Progress mixed on affordable housing projects

Though the need for affordable housing is pressing in Harvard, where only 3.2 percent, versus the state-mandated 10 percent, of homes are state-certified as affordable, the construction of such projects moves slowly. For example, a 52-unit project on Littleton County Road approved in 2005 under the provisions of Chapter 40B has built 12 of its units to date, four of them affordable. Three other approved 40B projects range from near-ready for construction to not nearly ready.

Harvard received no 40B applications in 2008, but it was a year in which the Harvard Municipal Affordable Housing Trust (MAHT) made fledgling attempts to fulfill its goal of promoting affordable housing in Harvard, searching for the right partners and projects.

Indeed, the slow pace of 40B applications in Harvard is mirrored by statewide activity. This week, Thomas Farmer, a spokesman for MassHousing, the state’s affordable housing bank and a common source of financing for 40B projects, told the Press that his agency had seen a slowdown in applications for financing. However, he added, “We’ve had several meetings with developers concerning potential projects, and what we are hearing is the developers believe it’s a good time to get the comprehensive permits now and hit the market when it turns.” Just the same, he continued, “In 2008 we had 20 site approval applications and only one so far for 2009.”

Asked if the bad economy has affected MassHousing’s ability to finance developers with comprehensive permits in hand, Farmer responded, “We partner with lenders for our mortgage products but not for construction lending. MassHousing has funds to lend for homebuyers and developers of affordable housing, although we have temporarily halted funding for developers building condos and homes for sale as market for new homeownership construction is very weak right now. We are focusing on the development of rental housing, for which there is a great need right now.”
On the non-40B front, the Harvard project with the most traction is a three-story, age-restricted, affordable apartment house planned through standard local zoning (Ayer Road Village) for the Ayer Road land behind Dunkin’ Donuts. Last week, the Planning Board approved a special permit for the project, and this week the developer won local support in the form of a $200,000 grant from MAHT. The rental units will be affordable for 30 years, not in perpetuity.

The lull in newly proposed projects has town planners—headed by the Master Plan Implementation Committee (MPIC)—re-evaluating the town’s affordable housing strategy for the 2012 Master Plan. In a December interview with the Press, MPIC Chairman Joe Sudol said his committee was looking at infrastructure improvements, density overlay districts, and town-led affordable projects to fill the housing gap. Members of the MPIC have proposed working with MAHT to create the new housing strategy. Sudol says the town cannot make progress toward its mandate of 10 percent affordability without cooperation between the groups, and he said he believes that reliance on 40B projects is not viable. “Absorbing three market-rate for every one affordable home is unsustainable,” he said. He emphasized that “buy-in” from townspeople would be crucial to a new strategy’s success.

Meanwhile, several affordable housing projects in Harvard march on, others languish, and a few nascent projects have been abandoned.

Trail Ridge on Littleton County Road: Under construction

The aptly named Trail Ridge sits on a hilltop near the Harvard Sportsmen’s Club, close to the Littleton town line. Developer Mark O’Hagan won approval for the 52-unit project in 2005 under the provisions of the state’s affordable housing law, Chapter 40B. O’Hagan’s Harvard-based company, MCO & Associates, recently joined forces with Northwest Development LLC of Acton on the project. Northwest is a proponent of a 140-home 40B development—currently dormant—on the Shaker Hills golf course.

When fully built, Trail Ridge will consist of 13 clustered buildings containing 39 market-rate and 13 affordable units, meeting the Chapter 40B state-mandated minimum of 25 percent affordability. Several homes are restricted to people age 55 and older. Last month, Elaine Davis, director of sales for MCO, said four affordable and nine market-rate units have sold, with 12 units built and one under construction. “Given the economy, we are proud that we’ve been able to keep our initial pricing commitments,” Davis said. Sales have been slow: last spring Davis had reported the same numbers.

Special conditions written into the comprehensive permit require O’Hagan to donate $5,000 to Harvard for each market-rate unit sold. The money will be managed by MAHT to subsidize affordable homes in Harvard.

Village at Harvard, 262–264 Ayer Road: Approved, but no activity

Since winning a comprehensive permit from the Zoning Board of Appeals for a mixed-use 40B project in September 2007, Andover-based developer Gerry Welch of Massachusetts Housing Opportunities Corp (MHOC) has not taken the usual next steps toward construction. To date, he has not asked the Harvard Board of Health for sewage disposal permits for the site, which is approved for 32 units of housing (including eight affordable units) and 8,000 square feet of commercial space. Neither has the developer closed on the land, the former site of Toreku Tractor. Both actions are necessary to gain loans from MassHousing. Though it is not unusual for developers to wait until the last minute for sewage permits and ownership, these hallmarks of progress are now the only clue to MHOC’s plans: phones at the North Andover offices of MHOC and its marketing affiliate Merry Properties of North Andover are not in service. E-mail inquiries to Welch have gone unanswered.

Last spring, Welch said he was searching for tenants for the commercial space and did not rule out the possibility of scrapping the housing units in favor of an all-commercial site, subject to town approval. Welch is on record as courting the Stop & Shop and Whole Foods grocery chains, which rejected the site as too small and demographically unsuitable.

The comprehensive permit was issued in September 2007 and expires after two years if there is no activity, such as testing or construction, on the site. The developer can apply for an extension before the two years is up.
Conditions on the permit require that MHOC donate $5,000 to MAHT for each market-rate unit sold and that the affordable units remain as such in perpetuity.

Harvard Common Townhomes: Approved, likely nearing construction

In January, Welch of MHOC noted at a Board of Health meeting that he needed a sewage disposal construction permit to finalize financing for this 12-unit, 40B project, formerly known as Harvard Common Condominiums, at 15 Littleton Road. Welch won the septic construction permit days later. Harvard’s more stringent septic regulations do not apply to projects approved under the state’s affordable housing law, Chapter 40B; the state’s Title 5 regulations apply. Welch’s company has yet to close on the land, however.

This project satisfies the statutory minimum requirement of 25 percent affordability with three affordable and nine market-rate units. The market-rate townhouses are advertised through realestate.com at prices ranging from $424,900 for a 1,772-square-foot unit to $624,900 for a 2,606-square-foot unit. Merry Properties of Sterling—described by the MHOC website as the residential sales division of MHOC—lists the properties. Welch could not be reached for comment.

Though the approval time for this 2-acre development was the shortest yet for any 40B project in Harvard—five months—the process hit a bump in February 2008 when Welch succeeded in changing two special conditions of the comprehensive permit. The state’s Housing Appeals Committee voted to accept MHOC’s petition to change the original permit, overruling the ZBA’s requirements for a larger driveway turnaround and a more robust backup septic system.

Conditions on the permit require MHOC to donate $5,000 to MAHT for each market-rate unit sold and that the affordable units remain as such in perpetuity.

Pine Hill Village, Stow Road: Approved but no activity

Last fall, the ZBA granted Townsend-based developer R. Carter Scott of Transformations Inc. a comprehensive permit for 24 units on Stow Road between Finn Road and Hillcrest Drive. Scott, however, faces hurdles: the permit denied him the waivers needed to build the septic system and wells, claiming the developer failed to provide proof that he needed the waivers and implying that his unusual subdivision of the land was designed strictly to avoid building an expensive public water supply system and septic plant. The permit, however, gives Scott the ability return to the ZBA with more information about those systems. Without visiting the board and earning the waivers, Scott cannot build on the 20-acre parcel, which he has owned since 2002. To date, Scott has not requested a hearing to try again for the waivers he still needs.

Originally, it looked as if Pine Hill would offer 10 of its 24 homes at state-defined affordability, above the 25 percent minimum, because MAHT had offered to subsidize four affordable units in addition to the required six. But as economic conditions worsened, Scott told the trust that only one or two additional units would be economically feasible. The trust voted in January to let its commitment of $25,000 for each extra affordable home, up to $100,000, lapse.

Harvard Village (Shaker Hills Golf Course): ZBA approval not yet sought

Plans for this 140-home 40B project, which is proposed for the 18-hole, 175-acre Shaker Hills golf course, remain in the conceptual phase. The developer, Woodland Corp., has an August 2007 site eligibility letter from MassHousing, as required by state regulations, but has yet to request a hearing before the ZBA. At a public presentation of the plan in 2006, attorney Louis Levine, who represents Woodland, said that 70 homes and a nine-hole golf course were not out of the question.

Meanwhile, the citizens’ advisory group appointed to work with Woodland to represent the best interests of the town has not met since 2007, having completed its work for the present. The group will re-form if the project activates, said member Keith Cheveralls last month. “Our last official action [in October 2007] was to send a set of recommendations to the board. One of them was to request that the selectmen appoint a separate study group to seek alternative use of the property.” Cheveralls noted that looking into other uses, including preservation, was outside his committee’s mission.

In December, Selectman Leo Blair offered “no comment” when asked whether any other uses had been explored. Last month, Selectmen Tim Clark and Peter Warren also declined to comment, as did Town Administrator Tim Bragan and golf club owner Norman Kenney of Westford. Meanwhile, the nationally ranked golf course and its club—which hosts many weddings and other events—operates as usual. The developer’s site eligibility letter lapses in August 2009, but a MassHousing spokesman said this week that applying for an extension was an easy matter.

Barba Point: Hopes for affordable senior housing revived

The Harvard Conservation Trust announced last week that its subsidiary, HCT Development, will buy the former home of Mario and Josephine Barba at 23 Still River Road. The purchase could fulfill HCT’s long-held goal to create senior housing for Harvard residents at Barba Point, a pondside 15.7-acre parcel that the trust already owns. A previous attempt to develop the senior housing was shelved when the sole access to Barba Point—Willow Road—proved impractical. Now, HCT may revisit its plans in light of easier access from Still River Road.

Last summer, at a public meeting called to alert Willow Road residents that 23 Still River Road might soon be for sale, HCT President Victor Normand noted that the trust’s acquisition of Barba Point was one half a larger program of conservation for shoreline property. The other half of the program was completed in 1998, when Town Meeting voted to buy 16.8 acres of HCT-acquired conservation land that includes a protected buffer zone between Barba Point and the shores of Bare Hill Pond and walking trails.

361 Ayer Road: Apartments rejected by the MAHT

Last summer, MAHT ended its involvement in a 40B project that might have seen the trust partner with a private developer to build more than 100 apartments on a 14-acre parcel at 361 Ayer Road, not far from the Ayer rotary. Although only 25 percent of the rentals would have been affordable, state law would have allowed all the units to count toward Harvard’s affordable stock. At the time, trustees put the rejection down to too much project, too little time to find the right developer, and the threat of legal action by opponents of the project.

Selectman Leo Blair, acting on his own accord, had taken the $1.2 million property under contract with the hope of transferring it to the MAHT, but the contract was dissolved when MAHT walked away. Blair expressed disappointment at the time, and, at a meeting with MAHT last November, he criticized the trust’s handling of the matter. Blair has subsequently been appointed as a member of MAHT.

Currently, the property is back on the market but is now listed for $2 million, confirmed Harvard Realty owner Rhonda Sprague. Until recently, the property had been under agreement with the sellers and a prospective buyer whom Sprague declined to identify.

Senior housing at Hildreth House: Tabled by MAHT for lack of sewer capacity

A conceptual plan for 60 units of housing, a mix of affordable and market-rate homes for the elderly, was tabled in January by its champion, MAHT. The trust voted to suspend further investment in the plans. An MAHT task force had determined that mixed-income units were best for many Harvard seniors, who when they sell their homes may be unable to qualify for affordable units—not because their income is too high, but because their profit from selling their homes would exceed allowable asset limits. The centerpiece of the mixed-income community would have been an improved senior center at the Hildreth House.

The required sewer is what halted the project, at least for now. The recent report of the Town Center Sewer Action Group found that the development would exceed the sewer capacity proposed for the town center. At their Jan. 27 meeting, trustees also noted that the 42-unit apartment house of all-affordable apartments near Dunkin’ Donuts was competing for its resources.

Ayer Road apartments near Dunkin’ Donuts: Approved

Local developer Lou Russo of Wheeler Realty Trust has won a special permit to build a three-story, all-affordable apartment house for people over 55. Though the development is not a 40B project, all of its 42 rental units would be state-certified affordable and would allow Harvard to impose a two-year moratorium on new 40B projects. Planning Board Chairman Joe Sudol said last week that the two-year break could give Harvard the chance it needs to revamp Harvard’s affordable housing strategy for the 10-year update of the Master Plan, due in 2012.

To subsidize the apartments, Russo applied in October to the federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program, which is administered in Massachusetts by the Department of Community Housing and Development (DHCD). The tax-credit program would result in tax-sheltering investors owning most of the apartments, but Russo said he would keep a small equity stake to cover any shortfalls that might result from upkeep of the building and its systems. Last week, DHCD spokesman Phil Hailer said the demand for tax credits had slowed as investors stay away in the slow economy. The twice-yearly award of credits to developers is late this year, he said. Russo applied to the program in October and has yet to hear whether he has been accepted by the program. “The program has slowed somewhat, but it’s been around for a long time, and it’s not going anywhere,” added Hailer.

The plan would also include a separate commercial building of 20,000 square feet with rights for a drive-through pharmacy or bank.

This week, MAHT voted to grant Russo $200,000 toward the project (see related article).