GREENFIELD — In hopes of triggering a special election, Franklin County Register of Probate John Merrigan is leading a canvassing effort to reverse City Council’s July decision to declare the parking lot at 53 Hope St. as surplus and to draft a request for proposals (RFP) seeking a developer to build housing on the site.
Merrigan’s “Hope Street Referendum,” which will need 430 signatures from registered voters by Aug. 20 for placement on the city’s November ballot, is circulating through a network of roughly 12 canvassers. He said on Friday that referendum supporters had already collected more than 100 signatures.
“It would create a special election on the issue. … I would hope that the City Council, even on their own, has the authority to reconsider their own vote, and perhaps they would agree to put it on the November ballot, which would be ideal,” Merrigan said. “It would be a good compromise.”
On July 16, City Council voted 10-1 to declare the Hope Street parking lot as surplus and draft an RFP seeking a developer to build housing on the site. The council’s decision, though nearly unanimous, followed roughly an hour of public comment in which proponents of the project cited a growing need for housing and opponents argued that the city lacks the necessary resources to accommodate a housing structure in the area.
Merrigan said Friday that while he is aware of the state’s need to augment its housing production, he does not believe the process should be rushed. He said he feels that Greenfield, which already has multiple affordable housing projects in the works, should consider taking a “regional approach” to housing.
“My bigger concern is that this development is taking place in retail space in our downtown,” he said, “and we’re going to be very challenged to rebuild our vitality in terms of retail and economic development — private investment in our downtown district.”
Public Safety Commission Vice Chair David Lanoie, who is canvassing in support of the referendum, voiced concerns in an interview Monday that a development near Hope Street would put too great a strain on the city’s public services.
As the city faces a fiscally challenging year and departments are operating on tighter budgets, Lanoie said it would be difficult for public services such as the Fire Department, Police Department or Department of Public Works to expend additional resources.
“All city departments are struggling and doing really good work to meet demand. More housing units places more demand on water and sewer storage, on public safety, on fire protection,” he said. “The DPW folks do a terrific job in our community and I want to see us talking about all of that as it intersects with potential public policy decisions.”
Lanoie added that he believes City Council’s decision was “rushed,” and he hopes that a special election would create an opportunity for increased public input on the project.
In response to the referendum, Community and Economic Development Director Amy Cahillane, who has been working on the Hope Street lot’s planned sale and development, explained that this was “the opposite of a rush job,” as the city had been working on plans to sell the property to a developer for years.
Cahillane also remarked in an interview Monday that the lot’s RFP will not limit its development to affordable housing. She noted that the property could just as easily be developed into a mixed-use structure with both commercial and residential units.
“We are not setting any parameters around any sort of income restriction for the housing that we hope to go in this lot. I think market-rate housing would be wonderful at this lot,” Cahillane said. “It’s a really important, unique, wonderful lot in the middle of downtown, and I want to see it live its best life.”
Cahillane’s remarks were echoed by At-Large City Councilor John Garrett, another proponent of the project, who explained that its location downtown would serve as a benefit to Greenfield’s commercial development, rather than an impediment.
“The way that you get customers to your businesses is you make it so there are customers near your businesses. Parking lots absolutely do generate economic revenue, but you’re going to get more spending in a city center by a person who lives in that city center than somebody who has to drive in from the outside,” Garrett said. “It’s a fantasy to think that you can take the downtown and make it as convenient to access as a suburban strip mall in Hadley.”
Garrett also added that the structure would bring in significant tax revenue and that the city needs to develop more housing, noting that if young families cannot afford to live in Greenfield, it will ultimately be worse for the local economy.
“We’re in such a deficit as far as housing units that we need to build that, basically, the best time to have done something about this lot would have been 50 years ago,” Garrett said. “If there is anywhere in Greenfield that could and should be housing, it’s in the downtown core. The alternative is we end up sprawling into the farm fields that surround us, our housing gets more and more expensive, and we stop attracting young families, which means we stop having a future for our city.”
