Final Housing Concepts Ready For Two Town Parcels; Density, Parking Already Raising Concerns

CHATHAM – At a Jan. 17 public forum, housing advocates will present their final ideas about how to develop the town-owned Buckley and Meetinghouse Road tracts. But at last week’s meeting of the affordable housing trustees, concerns were already being raised about the density of the proposals and the number of parking spaces required.

Town officials and consultants from Barrett Planning Group and Dodson and Flinker Landscape Architects will host the public forum next Wednesday at 6 p.m.; the public can attend virtually or in person at the town hall annex. The meeting culminates a year-long “community visioning” process for the two parcels as the town prepares to invite housing developers to submit proposals for developing the sites. The designs proposed by the town’s consultants don’t necessarily reflect what will be built, since final proposals will be up to the developers themselves.

The visioning process sought to answer some key questions, including how many units each parcel might support; whether they are rentals or home ownership units; and whether they would be available as workforce housing, low-income units or both. The Meetinghouse Road site was purchased exclusively with affordable housing trust funds and will have low-income housing, while the Buckley land on Main Street will likely have a combination of both affordable and attainable housing.

Last Thursday, Housing and Sustainability Director Gloria McPherson briefed the affordable housing trustees on the consultants’ proposals. The conceptual layout of the 3.57-acre Meetinghouse Road site calls for 40 units in townhouses and “stacked flats,” well screened from the road by a vegetative buffer. The buildings were kept away from the road by necessity, since a steep gully runs through that part of the property. Because of the gully, only about 2.5 acres of the property is buildable, McPherson said.

There was more discussion of the former Buckley property on Main Street, which is mostly owned by the town (though the town is still in the process of purchasing the house at 1533 Main St., which will make the L-shaped lot a full square of nearly three acres). One concept involves 50 units of housing, arranged in a number of townhouses, stacked flats and apartments, with 75 parking spaces arranged around the perimeter of the property. A second proposal increases the number of units to 60, with 90 parking spaces.

In both scenarios, some of the buildings are kept relatively close to Main Street, with parking kept to the sides and the rear of the lot. The residential buildings are connected by walking paths through leafy common areas.

“The overall goal of both of these was specifically to create...a walkable little area where people were surrounded by green space and footpaths,” McPherson said.

Select board member Shareen Davis said she liked the arrangement of the houses close to Route 28.

“I think it really will lend itself very well to creating a real sense of neighborhood,” she said.

Resident Rick Leavitt said 50 or 60 units are too many for the parcel and would create a density of around 20 units per acre. “There’s nothing in this town that even comes close to that,” he said. Leavitt said residents would not likely support a project with this many units.

“Moderate density is what we’re looking for, not extreme density,” he said. “You’re not going to sell extreme density to this town.”

In a survey of residents, a majority of respondents said they favored the use of cottages or other low-density types of housing, but a sizable minority said they favored dense development to maximize the housing benefit.

“The survey was not cut and dry against density,” McPherson said. Developers also generally favor denser housing development because it is more financially feasible to build.

The consultants were expected to finalize their conceptual plans before the Jan. 17 forum. The town expects to issue its request for proposals from housing developers next month.