AMHERST — Despite an order from the town’s building commissioner to make six affordable apartments available by mid-October, the owner of a North Amherst complex said Sept. 20 he likely won’t be able to do so until early next year.
Allen Cohn, manager of Presidential Development Co. of West Hartford, is pledging to offer the affordable apartments to qualified residents as soon as possible, but can’t do so immediately barring unforeseen departures of current tenants.
Cohn said he will meet the terms of a special permit issued by the Zoning Board of Appeals in 2013, when his company added 54 apartments to the 85 units at Presidential Apartments, 950 North Pleasant St.
“Our commitment to the town is the next apartments that become vacant will be made available to the Amherst Housing Authority,” Cohn said. “We will fulfill our commitment to the town of Amherst for affordable apartments.”
Cohn’s comments come after six income-eligible people selected through a lottery by the Amherst Housing Authority for these affordable homes learned that the low-rent apartments wouldn’t be available on Sept. 1 as they had been informed.
Because the lottery was held, and the apartments are already being used, Building Commissioner Rob Morra this week issued a notice of violation to Cohn that includes a $100 per day per unit fine beginning Oct. 18. Morra said the special permit prohibits the six apartments from being rented to anyone who earns above 80 percent of the area median income.
While Cohn said he always understood that these apartments would have to be set aside for low- and moderate-income families, he was caught off guard by the speed of the lottery process to have them available by Sept. 1.
Instead he rented the apartments to anyone, like he had the previous year, when he claims he was given the go-ahead to do so by town officials and the housing authority.
“We didn’t have any anticipation they (the Amherst Housing Authority) would be ready in August or September, so we continued along as we had the year before,” Cohn said.
Cohn said he believes he has a compelling case to challenge the violation because it is an unfortunate circumstance caused by timing. In a college town, Cohn said, apartments are generally rented for the entire school year, with many leases beginning in June and running for 15 months through the following August.
In fact, property manager Patrick Kamins said he sends out renewal notices in May and aggressively markets the apartments that will be vacant in advance.
Cohn said he expects to have a meeting with town staff to explain this position.
Uncertainty surrounded the establishment of the Local Action Units for more than two years, Cohn said, with the agreement only acted on by the Select Board in May, nearly four years after the special permit.
Even with that, though, he was under the impression that the approval process would take six or more months, plenty of time for finding vacancies in a property that was already more than 95 percent rented up.
“In May we thought six months could take us into December, or even the new year,” Cohn said.
Kamins said about two-thirds of the Presidential homes are rented to graduate students and undergraduates, with the remainder used by families. Some will depart, by graduating or moving from the area, by winter.
“History tells us we’ll have several available in December and January,” Kamins said.
After the Zoning Board of Appeals issued the special permit in 2013, Cohn and Kamins met with then Amherst Housing Authority Executive Director Denise LeDuc to plan for finding local residents who needed affordable apartments. They also had conversations with the state’s Department of Housing and Community Development about the process.
In 2014, the company broke ground on the new apartments, anticipated that it would be complete and ready for Sept. 1, 2015. When certificates of occupancy were received, Kamins rented up, but kept 10 of the 139 apartments vacant. Six of these set asides were affordable, and four were handicapped accessible.
“For the entire calendar year of 2015-2016, we carried 10 empty units for the Amherst Housing Authority,” Cohn said.
That came at a cost of $120,000, based on $1,000 a month for the 12 months.
“Carrying 10 units was extremely expensive and there were no breaks given us on taxes or expenses,” Cohn said.
Recognizing that after additional conversations with LeDuc and town officials before the 2016-2017 rental year that the lottery would not happen, Cohn said he was given the go-ahead to rent to others.
Even so, Cohn said wanted to meet his obligation in some way. Kamins, for instance, reached out to the Veterans Administration to identify veterans who might need housing.
“We, in spirit, cooperated with the affordable program,” Cohn said.
It remains uncertain if the people who made it through the lottery will eventually find housing at Presidential. Even when units become available, Kamins said second references and money for down payments may keep some from renting.
Cohn said he doesn’t believe anyone should be blamed for the circumstances the lottery winners find themselves in, that a similar situation would not play out in most communities where college students don’t dominate rental properties.
“It’s an unfortunate calendar issue because of the uniqueness of the Amherst market,” Cohn said.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.