SOUTH DEERFIELD — Groundbreaking on a Sugarloaf Street senior housing project could happen as soon as next month.
Legal conditions for Developer Mark Wightman’s age-55-and-older subdivision as laid out by the Planning Board have been met.
“We anticipate digging dirt in July, and condo construction soon thereafter,” Wightman said after Monday night’s Planning Board meeting. “There were some conditions on our approval. We’ve met those conditions tonight.”
The conditions, hammered out during the project’s site plan review a few months ago, outlined that the developer must pay for traffic details during construction and submit designs to the town office, among other things. The project is separated into three construction phases and has a projected potential completion time of five to seven years. Once a construction phase is started, conditions require it must be completed within 24 months.
Following discussion, a vote to “execute the covenant,” as Board Chairman John Waite explained, was passed four to one. In addition to the legal conditions, an easement allowing town workers onto the property for maintenance purposes also passed majority vote.
Waite said all of the paperwork taken up Monday had been reviewed and approved by the town’s legal council. The only board member not to sign off on the as-met conditions and easement was Max Antes, who reiterated previous concerns voiced during the project’s site plan review.
“I don’t think it’s in the town’s best interest that we voted that way in the first place,” Antes said, responding to criticism from Wightman about his negative vote. “It wasn’t right then. And just because a bunch of other people voted yes, it doesn’t change my opinion.”
Despite opposition, the subdivision’s 35 duplexes — a total of 70 housing units — will be built around a loop road on 22.8 residentially zoned acres in an empty field off Sugarloaf Street, beside Mountain Road. Each individual residence is anticipated to have a price tag around $300,000. A deed restriction will prevent anyone under 55 from ownership.
Without advertising, Wightman said “the phone has been ringing,” and 17 units have already been reserved for purchase. “There’s nothing holding us back,” he added.
A concern raised by some residents during the subdivision’s public hearing is that it doesn’t meet the town’s need for affordable senior housing. And while it’s possible town residents could vote to use Community Preservation Act money to subsidize some of the units, town officials have noted previously that the project isn’t designed to be affordable.
In light of that need, the Planning Board discussed possibly turning South County Senior Center’s North Main Street building into subsidized senior housing units. The Center is supposed to move into the former South Deerfield Congregational Church, which was donated to the town for that purpose.
To that end, Waite proposed a discussion on creating a subdivision for that purpose. Speaking with expertise from his other position as Selectman, Planning Board Member Henry “Kip” Komosa said the Senior Center “would be a good place to put affordable senior housing. The town is looking for a partner in the private sector.”
Noting town officials are currently communicating with other towns for advice, Komosa said it’s early in the planning process, and “we’re still short creating an (request for proposals) to solicit input from outside vendors.”