At their August 1 meeting, two of the three members of the Water and Sewer Commission voted against the Housing@Hildreth House Committee’s change of use application that would have allowed the proposed senior housing development to connect to the town’s sewer system. At question is whether the project creates a “demonstrable benefit” to the town, as required by the commission’s growth neutrality clause.
Carl Sciple, a member of the Housing@Hildreth House Committee (H@HHC), presented the committee’s application and spoke to the benefit that the project would provide to the town, mainly addressing the need for moderately priced, accessible housing for seniors who want to downsize. Sciple also mentioned the town’s vote to approve the overlay district that provided zoning for senior housing on the property, as well as the Select Board’s vote to sell the town land to a developer as evidence that the town is in favor of the project. The town must also vote to sell the land, and the committee has not yet brought that vote to Town Meeting.
Commission Chair Cindy Russo responded that H@HHC had not shown that the housing would be moderately priced or that it would stay moderately priced. She added that she was “stumped at the stubbornness” of the committee’s refusal to include any affordable units in the project. H@HHC members have argued that affordable units would drive up the cost of the other units, and that the size of the project (currently 16 units) would make it difficult to attract developers if affordable units were included.
Commissioner Kyle Hedrick said the proposal seemed targeted more toward private use than public benefit. Hedrick said he saw the housing project as a “convenience for a narrow group of people who would like to make a lifestyle change.” Like Russo, Hedrick was concerned that there was no guarantee the units would be moderately priced. And, he added, the project would take up a substantial amount of the town’s remaining sewage capacity.
Rejected by ATM, Planning Board
The question of the project’s lack of affordable units has come up multiple times, most recently at Town Meeting, when Paul Green of Old Littleton Road introduced a citizen petition to add inclusion of affordable housing as a requirement for development in the Hildreth House overlay district. Town Meeting voted to refer the article to the Planning Board, which voted unanimously at its June 18 meeting to reject adding the affordable housing requirement to the overlay district bylaw.
The lone commissioner in favor of approving the application was Rick Maiore, who also serves on the Housing@Hildreth House Committee. Maiore said the affordable units question had been exhausted at both Town Meeting and the Planning Board. Town Administrator Tim Bragan said that regardless of the Planning Board’s decision, H@HHC had the authority to put affordable units in the project. But Maiore again cited the difficulty of including affordable units while keeping the other units moderately priced.
The motion to approve the application was defeated 2-1, with Hedrick and Russo voting against it. Russo told Sciple that the committee could appeal the decision to the Select Board. She added that since the commission has not reviewed usage numbers recently, it would still have to determine if the requested capacity is available should the Select Board overrule the commission’s decision.
