Could include pharmacy with drive-though window
Local developer Lou Russo is pursuing a plan to construct an office-retail space—possibly including a pharmacy with drive-through service—and a three-story apartment house with 42 units of state-defined “affordable” rental apartments restricted to those older than 55. The buildings would share a driveway with structures that Russo built in 2004: the Maugel Architects office building and the building containing Dunkin’ Donuts, which features Harvard’s first drive-through service window.
The proposed 30,000-square-foot apartment house and 20,000-square-foot commercial space would represent build-out for the parcel, Russo said. If by late winter Russo can win the local permits and federal subsidy he needs to build the affordable units, groundbreaking could come as early as June 1, he said last week. He also said that he would build the apartment house before building the office space.
Over the past three months, Russo has been making the rounds of town boards to get permits for the project. He has met twice with the Planning Board, which has now commissioned its own traffic study for the site. The driveway has been the scene of seven accidents—two involving injuries—between 2005 and 2007, according to a 2007 Route 2 corridor traffic study completed for Harvard by CDM of Providence, RI. CDM recommends lowering the speed limit to 35 in the area. It does not recommend a traffic light. The Planning Board will hear more site-specific evidence about traffic on Dec. 15.
Russo said he has met once with the Conservation Commission. He said he is also preparing septic plans to be shown to the Board of Health. Last week, though, the developer veered slightly from the beaten path when he and affordable housing consultant Anne Reitmayer appeared before trustees of the Municipal Affordable Housing Trust Fund (MAHTF) to request a $200,000 grant toward the affordable apartments. The MAHTF was voted into existence by Town Meeting according to provisions of the state’s Community Preservation Act. The trust’s mission is to acquire and sustain low-cost housing on behalf of the town. It is not a town board but is subject to the state Open Meeting Law, according to its “Declaration of Trust,” a legal document governing its operation.
The trustees told Russo they would consider the request after he provides them with more financial information about the apartments. The $200,000 would be a drop in the bucket for the $12 million project, but Russo said the local support conferred by an MAHTF grant would boost his chances of getting the federal subsidy he applied for at the end of October. That subsidy, applied for through the Federal Low Income Tax Credit program, would render all 42 rental units “affordable” by state standards; these units would then count toward the state mandate for 10 percent affordability of the town’ s housing stock. The program is administered through the state’s Department of Housing and Community Development and allows investors to own most of the apartments. Russo said he would keep a small equity stake to cover any shortfalls that might result from upkeep of the building and its systems.
Trustees of the MAHTF elicited the facts from Russo in short order. There will be no local preference: “It will be first come, first served,” said Russo.
He and Reitmayer said their marketing study showed that at the initial offering, 42 units would be enough to accommodate everyone who wanted to live there. Most of the apartments—38—will be available to people earning not more than 60 percent of the median area income. Two units will be reserved for the disabled, and two will be reserved for those earning not more than 30 percent of the area median income: residents of those four apartments will receive rent vouchers to make the standard rent, which will range from $960 to $1,200 per month. All utilities, even heat, will be included in the rent. The 26 one-bedroom apartments will measure 675 square feet, while the 16 two-bedrooms will be 1,000 square feet. Tenants will need to fill out forms to prove income eligibility. The units will not be affordable in perpetuity, but rather for 30 years and as written in the deed. Reitmayer pointed out that the deed restriction could be renewed after 30 years; it need not automatically revert to market-rate units, especially because the project is to be federally subsidized, she said.
The trustees noted that although this is not a Chapter 40B project, it must be audited at construction’s end and that the developer’s fee and general contractor’s fees are “constrained” by state law. However, the profit restriction of 20 percent that applies to 40B projects does not apply here. Russo’s company, Wheeler Realty Trust, is applying for a special permit under Harvard’s as-yet untried zoning bylaw, Ayer Road Village zoning. The zoning is meant to encourage denser development in the commercial district between the Route 2 and the Appleworks building.
If the project were fully permitted and built on schedule, Harvard would earn the right to impose a two-year moratorium on brand-new 40B projects. On Monday, Selectman Tim Clark said that would benefit the town.
“The moratorium would be most welcome, of course,” he said, but sounded a cautious note. Referring to a partly affordable project for the elderly in the early planning stages at Hildreth House, Clark said, “People need to ask themselves where they’d rather live: near the center of town, or down at Ayer Road near Dunkin’ Donuts.”
Selectman Leo Blair rejected the question as a red herring.
“Russo’s project is proposed under our standard village zoning,” he said. “If he meets the requirements of that zoning, then he earns a permit.”
The apartment house was designed by architect Brent Maugel, who attended a Dec. 1 Planning Board meeting and took pains to show that the building would not look massive and boxy. The structure, Maugel said, forms a kind of L-shape; its roofline will show a false mansard and false chimneys to avoid a flat line, and give the illusion of a two-story, rather than a three-story, building. Corners will be articulated to create shadows and avoid the dreaded box shape; and the building’s center will give the impression of a glassed-in atrium. Most of the 69 parking spaces for the apartments would be in back of the building.
Some additional sidewalks are planned to get residents and customers to and from their cars to the apartments, shops, or offices. But for those apartment-dwellers who want to walk to Dunkin’ Donuts, there will be no straight shot. Three crosswalks will be painted onto the parking lots to facilitate safe passage to the doughnut shop.
