They say, “if you build it, they will come.” Which raises the questions: If you build what? Who are they?
If we build, in the general residence (RG) neighborhoods near Amherst Center, duplexes, triplexes, townhouses, apartment buildings, accessory dwelling units (aka tiny houses in backyards), will it create enough supply for the supposed demand for housing in Amherst?
Or will it create a housing glut? It has been several years since a housing study was done, longer ago than the rated life for such a study; and several hundred new dwelling units have been built since then. Since then, it was predicted that college age populations are declining. Since then, we’ve faced global crises that may disrupt our town’s major industry — higher education.
We are also relying on an aging master plan. And from that plan, town planners and councilors have cherry-picked their favorite parts, largely ignoring the 15 urgings in that plan, about how crucial it is to preserve neighborhood character. Instead, some town councilors charge that “character of the neighborhood” is a “racist dog whistle” by “white homeowners, afraid of change.”
This from the very same councilors who have expressed fear that they need to “do something” to show that they are “doing something,” as they prepare for this fall’s elections.
It is also said “it’s not about doing things right, as much as doing the right things.” Educated voters will not reelect someone who does wrong things well.
It seems wrong to design the BL (the business area around Triangle Street, the so-called “buffer” between downtown and the RG neighborhood, much of it historical) to encourage highly densified residential, instead of attracting new business. Dense residential might be the no-brainer for a developer, but what will it do to our central business district? In this case, the easy way is not the right way.
It is a harder path to attract what people want downtown, to give them reasons to go downtown — a place to get breakfast, to buy a shirt, to get an ice cream cone — businesses that help get your errands done. Those are the kinds of things we said we want, in listening sessions held by the planning department, a few years ago. We want movies, food stores and neighborhood businesses.
We don’t want Amherst center to be more five-story dorms (featuring no setback, no affordable units, no parking, no aesthetics). We don’t want dense student rental units to crowd out what makes Amherst center a place to be.
It was mentioned recently at a town government meeting that the design of affordable housing is often unappealing to its intended users, leading to project failure. If you build it wrong, they won’t and don’t come. (There are reasons “they” come or don’t come.)
The stated purpose of densification is to increase affordability. But Amherst is not out of line with many other towns in our region. If anything, our housing prices are inflated because of the cash flow/market value of over-occupied student rental housing. It is said “if you can measure it, you can manage it.” We will not correctly manage this problem without measuring how prices of student rentals have risen, in response to the high costs of renting in the five-story private dorms in town.
Economists would explain trending increased rents as “what the market will bear” after the high rents in those huge downtown dorms act as “anchors,” just as Starbucks anchored the price of coffee so high, and other coffee shops realized they could charge more, too.
In hoping to balance the supply of and demand for housing, consider that we have an abundance of demand that supply will never meet. Many people would gladly move to Amherst to be closer to work and school. The more we build, the more they will come. You may ask, “When does densification become overpopulation?” It’s a good question that we are not even trying to answer.
Prices will probably only lower when densification makes our neighborhoods unneighborly enough. With “Footnote m” removed from our zoning bylaw, a half-acre plot would be allowed to have a triplex and an accessory dwelling unit, with over a dozen unrelated people living on that property, with the requisite parking spots. How many of those, on your block, would depress the price of your house? Does that method work for you, decimating your largest investment?
When Amherst’s boards and councils discuss these weighty matters, various members will comment, “I don’t understand what we’re voting on.” And yet, they may soon vote to “unlock” the area, as they like to say. Zoning is not a thing that should be “unlocked.” It is the method used to ensure that land is used with consideration for the community, what is wanted and needed, to maintain quality of life.
It is the thing that prevents one person from swinging their arms too close to another person’s nose. It communicates to developers “this is what we want, and we support you in building it.”
It is also frequently mentioned in town meetings that there is money to study the situation. How about aligning the BID, the chamber, the town, and community input, to get a clearer grasp on where we are at, and where we hope to be? Mistakes we make today will last for generations. We are asking for you to get this right, as it is so easy to get it wrong.
Ira Bryck has lived in Amherst since 1993, ran the Family Business Center for 25 years, hosts the Western Mass Business Show on WHMP, coaches business leaders, and is a big fan of Amherst’s downtown.
