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North Adams Community Development Panel Mulls Affordable Housing Trust

By Tammy Daniels iBerkshires Staff
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NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — One City Council committee is looking to take more active steps on housing and economic development in North Adams.
 
The Community Development Committee has met infrequently over the years, primarily to respond to referrals on zoning issues. Chair Andrew Fitch, however, has more recently responded to inquiries about housing opportunities and development of the Mohawk Theater. This has turned the conversation to how the city can support new growth.
 
One idea: an affordable housing trust. 
 
Fitch floated the concept at Tuesday's meeting at the library, saying he was seeking opinions from his colleagues Keith Bona and Lisa Blackmer. 
 
"If this is something that you have an appetite for supporting, and what steps you think that we could take for the general council to support this, if it's something that we want to move forward with," he said.
 
Bona and Blackmer were supportive but wanted more information.
 
Several Berkshire communities have trusts set up, including neighboring Williamstown. Town meeting had established the trust in 2012 and set it up with a deposit of $200,000 from Community Preservation Act funds. The municipal trust had grown out of work done to encourage housing for lower-income residents and the forced closure of the Spruces Mobile Home Park by Hurricane Irene. 
 
Since then, the trust has supported housing at Cable Mills and Northern Berkshire Habitat for Humanity projects, purchased property, and developed mortgage and rental assistance programs, among other endeavors. 
 
One aspect of a trust, Fitch pointed out in reading notes from the Berkshire Regional Planning Commission, "is the ability to move quickly and efficiently when housing opportunities arise."
 
Williamstown's is funded through the CPA, which allows towns to add a surcharge to property taxes to fund open space and recreation, historic preservation and affordable housing. Trusts can also be backed by zoning payments, developer fees, municipal general funds, tax title sales, cell tower lease payments and private donations.
 
North Adams has not adopted by the CPA, but Fitch suggested that some of the town's rooms taxes could be put toward a trust or the fees from short-term rentals.
 
"It's something that I've been interested in for quite some time," he said. "I know that we as councilors and as a City Council don't have a lot of options to impact housing, but this I figure is one thing that we could at least explore doing."
 
Bona said his concern was how it would affect the administration and city staff. 
 
"I find it difficult for us just to create things that are going to put more on staff and offices," he said. "I assume this would have to be approved through the administration."
 
Fitch said it wasn't clear whether mayoral approval was necessary but he has spoken with Mayor Jennifer Macksey about the possibility. 
 
"I think I remember correctly, she generally said she's open to this concept," he said. "But I don't know that we technically need approval."
 
MGL Section 55 states a city or town must adopt the section and that a board of trustees would be appointed by the mayor with City Council approval. 
 
"I need some time to deep dive into some of this," said Blackmer. "I'm not against the idea, but I'm always the one who says, where are the weeds, how's it going to operationalize?"
 
She said she'd like to see more done through the city's Community Development Block Grants. The grants in the past had been used toward a facade program and first-time homebuyers program; they've more recently been used for demolitions and renovations at the Armory and Mary Spitzer Center.  
 
Bona said he and his wife had been able to get a first-time homebuyers loan through the Community Development Office when they first got married.  
 
"I don't think we've had something like that in a long time, but that did help us out at the time, and I could see it helping other young people who want to buy a home," he said rather than the absentee landlords that have been buying up properties. "I think it could be beneficial to the city to have new residents that are here living in houses."
 
Resident Virginia Riehl, a housing advocate involved with the North Adams Community Housing Organization, said creating an affordable housing trust might not fit everything but it could be a vessel to show the state it is prepared and a way to collaborate with other city departments as well as with private and public housing ventures. 
 
"I think it's also a positioning thing for the city ... it doesn't mean you're going to have money in it tomorrow. It means you're ready to seize opportunities," she said.

Tags: affordable housing trust,   community development,   

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Main & Mill: A Vibrant New Restaurant on Main Street

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — You can now enjoy another eatery on Main Street by well-known restaurant siblings Colleen and Sean Taylor.

Their restaurant Main & Mill opened for the first time Tuesday, bringing their vision of creating something vibrant and new to downtown North Adams.

"We have created Main & Mill to be part of our day. It's very seasonal ingredients, thoughtful cooking, beauty, beautiful presentation and dishes. And we really wanted to be part of the community, the downtown area, and start a vibrant area on this end, which has been shuttered for a while," said Colleen.

The building is owned by Ginko on Main Street LLC, which has granted 20 years exclusive possession of the property to Latent Builds as the developer. Jack and Suzy Wadsworth, behind Ginko, are development partners with Karla Rothstein and Salvatore Perry of Latent.

The bank closed in early 2021 and was purchased by Ginko late that year. Plans for the property unveiled three years ago envisioned a restaurant, retail, a park and rooftop bar. 

Colleen saw potential and said she initially wanted the building when it first went up for sale. Being good friends with Rothstein and Perry, she helped them design the kitchen and the bar before learning in March that she could lease it as a restaurant space, something she told them would be a great idea.

She said one of the most important things about the restaurant was the collaboration between Rothstein, Perry, and the Wadsworths, who put a lot of time and energy into the building.

"If Sean and I had done it, we would not be able to do what the collaboration supported. The collaboration of the three of us being able to really have that kind of money to put in down here. The design that the architecture firm that Carla and Sal own is stunning," she said. "The time and effort, everyone came together to do this in a really trusting manner."

The two wanted the restaurant to be an all-day venture, so people could eat at any point throughout the day, all week long.

"We wanted it to be open for coffee and socialization in the morning where people can meet, have their cup of coffee, have a quiche, a vegetarian quiche, or croissant or yogurt. Something intentional with their coffee," she said. "Then move into a lunchtime for the downtown business or anybody, and then go into supper, dinner, with drinks later into the evening. So have it really be open all day long, so that there wasn't a void on any particular day."

They also wanted to do something different than the other restaurants they owned.

"We didn't want to mimic any other restaurant in town. We wanted to bring something that was inspiring, something that had some familiar things that people would see, and other things that we would bring to them for them to experience," she said.

As a woman business owner, Colleen said she wanted to bring a female chef into the kitchen. 

Colleen brought on Chef Anna DeRose, who she said puts twists on a lot of her dishes.

"So we have a creme brulee, but our creme brulee is topped with marshmallow," she said. "Our creme brulee is like almost two desserts in one. It's a s'mores creme brulee. So you could have a s'mores, and you could have a creme brulee - but when you put both of them together, fireworks go off."

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