TAUNTON — The City Council heard from two different sets of developers at its meeting last Tuesday night, including those working on the proposed Church Green affordable senior housing development.
The council voted to approve a special permit to allow Figueiredo Builders Group, Inc. — a Taunton-based general contracting company — to renovate a property owned by Berkley resident Irene Saxonis at 12½ Maple St. into a six-family home.
Councilors also held a pre-review hearing to ask questions and express constituent concerns about a petition by developers of the approved Church Green senior affordable housing project to expand the number of allowed housing units from 24 to 40.
"The main reason (for choosing senior housing) is because there's a tremendous need for it in the city of Taunton," said Carl Nagy-Koechlin, executive director at Housing Solutions for Southeastern Massachusetts.
The City Council will hold a final public hearing on Feb. 13 for residents to ask questions of the developers themselves. Councilors will then vote on whether to grant the two parties, Nagy-Koechlin and Timothy Doherty, a real estate developer at NeighborWorks of Southern Massachusetts, a special permit for the expanded inclusionary affordable housing project.
Due to the fact that the development will offer affordable housing for senior citizens, Nagy-Koechlin and Doherty were able to petition for a "base-density multiplier" that would allow for the construction of 40 apartment units instead of only 24 at the base-density rate.
Both developers said that they did not want to stick with 24 units because it would not be financially feasible to maintain the development with all of the staff required on-site. If approved, the permit would allow for up to slightly over 50 units and four floors, they said.
"We didn't think that (adding more than 40 units) was necessarily appropriate," said Carl Nagy-Koechlin.
Because the inclusionary development will offer affordable senior housing, Doherty said that it would add to the city's Chapter 40B count, although it is not considered a 40B project.
Nagy-Koechlin said that Taunton currently has over 7,600 senior residents and around 60 percent of those residents are income-eligible to live in the planned low-income development.
The developer also stated that around 37 percent of the seniors in Taunton are cost-burdened, meaning that they pay up to 50 percent of their income on rent each year due to a lack of affordable housing.
Councilors Deborah Carr, Donald Cleary, David Pottier and Jeanne Quinn all echoed each other's concerns about the selection process for tenants, especially due to the high number of eligible seniors in the city.
Carr in particular asked Nagy-Koechlin and Doherty to come up with a financially feasible tenant selection process for the upcoming public hearing.
According to Nagy-Koechlin, the development will have two tiers of pricing for apartments that depend on residents' annual salaries. The development will include 16 "very low-income" and 24 "moderately low-income" units, Nagy-Koechlin and Doherty said.
Council President Gerald Croteau asked the two developers to bring expense report estimates to Tuesday's hearing for both 24 units and the planned 40 units.
"The council will be able to see, in its opinion, whether 24 units would work financially," Croteau said in response to the developers' insistence that 40 units was the lowest amount possible to be "financially feasible."
In general, Nagy-Koechlin said that the two main concerns among neighbors and abutters to the site that he talked to included the height of the building and parking availability.
According to Doherty, neighbors said that the new development should not be taller than the museum.
"It would be a travesty if it were taller than the museum," Doherty said.
Doherty said that the three-story building has been designed at 32 feet, which is "well below" the height of the small cupola that sits atop the museum.
During the pre-hearing, both councilors Cleary and Barry Sanders said that abutters had complaints over the outdoor terraces that are slated to be included with each apartment. According to Cleary, abutters were concerned with the possibility that tenants could easily see into their homes and other parts of their property from third-floor units.
Councilor Quinn said that she liked the idea of including outdoor terraces, but agreed that the building's height could be shorter.
Quinn suggested that the development make use of a larger footprint to accommodate more apartments with only two stories instead of three.
"This is already a very tight community. I would really like the project if it weren't so massive," said Quinn.
Sanders, along with several other councilors, expressed further concerns over the project's impact on property values and quality of life in the neighborhood.
"I can't imagine that having a 32-foot-high building 20 feet out of your backyard would not have an impact on the property's resale value," Sanders said.
Cleary agreed and said that the unused Catholic Middle School property on Summer Street is also being considered for use as a senior housing development.
"This neighborhood is changing in recent years and there are a number of residents who have been there for years. They moved in there because it is a historical district," Cleary said.
In regard to the parking situation on the Church Green, Nagy-Koechlin said that designs for the new development call for 80 parking spaces based upon the recommendation that each of the 40 units receive two spaces.
Based upon data compiled from the three other senior housing developments under management by Housing Solutions, Nagy-Koechlin said that 80 parking spaces would be too many for elderly residents who, on average, use less than one vehicle per unit.
Both Nagy-Koechlin and Doherty said that the development's parking lot could be available for overflow parking during events at the museum and First Parish Church across the street.
"There is a parking crunch in the neighborhood, especially when the church offers services," said Nagy-Koechlin.
As a development intended for low-income senior citizens, Nagy-Koechlin estimated that traffic impact would be minimal and would add around 135 trips to the Church Green's daily average of 7,200 in 24 hours.
Councilor Estelle Borges noted that the design should consider parking for nurses and other staff who would be coming to the development.
Cleary brought up further traffic-related concerns over the accessibility of the road leading into the development during emergency situations. Nagy-Koechlin confirmed that the design calls for both parking and a sidewalk on only one side of the road.
"We're providing on-site management as well as case management services. That means we'll have two kinds of full-time staff that will be supported by the project, so there's a certain kind of economy of scale that's necessary in order to accomplish that," said Nagy-Koechlin.
Other areas of concern addressed by councilors included security and infrastructure-related measures.
Councilor Jeff Postell touched upon the catch-22 of including lighting for security purposes at night and argued that lights could become a nuisance for neighbors if their impact is not taken into consideration.
"It does cut two ways: on one hand, you want the site well lit for security purposes, but on the other hand, you don't want to be overwhelming the neighborhood with light," Nagy-Koechlin agreed.
In addition to security concerns, Borges reminded the two developers about the fact that the neighborhood has historically been prone to flooding.
Both Nagy-Koechlin and Doherty said that a storm water management system would be installed on-site and that much less of the property would be paved over than it currently stands.
At the end of the pre-hearing, councilors gave residents in attendance the chance to ask questions of the developers in advance of Tuesday's hearing. Only one resident, Paul Blockman of 30 Prospect St., an abutter, expressed his concerns with the combination of a third story and terraces overlooking his property.
"That's a pretty big concern for folks living on that side of the fence," said Blockman.
"Next week, we will have answers for all the concerns that the neighbors raised," Nagy-Koechlin said.