“It’s time to fold up our tent.” That was Housing @Hildreth House Committee Chair Rick Maiore’s opening line to the Select Board at its Oct. 8 meeting. Maiore was summoned to the meeting to discuss disbanding the committee, an idea presented to the board by Town Administrator Tim Bragan at its last meeting. The reason? The project to build 15 to 20 units of senior housing on the hill just southwest of Harvard’s senior center, Hildreth House, is economically unfeasible, according to two senior-housing developers.
The board asked Maiore and his committee to write a final assessment of the project containing the options explored, the economics of the various options, and what parameters drove the committee’s choices. It has 90 days to submit the report. Maiore said starting in 1987, four groups have spent years working on the problem of trying to provide senior housing in the center of town.
The Housing @Hildreth House Committee began its quest three years ago. The original idea was that the town-owned land could be sold to a developer, who would abide by design constraints set by the town, and the land sale profits would be used to help fund Hildreth House Phase 2, a proposed dining hall/activities center addition.
What follows is a timeline of the work done by the committee and the setbacks it met along the way.
Oct. 2016
The Hildreth House Overlay District, prepared by the Planning Board, passes at Special Town Meeting. It allows for senior housing to be built on two parcels; 5.7 acres of Hildreth House land and 1.6 acres of fire station land. Inclusion of the fire station land is controversial. The zoning limits buildings to single- and two-family dwellings, and single-family attached units, not to exceed six units per building. Discussion at STM includes concerns about the inclusion of the fire station land and the large amount of ledge on those parcels.
Nov. 2016
The Select Board creates a seven-member Housing @Hildreth House Committee, charged with completing two tasks: get authorization from Town Meeting to sell or lease the land and prepare a request for proposals (RFP) and select a developer. The committee hopes to achieve the first task at 2017 Annual Town Meeting.
Dec. 2016
The RFP for the site plan is complete. The Municipal Affordable Housing Trust offers a grant of $30,000 to pay for the site plan if the committee agrees to include two affordable units. The committee votes to accept the trust’s terms.
Jan. 2017
The trust’s offer falls through after town counsel says any project funded by the trust, even in part, has to be 25% affordable. The committee agrees that constraint would make the project financially unfeasible, so it asks for and receives $30,000 from the Rantoul Trust to pay for the site plan, to be repaid with any profits from the project. TTI Environmental is hired to do the site plan, which the committee acknowledges will not be ready for Annual Town Meeting.
July 2017: The Planning Board approves the site plan, which includes 17 single units on 3.8 acres. A little more than half an acre behind the fire station is included.
Aug. 2017
The Select Board votes to surplus the land that will be used for the project. The town issues an RFP for the land in advance of the required town vote to sell the land.
Oct. 2017
Housing @Hildreth receives only one proposal; it is incomplete, and the offer for the land is less than half the town’s minimum sale price of $1.2 million, its appraised value. The committee rejects the proposal and plans to reissue the RFP, this time allowing a broker’s commission to encourage more active marketing of the property.
Nov. 2017
The article to sell the land fails at Special Town Meeting. A major factor in the defeat is fierce opposition from firefighters, who say the department’s annual requests for a fire station feasibility study are being ignored, and the land in question may be needed for station expansion. The committee believes it can move on without the land behind the fire station by dropping two or three units from the plan, and agrees to improve communication with the Fire Department.
May 2018
A citizen petition to amend the Hildreth House Overlay District to require 25% affordable housing is tabled at Annual Town Meeting. The Planning Board does not support the petition, saying this is the wrong project for an affordable housing requirement.
Aug. 2018
The Sewer Commission denies the committee’s application to connect to the town sewer system. The committee has to show that the project benefits the town; its main argument is that it will provide moderately priced senior housing, but the Sewer Commission chair is not convinced the housing would be moderately priced. A second commissioner says the proposal seems targeted more toward private benefit for a few people, and the project will take up a substantial amount of the town’s remaining sewage capacity. The housing committee decides to take no further action until an ongoing traffic study in the Town Hall/Hildreth/Fire Station area is completed.
Nov. 2018
The traffic study finds that the area could sustain traffic from the proposed Housing @Hildreth development. The committee begins to consider developing an RFP for a new site plan without use of fire station land, possibly with duplex units to make up for the loss of the planned units behind the fire station.
Feb. 2019
Community and Economic Director Chris Ryan recommends issuing a request for information (RFI) instead, which would state the goal the town is trying to achieve, and ask developers for their suggestions.
April-July 2019
The committee issues an RFI; two senior housing development firms respond. Both say the site would be costly to develop as small duplex cottages, making it financially unfeasible. The committee meets with both respondents, who suggest a single apartment building. One says apartment prices would still be higher than what the town was hoping for, even if the land were donated: $450,000 for one bedroom, $575,000 for two bedrooms. The other says an apartment building with donated land would still be financially unfeasible for its investors. The committee agrees to take a hiatus while waiting for the completion of the fire station feasibility study, reasoning that a future fire station relocation would free up more space for the project.
Sept. 2019
Town Administrator Tim Bragan recommends disbanding the committee based on the results of the RFI. Bragan tells the board the existing zoning will not allow a single apartment building on the parcel. The board discusses changing the committee’s charge to simply “senior housing.”
Oct. 2019
Select Board asks Housing@Hildreth to prepare a final assessment and submit it to the board in 90 days. No vote is taken to disband the committee.
