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Date: 12/12/2023
PELHAM — Volunteering for the town usually isn’t considered fun, but the Planning Board convened a meeting on Dec. 6 to find residents who want to have fun planning growth in the village center.
“We think it’s sort of fun,” said Judith Eiseman, a member of the Planning Board. “So far, that’s how people are looking at it.”
The planning work has some degree of urgency. In about a year Amethyst Brook Apartments, an affordable housing development under the 40B laws, will bring dozens of new people into the town center. What will they do after move in? Eiseman thinks that’s a good question.
“There’s been a long desired need for something as simple as a coffee shop,” Eiseman said. “We’re looking at the possibility of food trucks or coffee carts, things we can do to bring people together … some gathering place that’s congenial to building community.”
Some momentum was built this year after a member of the Council on Aging suggested a walking track be installed near the town’s community building and library. Attention turned to a two acre piece of land adjacent to the southern edge of the library parking lot. One task of the working group set up on Dec. 6 is to discover if those acres are usable. A portion of the adjacent plot is wetlands, which must be delineated before any of the land can be developed.
The goal of the meeting was to set up a working group of five to seven people. Eiseman said the volunteers are “dipping their toes” into the planning process because, while extensive results are not expected, the group has an important near term goal. With the supervision of Planning Board members, the group will brainstorm ideas and prepare a report for presentation to Annual Town Meeting in the spring.
Zoning work accomplished in 2020 defined the village center area. Work done in 2010 and 2018, with the findings posted on the town’s website, shows a longstanding awareness among officials that amenities are necessary in the town center. The past planning work also justified a higher housing density in certain zones. Complicating the current planning effort, there may be several pieces of land, rather than one, to consider in the puzzle.
“Are there any other landowners interested in doing something other than what they are currently doing with any of their land?” Eiseman said. “We don’t know [and] it’s going to take a few months to come up with any answers.”
Eiseman, a volunteer in town government for over four decades, said the current work follows on the suggestions for growth of prior planning efforts. The research done in 2010 identified two town centers, one occupied by the library, school and community building, the other at the top of the hill, close to Route 202. The recommendation 13 years ago was to emphasize developing the area around Cadwell St. and S. Valley Road.
The proposal of 2018 sought to codify the village center area into three districts, each with specific zoning requirements. The heart of the village center is mixed use, with businesses and homes situated on smaller lots of a quarter acre, with access to town sewers.
The district called village center neighborhood includes Amherst, South Valley and Jones Roads, and Cadwell Street. Those lots must have 125 feet of road frontage. Sewer services will soon be installed and connected to the Amherst sewer system. More diversity of housing is allowed.
The outskirts of the village center, termed rural edge, including parcels on the south side of Jones Road and the north side of Amherst Road, are situated next to extensive forests or areas regulated by the Endangered Species Act. While two acre lots are required the preferred approach to development is clustered dwellings. Clustered dwellings allow for a higher density of residents and may better enable preservation efforts for the remaining land.
The stated hope of the 2018 planning was to better integrate mixed uses, within walking distance of each other, including home businesses, cafes, restaurants and affordable housing. The Amethyst Brook project will respond to the need for affordable housing. The 40B laws that govern affordable housing, however, according to Eiseman, need to be amended. The dearth of places to eat or sip tea in the village center suggests that complimentary infrastructure should be given more weight as a consideration.
“40B is well intentioned, but it’s really geared toward Boston and those larger surrounding communities,” Eiseman said. “We all understand we need some housing. That’s not the issue. The issue is how much and where and how fast, all of those things that go into good planning.”
The village center working group might meet again before the end of the year, but no date or time has been set.