At its December 14 meeting, the Harvard Housing Partnership drafted a letter to the Board of Selectmen outlining statements in the Woodland Company’s Shaker Hills 40B application that it believed were incorrect or unclear, based on MassHousing guidelines, Harvard’s Master and Affordable Housing Production plans, and the partnership’s own knowledge of the property.
MassHousing is the independent public authority that provides technical assistance and financing for affordable housing projects and determines a project’s eligibility for 40B status. The Woodland Company has filed an application with MassHousing under the state’s affordable housing law to build 140 four-bedroom homes on what is now the Shaker Hills golf course. The developer’s application and the HHP letter are available to the public at Town Hall.
Later in December, partnership member and Selectwoman Lucy Wallace said that the selectmen approved the partnership’s comments and submitted them to MassHousing, which will continue its evaluation of Woodland’s application and ultimately decide whether the development should go forward.
At the meeting December 14, the applicant’s valuation of the land topped the list of the partnership’s concerns. The base value of the land proposed for development is $11 million in Woodland’s application, but no current appraisal confirms that figure, according to Wallace at this meeting and Planning Board member Kara Minar at the all-boards meeting discussing the project in November. Eighty acres owned by Westward Orchard on Prospect Hill Road were recently appraised at $2.8 million. MassHousing will appraise the Shaker Hills land this winter. Discussion about the timing and logistics of an independent appraisal continues among town boards and under the advisement of Town Counsel Mark Lanza.
The developer’s description of the parcel’s wetland, buildable acreage, and percentage of open space provoked questions, too. “The application says there are 163 acres in this parcel and that 163 acres are buildable, but also says there is a total of about one acre of [non-buildable] wetland,” remarked partnership member Pam Brown, who also questioned the developer’s one-acre wetland estimate. Brown noted several ponds on and near the property and the golf course’s man-made water hazards, concluding that the total wetland figure seemed low. She wondered aloud if the 18 percent open space cited on the application included wetland.
Brown questioned the applicant’s “failure to advance the goals of Harvard’s Affordable Housing Production Plan,” the town’s state-approved strategy for achieving its affordable housing quota—in a mix that suits Harvard’s needs. The plan is designed to foster diversity in Harvard’s housing, but, as member Chris Ready pointed out, “these are all the same house, essentially,” adding that Harvard already has ample single-family housing.
