The town of Amherst has announced what it calls a “bold step” to kick start the number of new single family homes being built in the community: the purchase of 15 acres of land on the town’s east side, off Marshview Drive.
CHMA called up Mayor David Kogon on Wednesday to find out what the town has in mind.
“Everybody knows there’s a housing crisis across this country,” says Kogon, ”and Amherst is no different.”
Kogon says the town has been addressing housing issues across the income spectrum, including putting resources toward emergency shelter programs and affordable housing. “We have all kinds of developments in the works to create a lot of multiple unit buildings like apartments and townhouses,” says Kogon. “But the one thing in that spectrum that has been lacking was single family homes and executive-type homes. And we felt that’s something we also wanted to try to promote, because we’ve been losing out on, for example, physicians and other health care providers because they couldn’t find places to live.”
The town will buy the 15-acre property for $400,000 paid over thee years. A media release says the town plans to extend a small section Marshview Drive this spring which would make way to create about ten building lots. The rest of the land is expected to yield another 20 lots, to be developed at a later date.
Kogon says the building lots will be sold off individually or in groups, depending on interest. The land has been available on the market for almost two years, he says, and without a developer willing to take on the entire 15 acres. “So we decided to take that bold step and purchase it so that we have some control over this,” says Kogon. “And would hope then, that there may be developers or individuals willing to buy lots and build their own homes.”
He says the town will recoup its investment through lot sales, and will also benefit from additional tax revenue as lots get developed. “We felt that it was a very reasonable investment,” says Kogon. “It’s not something we’re going to be giving away.”
