On March 21, we attended a Hadley Zoning Board of Appeals meeting to show support for the Valley Community Development Corporation’s (CDC) project to renovate the EconoLodge on Route 9 into affordable housing. The room was packed, yet the Zoning Board of Appeals would not let the public speak. This was frustrating to many who’d taken their time to be there.
The EconoLodge project will make excellent use of a vacant hotel and provide affordable apartments for tenants who have limited means. The location will give tenants easy access to bus service on Route 9, the bike path and shopping malls. The land is already built on and so it won’t cost us a single acre of Hadley’s precious farm land.