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Date: 1/4/2023
AGAWAM – An affordable housing project denied Community Preservation Act (CPA) funds from the town in 2020 will move forward with alternative funding.
Way Finders president and CEO Keith Fairey told Reminder Publishing that Rosewood Way, a mixed-income apartment complex proposed at 586 Mill St., Feeding Hills, will start construction in 2023. Way Finders, then known as HAPHousing, purchased the former farm property and announced it would build townhouses in 2016.
He said that while the town did not allocate the requested $564,000 from CPA funds, the nonprofit housing organization based in Springfield has found the financing it needs to move forward.
Fairey said the complex will be a combination of affordable, workforce and market-rate housing.
As reported in The Reminder in 2020, some residents spoke against supporting the project with CPA funds, which come partially from a surcharge on local property taxes, when the City Council voted on it on March 4, 2020. At the meeting Diane Stallone, the vice president of the Friends of the Agawam Senior Center, questioned how the project would benefit Agawam as a whole.
“A number of seniors, as well as myself, are vehemently opposed to giving Way Finders the sum of $564,000. These are our tax dollars, and we feel that more negotiations should be made,” she said.
Although the motion to allocate the funding did have support from other residents and Henry Kozloski, the chair of the CPA committee, there were not enough votes to pass it. Councilors also rejected amendments that would have awarded smaller sums to Way Finders.
The project, which envisions 62 townhome units in 10 buildings on nearly 9 acres of land, was opposed by neighbors who said the additional car traffic would overwhelm Mill Street. Because Agawam is considered by the state to have too little subsidized affordable housing, and Rosewood Way would include a substantial number of affordable units, the project was permitted under Chapter 40B of state law, which allows Way Finders to disregard local zoning and site plan review restrictions.
Way Finders’ website says 27 of the units will be reserved for households earning at or below 60 percent of the median household income of Greater Springfield, and an additional 20 units will be reserved for households at 30 percent or below. Ten will be reserved for households qualifying for MassHousing’s Workforce Housing Program. Five will be rented at market rates.
Fairey said the complex will give Agawam residents more housing options.
He expects “shovels in the ground” either this spring or the summer.
Michael Ballway of Reminder Publishing contributed to this report.