project was subjected).
"As much as I love HooRWA and I'm a member of that organization, my feeling is this is an area for a positive RDA," Con Comm Chairman Henry Art told Kawczak. "The engineering of that trail is something that shouldn't be done on a sort of amateur basis."
Kawczak asked the Con Comm to consider allowing HooRWA to do a "pilot" trail of about 25 feet "to see how it will impact the upland in terms of erosion control."
He said his organization did not know if it wanted to hire engineers to do a full NOI process.
"It could be done," Kawczak said. "But when you factor in the distance of the trail involved and the associated costs, it makes it less than positive in terms of an outlay of $2,500 for the specialists. … We're just trying to balance out the economics of a 2,000-foot trail."
Commissioner Robert Hatton said he thought the "pilot" segment could work. But the majority of the commissioners in the hearing agreed that a 25-foot test segment that no one would walk — a "trail to nowhere," as Art described it — would be no test at all of how the slope could handle an actual trail.
Art did suggest a solution if HooRWA's board decides to pursue an NOI.
"I came across on the massachusetts.gov webiste, out of the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, something called the Recreational Trails Program," Art said. "It accepts applications for projects that range from $2,000 to $50,000. … Eighty percent of the funding would come from the state, and 20 percent from other sources, which could include municipal funding."
The commission voted 4-1 to reach a positive determination of applicability, with Hatton voting in the minority.
Tags: affordable housing, conservation commission, trails,
