ERVING — The Evergreen Circle affordable senior and multigenerational housing complex is moving along, with plans for the water, sewer, electrical and pump station infrastructure to go out to bid in the fall, pending Selectboard approval.
The project entails extending Care Drive into a 470-foot-long, 50-foot-wide roadway with a cul-de-sac at the end, and extending the existing water and sewer systems with a new pump station. The housing development will include 18 one-bedroom apartments for seniors ages 62 and older, and eight multigenerational units, each with two or three bedrooms that will be built behind the Senior & Community Center.
Members of the Senior Housing Committee and the project’s crew of engineers discussed the status of funding for the project and reviewed the 90%-complete preliminary designs for the development’s infrastructure at the committee’s meeting on Thursday.
Rural Development Inc. (RDI), a nonprofit created by the Franklin County Regional Housing & Redevelopment Authority, has contracted with the town and Austin Design Cooperative to facilitate the roughly $17.4 million housing and public infrastructure project. While the town has received $2.42 million from the state’s HousingWorks Infrastructure Program, Alyssa Larose of RDI informed the committee that the nonprofit is waiting to receive additional funding through the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities’ Housing OneStop application. RDI asked for a total of $14.7 million in its OneStop application between state program funds and tax credits.
Larose added that she has heard “encouraging feedback” from the state that the money will arrive.
“Other than the coordination we’ve been working on with you folks on the infrastructure and the roadway, we’ve just been pencils down waiting on that funding announcement,” Larose told the Senior Housing Committee.
Despite the anticipated state grant, Larose described an approximately $650,000 gap in the project’s budget after potential funding sources like the Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness Program fell through. Although the town has a pending $1.1 million federal earmark that could help fill the gap, Larose said the timeline and chances of the earmark taking effect are still up in the air.
To fill the $650,000 gap, Larose brought up the recently launched Rural and Small Town Housing Choice Community Designation. The state designation unlocks grants to help municipalities meet goals for housing expansion.
Evergreen Circle could be the “trigger” for Erving to earn the designation, as Town Administrator Bryan Smith described, but the designation typically requires a building permit to prove a housing project is underway, according to Larose. This poses a hurdle for Erving because the town would need grant funding to obtain the building permits.
To earn the designation, Larose said the town would need to start a conversation with the Massachusetts Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities exploring the possibility of earning the designation before obtaining the building permit, “knowing that this is a chicken-and-egg situation,” Larose said.
Senior Housing Committee member Jacquelyn Boyden asked Larose if housing efforts in Erving beyond the creation of new buildings could help boost the town’s odds of earning a Housing Choice designation.
“We haven’t had a lot of new housing, per se, in the last five years, but we have had structures that have changed from single-family to two units or more,” Boyden said, mentioning the conversion of the former elementary school building into a five-unit building and the spread of accessory dwelling units (ADUs) in town.
Larose told Boyden she is unsure if these changes will help boost the town’s chances for a designation. At its next meeting, which has not yet been scheduled, the Senior Housing Committee plans to learn more about the Housing Choice designation from Mariah Kurtz, senior livability planner at the Franklin Regional Council of Governments (FRCOG).
Smith then talked the project’s team through the designs for the extended roadway, pump station and electrical system. According to Smith, waiting on the electrical system has held up the project for months, but with Eversource — the company that will install the transformers — having indicated its approval of the design, the project is full steam ahead.
Without any concerns from the committee about the designs, the Selectboard will review the packet at its Aug. 31 meeting.
“If the Selectboard’s happy,” Smith said, “we’re ready to go to bid on water, sewer and electrical.”
Regarding next steps, Smith outlined an ideal timeline for the water, sewer, electrical and pump station infrastructure going out to bid in the fall, with construction starting in the spring, and work on the roadway, stormwater management, grading and sidewalks “[trailing] this work.”
