PELHAM — An old white farmhouse with black shutters currently stands at 20 Amherst Road. The home’s paint is chipping and discolored, and, in some spots, pieces of its wooden exterior have fallen off. The house also has serious structural issues that are not noticeable to the untrained eye.
Despite its wear, the house has a charm that wasn’t lost on Home City Development Inc. (HCDI) of Springfield.
HCDI hopes to turn the land at 20-22 Amherst Road, where the farmhouse stands, into 34 units of affordable rental housing by 2024, which will be known as Amethyst Brook Apartments. Originally, HCDI hoped to use the farmhouse as part of the housing. After realizing the expense of restoration, the developer decided to pay homage to the farmhouse in another way: modeling one of the new housing units after it.
“We decided we wanted to replicate it,” said Peter Serafino, HCDI director of real estate, noting that the original farmhouse will be torn down.
“The goal is, when people drive down Amherst Road, that they’ll say, ‘The farmhouse looks a lot better today,’” Serafino said.
This month, HCDI got one step closer to realizing that goal, when the town’s Zoning Board of Appeals voted unanimously to approve a comprehensive permit under the state’s Chapter 40B law that will help bring the much-needed affordable housing into the town.
Home City Development Inc. hopes to break ground on development by 2023. The timeline is dependent on an application process for funding from the state, which could take several years.
Amethyst Brook Apartments is expected to be the first affordable rental housing in the town. The units will be reserved for families and individuals making up to 60% of the area’s median income.
The housing will consist of two buildings, a larger one which will have 28 units, and a smaller, 6-unit building, modeled after the farmhouse. The larger building also is slated to be designed in the same style.
Serafino expects the project to cost roughly around $12 million but noted that “it’s still early in the cost estimating process.”
The focus on affordable housing came about in 2014 after the Pelham Community Preservation Committee commissioned a Housing Needs study and found a need for more stable and affordable housing.
Less than 1% of Pelham’s housing stock is considered affordable, well below the 10% affordability goal set by the state.
Tom Kegelman, executive director of HCDI, said in a statement that he is humbled by the confidence Pelham officials and residents have placed in his agency.
“We will do our best to return that confidence with a beautiful and sustainable project, providing affordable housing for those least able to find it in today’s housing market,” Kegelman said.
The design team is led by Architecture Environment Life of East Longmeadow, while the Berkshire Design Group of Northampton will handle civil engineering and landscape design.
Amethyst Brook Apartments is just the latest move towards affordable housing in Pelham. There are also two affordable, single-family homes currently under construction by Habitat for Humanity on neighboring properties.
“We would like to see as much diversity in the town as we can: economic, religious, racial,” said Tilman Lukas, the chairperson of Pelham’s housing committee.
The affordable housing also is expected to be environmentally sustainable. The large housing unit is designed to meet the so-called “Passive House” standards, which includes energy efficiency specifications to reduce the building’s ecological footprint. There will also be a stormwater management system and electric vehicle charging stations.
Both Tilman and Serafino have been impressed by the town’s commitment to developing affordable housing.
“The town has really rallied around this initiative,” Tilman said.