A comprehensive permit granted to CHOICE, the nonprofit development arm of the Chelmsford Housing Authority, means that Harvard will keep nine affordable units of the rarest type: rentals that are not restricted to the over-55 set. All other family-friendly affordable homes in Harvard are ownership units.
The permit was granted last Wednesday by Harvard’s Zoning Board of Appeals under the state’s affordable housing, or 40B, law after a four-month series of hearings. At CHOICE’s request, and in an apparent nod to the project’s status as 100 percent affordable, the board in a unanimous vote waived building, plumbing, and electrical permit fees up to $20,000, taking into account that the selectmen had voted 3–2 in favor as a show of support for the project.
Divided boards yield mixed results
As previously reported (“Selectmen spar over fee waiver,” May 30, 2014), the concession was staunchly opposed by Ron Ricci and Leo Blair and supported by Lucy Wallace, Marie Sobalvarro, and Stu Sklar. The three-member Board of Health, however, presented with a similar request, refused to waive its septic fees.
The barn at Great Elms is still without a permanent home to which to relocate. (Photo by Lisa Aciukewicz)
The break on the fees is a first for CHOICE, which manages 300 units of affordable housing in the region. “We were hopeful,” said CHOICE Deputy Director Connie Donahue Comtois, referring to the group’s initial expectation that Harvard would make a more significant contribution. Westford and Chelmsford, where CHOICE is building five- and nine-unit projects, each contributed between $300,000 and $400,000, while Harvard’s Municipal Affordable Housing Trust Fund declined to vote on a request for a contribution, choosing instead to endorse the “concept” of the project.
‘Grateful’ for the waivers
The trust cited the costs of its own affordable housing project on Poor Farm Road—likely by its own account to include a mix of affordable (25 percent) and market-rate (75 percent) homes—and its previous contribution of $15,222 in payment of the single mortgage that covered Great Elms and The Inn and in relocation costs for Inn tenants.
Nevertheless, Comtois said CHOICE was “grateful that Harvard had waived $20,000 in permitting fees.” Executive Director David Hedison echoed that sentiment but noted, too, that CHOICE had already paid more than $100,000 to secure the property, including $45,888 to pay off the mortgage, $54,000 to relocate Great Elms tenants, and $5,000 in back taxes. “This project was about preservation for the town. There is no money to be made on our side,” he said.
Redevelopment of the site will begin in the fall of 2015, Comtois told the Press. Harvard residents who meet income requirements will get the first chance at the units through a state-sanctioned lottery. The existing farmhouse will be preserved, its ell removed, and will contain two apartments. The existing cottage will be rehabilitated as a one-bedroom apartment. Three new colonial-style clapboard buildings will be constructed, each with two apartments. New septic, well, and drainage systems will be installed, along with 19 parking spaces. And one way or another, the slate-roof barn will be removed.
Maura Camosse Tsongas, who works with CHOICE as a development manager with the Women’s Institute of Housing and Economic Development, said, “We are working [with a professional barn purveyor] to have the barn relocated and will continue to do so. Unfortunately, due to liability concerns, the barn cannot remain on the site once development has begun.” Plans to move the barn to Madigan Lane fell through because of the expense, though the small carriage house across the street from the barn was recently moved to a new home in Watch Hill, R.I.
