In The Press

NORTHAMPTON — In the ongoing attempts to revitalize the city’s downtown, local nonprofits and the Greater Northampton Chamber of Commerce have pitched in to try to help bring some renewed vibrancy to the city.

The Northampton Vibrancy Project, launched a year ago and expected to run to the end of the year, is a coalition of 40 community volunteers and business owners known as the Economic Development Committee, in partnership with the Downtown Northampton Association and the city of Northampton. The goal of the project is to help revive the downtown business community and surrounding commercial areas in the wake of the pandemic, according to the project’s website.

HOLYOKE — Twice facing the trauma of eviction and once making a vehicle home for herself and her four children, as well as living inside a mold-filled apartment, Shaundell Diaz of Springfield brings firsthand knowledge of homelessness.

AMHERST — Developing senior housing projects that could potentially free up existing homes for younger families, increasing housing density around town, and encouraging the University of Massachusetts to provide more housing for its students are among ways to expand housing opportunities of all types in Amherst.

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.

It’s taken me a while to recover from my shock that on March 20, the Hadley Zoning Board of Appeals blocked the use of the empty EconoLodge for affordable housing. Their justification was that “three people shouldn’t decide this for the town.” But those same three people did decide for the town — to kill the project.

AMHERST — Before Valley Community Development moves forward with bringing 30 affordable homes to a North Amherst site, town officials are soliciting input from residents about the suitability of the site and the community need for such a project.

The comments, being solicited through noon on May 1, are required by MassHousing, the state’s quasi-public agency that provides funding for affordable housing projects. Those comments will also help Town Manager Paul Bockelman to submit a comment letter next month.

HADLEY — In the wake of the recent rejection by the Zoning Board of Appeals for a Route 9 hotel’s conversion into affordable apartments, municipal planners are exploring the possibility of adjusting zoning to allow denser housing in certain areas of town.

SUNDERLAND — The first tenants are moving into Sanderson Place as Franklin County’s first new affordable housing complex in years opened its doors on Thursday.

Located at 120 North Main St. and featuring 33 wheelchair-accessible apartments, Sanderson Place is an affordable senior housing complex that was six years in the making. Tenants were approved through a lottery over the summer and have been waiting the last seven months for the OK to begin moving in.

NORTHAMPTON — Valley residents looking to secure no-interest loans from the state to make accessibility improvements to their homes now have an easier way to do so after the state reconfigured its coverage area for western Massachusetts.

The Home Modification Loan Program, overseen by the Community Economic Development Assistance Corp., is a state-funded initiative that provides financing to older adults, people with disabilities and small landlords who want to make necessary home modifications such as ramps and lifts, widening of doorways, fencing, renovating flooring, adding handrails, bathroom and kitchen counter adaptations and more.

HADLEY — Valley Community Development is nearing acquisition of the EconoLodge hotel on Route 9, meaning a comprehensive permit application for its conversion into affordable apartments could be filed with the town’s Zoning Board of Appeals early in the new year.

Laura Baker, real estate development director for Valley CDC, told the Select Board at its Dec. 21 meeting that the nonprofit agency anticipates acquiring the title for the 329 Russell St. property from Hampshire Hospitality Group in the first week of January.

NORTHAMPTON — Plans to redevelop a former nursing home on Bridge Road into 60 affordable apartments cleared two significant milestones in recent weeks, when Valley Community Development won approval from the city’s Planning Board to move ahead with the $27 million project and the state agreed to send $830,000 to remove asbestos from the old building.

Clearing these hurdles will enable the Northampton nonprofit to hire a company to begin removing a “very significant amount of material with asbestos” from the former Northampton Rehabilitation and Nursing Center at 737 Bridge Road, while at the same time seeking other financing from the state for the multimillion dollar project, said Laura Baker, real estate development director at Valley CDC.

AMHERST — A Valley Community Development project in North Amherst to build 30 condominiums, two-thirds of which will be affordable, is receiving an acquisition loan and predevelopment loan totaling $1.25 million.

The Community Economic Development Assistance Corp. on Wednesday announced its support for the project, on the former site of a repair garage and trucking terminal on Ball Lane.

HADLEY — A letter supporting Valley Community Development’s interest in converting the EconoLodge hotel on Route 9 into a 51-unit affordable housing complex will be issued by the Select Board.

Following extensive discussion with Laura Baker, real estate development director for Valley CDC, the board Wednesday voted 3-1, with member Amy Parsons voting against and member Joyce Chunglo abstaining, to have a support letter go to the state’s Department of Housing & Community Development’s Division of Housing Development and Low Income Housing Tax Credit Program.

AMHERST — A North Amherst site long used as an auto repair garage and trucking terminal could be redeveloped for 30 affordable condominiums to be sold to first-time homebuyers, including many who may be racial minorities.