“Land for sale, senior housing developer wanted.” That’s an advertisement the Housing@Hildreth Committee is hoping it will be able to post after the vote on Article 8 at Monday’s Special Town Meeting. The article asks town voters to authorize the sale of 3.16 acres of land to the south and west of Hildreth House for a senior housing development.
The committee suffered a setback earlier this month when only one developer responded to the committee’s request for proposals (RFP), and that developer’s bid was incomplete and too low. Committee members had hoped to bring a winning bid to Town Meeting to make a stronger case for the project. They are now anxious to remarket the project, this time with a commission and an installment plan to make it more attractive, but first they need the town’s authorization to sell the land.
The goal of the project is to provide moderately priced housing for seniors who want to downsize their housing (and property taxes) but stay in Harvard. The town would sell the acreage to a developer. But while the project was originally conceived as a way not only to provide senior housing but also to generate funds to offset the cost of an addition to the senior center at Hildreth House (Phase 2), as of press time the warrant article did not state what the land sale proceeds would be used for.
A preliminary site plan for the development was prepared last summer, and it met with the approval of the Planning Board. The plan describes a development of 17 one- or two-bedroom units, some of which are duplexes, with an average footprint of 1,500 square feet, including a one-car garage.
If the town votes to sell the land, the Housing@Hildreth Committee will reissue the RFP with some additions, which were discussed at an Oct. 26 meeting. First, the committee voted unanimously to allow a developer to pay for a portion of the land in installments. A 10 percent down payment would be required, and each time the developer sold a unit, the town would receive one-seventeenth of the remaining balance. The down payment is meant to cover the cost of the road and other site costs in case the developer does not complete the project.
The Housing@Hildreth Committee also voted unanimously to offer a 5 percent commission to any real estate broker who represents the successful bidder. Committee member and real estate agent Victor Normand told the committee that the project was not properly marketed the first time the RFP was issued. He offered his services, free of charge, to put the listing on the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) and to craft a letter for the town to send to local brokers that are affiliated with developers, encouraging them to look at the project. He added that the town would have to put together the broker list, but he believes that this approach will generate more bidders.
Committee member and local contractor Pablo Carbonell told the committee that he is concerned that the land price is too high. Avery Associates appraised the land this summer at $1.2 million based on its being used for a 17-unit moderately priced senior housing development. According to Town Administrator Tim Bragan, the town is legally obligated to sell the land for at least that price. Carbonell said he ran some informal numbers based on known costs, and even if units were priced at an average of $550,000 each and there were no surprises on the site, he thought the profit margin would not be very attractive to a developer.
Committee members discussed getting a new appraisal if no qualified bids are received in response to the second round of the RFP. Assistant Town Administrator Marie Sobalvarro reminded the committee that the $1.2 million figure is printed in the Town Meeting warrant. But the committee members said that the $1.2 million figure will not be included in the motion, so if the town votes to sell the land for the appraised value, and the appraised value goes down after Town Meeting, the land could still be sold without a new town vote.
If the vote is successful, the committee will also submit an application to the Sewer Commission to ask that 3,000 gallons of available capacity in the town sewer system be committed to the project. The RFP that went out in late August stated that a sewer connection with a 3,000 gallon capacity was available. But the committee had failed to submit the necessary change-of-use application to the Sewer Commission describing the new connection’s “demonstrable benefit to the town,” as stated in the growth neutrality clause (section 1.8) of the town sewer rules and regulations. Commissioners Cindy Russo and Kyle Hedrick stated skepticism of that benefit at a Sept. 27 meeting, citing a lack of affordable units in the plan and questioning whether the units could be moderately priced. The Housing@Hildreth Committee plans on showing the benefit of the project to the sewer commissioners using language in the town’s Master Plan and support from the Council on Aging. The committee said it would wait for the Sewer Commission to approve its application before sending the RFP out for a second time.
