Village Hill advisory committee puts off decision on 100 home expansion

By Owen Boss

Staff Writer

NORTHAMPTON - The Citizen Advisory Committee that oversees development of Village Hill Northampton postponed a decision Wednesday to consider adding 100 additional housing units until after it hears from the public at a meeting next month.

Although the committee held off a decision on the additional units, members unanimously endorsed a motion to relocate a new road called Ford Crossing to the north behind the former coach house. The motion also OK'd construction of a loop of bungalow units to the north of the existing community gardens, as shown in the original plans.

Developers urged the committee to pass the motion so they will have enough time to use $2.7 million in federal and state grant money for infrastructure improvements. The grants are set to expire next June. The money will also be used to make sidewalk improvements and construct traffic-calming measures to several existing neighborhood streets in the south campus area.

After the meeting, Mayor Clare Higgins said the committee continued its vote on the additional units not only because the presentation didn't answer questions posed at the last meeting, but because she wanted to hear from the public.

"The committee still had a few remaining questions after this meeting, and we wanted to give the public the chance to come in and have their opinion heard," she said.

Elizabeth Murphy, vice president of real estate for MassDevelopment and project manager, presented the plans for additional units in the development's north campus (the section on the north side of Route 66, Prince Street and Burts Pit Road).

"We want to create a compact, walkable community that takes full advantage of the site and its amenities," said Murphy. "We wanted this to be an integrated community with a lot of different kinds of housing types."

According to Murphy, the committee's permission to build an additional 100 housing units, bringing the total to 327, wouldn't necessarily mean that many would be constructed.

"The 100 units is really just a ceiling," said Murphy. "There are a number of variations to it, and the number is really just a placeholder. It just means that number would be the maximum number of units we would ever want to build."

Among the committee's primary concerns with the plan were the number of accessible parks planned for the community, and how evenly the different housing types and Department of Mental Health clients would be distributed across the development.

The original plans required that 15 percent of the homes constructed would be occupied by clients of the Department of Mental Health, a number that Murphy said would not be affected by the increase in units. However, committee members worried that because many of those residents would be on subsidized housing, they would be forced into a corner of the development rather than spread out evenly.

"We are working with the Department of Mental Health to place these clients into units as they become available," Murphy said.

Harriet Diamond, a representative from the Grove Street neighborhood, said she is concerned that the park space in the new proposal wasn't adequate for the increased number of residents, and suggested placing a larger community park in the middle of the development.

In response, Laurance Spang, a representative for Arrowstreet Associates, who assisted in the presentation, said the primary park space had been chosen because of its proximity within the community.

"A park right in the middle of everything felt inaccessible to most people and it really didn't seem to flow with the space we have here," he said.

During his presentation, Spang spoke at length about how the implementation of additional homes wouldn't create a shortage of open space. He said developers focused on preserving open space. Village Hill Northampton will take up 126 acres of the former state hospital complex's original 536 acres. The remaining 410 acres are being preserved as open space.

The new proposal for the north campus, according to Spang, has 5.4 acres of parks and 30.75 acres of open land both inside the development and along the periphery, designating 60 percent of the property as "open space."

Spang said the revised plans also included more than 2½ miles of multi-use pathways connecting the parks.

About 120 of the approved 207 homes have already been built or are currently under construction. MassDevelopment can build an additional 20 units without seeking a change in its master plan, but it needs approval for its 100-unit expansion. The homes under consideration would include a mix of single-family homes, bungalows and condominiums.

The Citizens Advisory Committee will hold a public meeting Monday, Nov.10, at 7 p.m., in the community room at JFK Middle School.