The state Development Finance Agency cleared the first hurdle in its efforts to add 100 units of housing to Village Hill this week as the Citizens Advisory Committee overseeing the project approved the addition.

The Development Finance Agency is a quasi-public agency charged with developing the sprawling campus of the former Northampton State Hospital into a mix of commercial, industrial and residential space. The original plan called for 207 units of housing on the 536-acre property. A provision in the plan allowed for an expansion of up to 227 units without the city’s approval. If the latest request successfully passes through the city’s planning process, the number of units could grow to 327.

Some city residents said they are astounded that the state agency wants to add housing on Village Hill at a time when the real estate market has been in free-fall.

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Together, Northampton–represented by a cast of dozens–and the Citizens Advisory Committee begin to demand more answers from Mayor Higgins and her get-rich-slow plan for Hospital Hill.

On Monday, Nov. 17, for the second time in its 14-year history, the Northampton Citizens Advisory Committee invited the public to participate in one of its meetings. More accurately, the CAC’s chair, Mayor Mary Clare Higgins, let the public speak.

In the past, the public has been welcome to sit and watch during CAC deliberations. During the CAC’s June 18 meeting this year—the meeting a month after Kollmorgen Electro Optical was unanimously voted onto the site—Higgins broke precedent and opened the floor to questions. The meeting had been better attended than most, but with the vote already cast, opponents could do little more than let off steam. At last week’s meeting, however, the public was invited to speak before the vote on a plan to add up to 100 extra housing units to the nearly 200 already approved for Hospital Hill.

The epic three-hour meeting drew a big crowd, noticeably improving the quality as well as the quantity of discourse. Though the CAC had already spent hours discussing the topic twice before, the public raised many new questions—for example, why were 100 houses being requested when the plan only showed 63 new homes packed into the available land?

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So now they are here. The houses that we saw in all the many plans MassDevelopment has circulated over the years at CAC meetings. Ok, 51 Olander Drive up on Hospital Hill has views, but not much else for its selling price of $637,855. It’s a modest 3 bedroom 2 ½ bath house on a truly tiny lot. click here for description Wright Builders sold it the other day to the realtor Pat Goggins, but its selling price may not reflect its real market value. All the parties involved in the sale are partners in this development. Goggins as realtor, Wright as builder and Florence Savings Bank as holder of the $2.8 million first mortgage on the development. Goggins got a $500,000 mortgage from Florence Savings Bank, Wright gave him a second mortgage of $137,000, which means that the only cash that Goggins had to lay out at the closing was $855.00. The best guess is that the sale is aimed at giving Wright some cash to help him stay current on the mortgage, because the homes are not moving.

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The City Council approved a tax break Thursday for the pioneering company at the Village Hill Northampton campus.

VCA, Inc./Alloy, LLC., a high-end woodworking company that recently became the first commercial tenant in the vast mixed use project located on the former Northampton State Hospital property, has told the city it hopes to expand at the location and create new jobs, with qualified local workers getting preference.

The Tax Increment Financing Plan, known as a “TIF,” encourages business expansion and job creation by giving tax small breaks on new growth to local companies.

Earlier this month, VCA opened its $2 million, 20,000-square-foot facility on Earle Street. The woodworking company specializes in high-end furniture and architectural millwork.

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Here is a complete Google video of the November 17 meeting of the Northampton State Hospital Citizen Advisory Committee. The video is 3 hours long, and was recorded by Lachlan Ziegler. The meeting took place in Florence in the John F. Kennedy Middle School Community Room.

Roughly the first hour of the meeting presented the revised Master Plan, addressing residential units, open space, trip generation, commercial tax revenue, and other subjects. An extensive public discussion followed.

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To approve the revised Village Hill Northampton Master Plan and Illustrative Site Plan in its entirety including the layout of roadways, the conceptual site plan and uses, and a maximum of 100 additional residential units above the currently approved 227 residential units (207 units plus 20 units/10% increase allowed by right under the original Master Plan).  Approval is granted with the understanding that the Illustrative Site Plan is a conceptual plan with variable options for lot layout within the approved roadway layout.

The committee charged with overseeing the Hospital Hill development shows signs of life.

Last Wednesday, October 22, the Citizens Advisory Committee (CAC) met for the third time this year to discuss plans for the northernmost part of the development where the historic Northampton State Hospital once stood. Before them was a proposal for an additional hundred housing units, which, to be built, required their approval.

After years of passively accepting much of what the developers presented, regardless of how far the revised plans deviated from stated goals, this time the CAC didn’t let the double-speak go down so smoothly.

MassDevelopment, the state agency managing the development, had been busy this summer overseeing construction of the 207 units already approved for the site. In order to make the development eligible for state funding incentives that promote green building practices, last year the agency had proposed that instead of construction taking over the entire hilltop, as originally planned, they would build the approved homes closer together. At the time, there had been some concern that the actual agenda behind the compact construction was to make space available for more units later, but the city and the CAC had been assured this was not the case.

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In spite of contractual and moral obligation, there may be no memorial to the mentally ill on the prime land that was their legacy from the state.

Part of the Citizens Advisory Committee’s stated mission in redeveloping Hospital Hill has been to provide a memorial commemorating the Northampton State Hospital and its 150-year history on the site. To this end a subcommittee was formed, and in May, 2007, it issued a report recommending that the hospital’s original fountain be refurbished and returned to where it once stood outside the hospital. Members hoped the memorial would be set in a secluded space that would allow quiet contemplation.

Last Monday, Oct. 20, the subcommittee reconvened for the first time since its report to decide on the seven location options developers had offered them for the memorial.

Despite the subcommittee’s recommendation, a private home is already under construction on the fountain’s original site, and the only option MassDevelopment offered that resembled what had been requested was in a narrow pathway between two other houses. Another option was right on Route 66, a location the subcommittee had already said was not appropriate. Four more possibilities were at major intersections, near playgrounds or too close to houses.

The subcommittee ultimately chose a site for the memorial on the opposite edge of the campus.

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The Citizens Advisory Committee for the Village Hill Northampton project is seeking public input on a request by the developer to build an additional 100 units of housing.

The Massachusetts Development Finance Agency, a quasi-public agency charged with developing the former Northampton State Hospital campus, has asked permission to create 100 housing units that are provided for in the master plan. The original plan to build on the 536-acre property called for 207 housing units. Because the plan included a provision to adjust that number by 10 percent without city approval, the maximum allowed is 227.

That number could grow to 327 if the city approves the development agency’s request. Northampton Economic Development Coordinator Teri A. Anderson said Friday that both the development agency and the city would like to see denser development of the area. The master plan called for estate-sized homes on the other part of the parcel, but officials believe it would be better to build more, smaller homes there.

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