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Date: 2/7/2023
HADLEY — The Hadley Select Board passed motions regarding housing production and making Hadley age– and dementia–friendly at its Feb. 1 meeting. The former was the result of work done by the Age and Dementia Friendly Hadley group appointed in 2021. The latter was introduced to the board by Jim Maksimoski of the Hadley Planning Board.
In a Jan. 13, 2022 report, Age and Dementia Free Hadley identified a need for what it called “care coordination, particularly for older adults, between primary care and providers of other services.” Some of the challenges that elderly Hadley residents and/or those with dementia face, according to the report, are access to home care providers, loss of many adult day programs due to the coronavirus pandemic, the burden placed on spouses of those with dementia, need for respite care for caregivers, a shortage of home care workers and finding transportation to medical appointments.
Age and Dementia Friendly Hadley composed a Community Assessment and Action Plan that would create various measures to make Hadley more accessible for those in need. It would also make Hadley part of a regional AARP network to connect seniors with services. Board Chair Jane Nevinsmith made the motion to adopt the plan.
“Today we are asked to adopt the Community Assessment and Action Plan. What adoption means is that the Select Board and the town will apply an age-friendly lens to all future decisions that are made pertaining to the town. In addition, we are being asked to OK Hadley joining the Pioneer Valley AARP network of age– and dementia–friendly communities, and also to be recognized by the Massachusetts Councils on Aging as an age– and dementia–friendly town,” Nevinsmith said.
The motion passed unanimously.
Maksimoski presented the Hadley Housing Production Plan to the board, looking for the approval which constitutes one half of the approval necessary to put the plan in motion on a state level.
“This has to be approved by the Select Board and the Planning Board, and then it goes on to the state and becomes part of a comprehensive production plan by the town and it can help the town if somebody applies for grants and stuff like that. All I’m looking for – unless you have questions – is for the Select Board to approve it,” Maksimoski said.
The Planning Board discussed the plan at its Jan. 17 meeting. A 2006 inclusionary bylaw states that subdivision developers to either build some of their units as affordable housing or contribute to an affordable housing trust so that Hadley can maintain or stay above the 10 percent threshold of its housing stock that must be affordable according to Massachusetts Chapter 40b. Since the bylaws implementation, developers have contributed funds, but no actual affordable units have been built as a result. The Housing Production Plan would utilize these funds to build more affordable units. The motion to approve the plan passed unanimously.