Harborlight offers Maple Woods concept community update December 2014

December 3, 2014

Re: Maple Woods Community Update

Hello everyone,

I hope this note finds you well. My name is Andrew DeFranza. I am the Executive Director of Harborlight Community Partners, a local non-profit affordable housing development and property management organization. Harborlight Community Partners is the developer exploring the Maple Woods senior affordable housing project. We are grateful for the consideration, questions, and support of Wenham residents regarding the potential Maple Woods project. We at Harborlight Community Partners strive to be ethical, reliable, and responsive partners for each of the eight North Shore communities where we currently work. We will work to do the same thing here in Wenham. If you have questions or feedback, we are eager to hear them.

The first Zoning Board and Conservation Commission meetings were significant with many vital items discussed. Other questions have also been raised via in person discussions, online questions, and in other formats.

First and foremost, we seek to ensure that any and all data about the plan is easy to access. With that in mind, we have been and will continue publishing on our website the application and reports associated with the concept, along with a growing list of questions and answers. Please feel free to take a look at:

http://www.harborlightcp.org/news/current-projects/maple-woods-a-wenham-senior-housing-project/

We also wish to respond to other questions that have circulated. (If you have other questions that are not addressed below, please contact us and we will do our best to get you prompt answers: adefranza@harborlightcp.org or 978-922-1305 x 207.)

· Who is the developer?

o Harborlight Community Partners is the development organization.

· Is the developer a non profit?

o Yes, Harborlight Community Partners is a long-standing local North Shore non profit organization. Harborlight Community Partners was started by its affiliate, the First Baptist Church in Beverly decades ago.

· What kind of experience does the developer have?

o Harborlight Community Partners, with its founder and affiliate the First Baptist Church in Beverly, a number of skilled board members and staff, has been involved with a variety of affordable housing types on the North Shore. The first of these efforts over 50 years ago began with the creation and management of Harborlight House (35 units, Beverly); from there, Turtle Creek (110 units, Beverly), Turtle Woods (67 units Beverly), and Firehouse Place (4 units Hamilton). Harborlight Community Partners is also responsible for the acquisition, preservation and rehabilitation of other local affordable housing buildings for seniors including Pigeon Cove Ledges in Rockport (30 units) and Rockport High School Apartments (31 units). This group has been involved in the creation and ongoing quality property management of buildings as small as 4 units and as large as 110 units. The majority of these units are for seniors. Most recently in 2013-14 we implemented an $18,000,000 transaction to restructure Turtle Creek. This involved, among other things, nearly $4,000,000 in construction on an occupied building.

· Is Harborlight Community Partners the builder? Will they construct the building if it is permitted?

o Harborlight Community Partners is the developer and the property manager but not the general contractor. A qualified and experienced general contractor will be hired via a bid process to build the facility should the project receive a permit.

· The cost seems high, why is that?

o The project cost is roughly $22M. This reflects the land acquisition, the construction cost, the usage of enhanced waste water and drainage systems to respect concerns about the wetlands, all the associated soft costs that are part of the transaction and significant required capitalized reserves that ensure the stable ongoing performance of the project.

· Is this building planned to be federally financed?

o Almost all affordable rental housing in the country is now financed by what is known as the “low income housing tax credit.” This project is sourced with the Department of the Treasury federally and each State receives an allocation. The States then distribute the credits where they are turned into equity to create buildings like Maple Woods. If you would like more information you might like to explore: http://www.mass.gov/hed/housing/affordable-rent/low-income-housing-tax-credit-lihtc.html

· Who then owns the building if this happens? Does the federal government own this building?

o No. The building would be privately held. The federal government would not own the building. Harborlight Community Partners would create a taxable subsidiary to own the building. This is the situation we have with Turtle Creek and Harborlight House for example. This is required by the financing and the use of the credits mentioned above.

o Harborlight Community Partners would also be the property manager for the building.

· How is this financed?

o The major financing comes via the above mentioned tax credits; that is the Federal portion of the financing. The second major source of financing is at the State level, specifically, known as State subordinate debt. This is capital loaned to the project. It is important to note that no debt payments are required as long as the building complies with its committed use as affordable rental housing. Third, there would be regional funding from the North Shore HOME Consortium and hopefully the Federal Home Loan Bank. The Consortium funds come as a subordinate loan like the State. The Home Loan Bank funds come as a grant. Finally, and most important would be local funding from affordable housing resources held by the Town. This would be housing restricted funds from the Wenham Affordable Housing Trust and the Community Preservation Committee.

· Will the State provide funds for this senior building?

o Yes we expect to request significant capital for this project from the State ($5M+).

o In addition to the capital to build this project we also plan to ask the State for what are known as “operating rental vouchers.” These vouchers help pay part of the rent for the lowest income residents who would mainly be seniors on social security. The State has indicated they may not let these vouchers be available for senior housing, as these vouchers are preferred to be used for family housing. Our current pro forma then was required to show the project’s viability without these vouchers which is what we have done.

· Will Harborlight Community Partners ever sell this building?

o Harborlight Community Partners and its associated sponsor (First Baptist Church in Beverly) have never sold an affordable housing building in its 50 year history.

o It is very unlikely they would ever consider selling Maple Woods.

o Additionally, there are major safe guards against a sale, two of which include: first, the comprehensive permit can be made to be in perpetuity should the Town wish. This will give the Town the ability to enforce the use as affordable age restricted housing for the long term in the event of some emergency; second, the State has recently enacted a law known as 40T which gives the State the right of first refusal on the transfer of any affordable housing building in the State. This helps enforce the long term use as affordable housing.

· Is this senior/age restricted housing?

o Yes this is planned to be age restricted housing set at 55+. The law for 55+ housing requires that each unit has a resident who is 55 or over and no residents in any units below age 18. This can for example allow for spouses of other ages.

o The units are all one bedroom at 650 square feet.

· Can the age restriction be moved to be 62+ or 65+?

o Yes, this is legal. Unlike 55+ age restrictions neither of 62+ nor 65+ restrictions carry the requirement to allow people as low as age 18 to live in the building.

· Why did this change from 62 and over housing to 55 and over housing? Is this a permanent change?

o The change was made in response to feedback from the State that while we could apply for State capital funds they may not allow us to use what are known as rental vouchers because this was elder housing and not family housing. If this was family housing they would allow the rental vouchers and the capital together. As this is age restricted housing it is possible they may not allow the vouchers. This impacted the financial model the State required us to submit. As a result we shifted the age range down to the next age restricted level to increase the number of people who would be eligible to live in the building.

o If the State does allow vouchers we would be prepared to move the age back to 62+. We would encourage this to be part of the permit should it be awarded.

· Is this family housing?

o No, this is 55+ age restricted housing. The term “family housing” refers to units with multiple bedrooms and school aged children.

o This is one bedroom housing intended for an age restricted population.

· Will Wenham residents, employees, and relatives be eligible to live in this building?

o Yes. Anyone who meets the income and age criteria and passes background screening would be eligible to live in this building and age in place there.

· Is there a local preference planned for Wenham residents, employees, and families?

o We are not currently including a local preference, because the State generally does not allow local preference, especially in affluent communities for senior housing. They prefer to put State capital into family housing with no local preference. We have suggested that a local preference could be a part of the eventual permit connected to any funds invested via the Town Housing Trust or Community Preservation Committee.

o In this case we think it would be a very reasonable request by the ZBA to ask for a local preference for a percentage of the units that matches the percentage of local housing funds committed. This is a strong request and could be made part of the permit. The State will have to confirm this but the chances are decent that this approach would be effective.

· Is this building four stories high?

o No. From the beginning we worked to keep the building under the by right height limit of 35 feet. The building is and has always been 3 stories.

· Will the septic system be within the wetland’s buffer zone?

o No. The system is under the parking area which is over 100 feet from the wetlands and outside the buffer.

· What is the planned system and who is designing it?

o We are proposing a “waterloo bio filter system” which is being designed by local septic engineer Mr. Chuck Johnson. Please feel free to check the system out: http://www.waterloo-biofilter.com/

· Is the building within the 50 foot “no build” buffer area?

o No. The entire building is outside of the 50 foot “no build” area. A portion of the building is within the 100 foot buffer area between 50-100 feet. This is within the Conservation Commission jurisdiction.

· Are you asking for any waivers from the local wetland by laws related to your presence between 50-100 feet from the wetland line?

o No, we are not asking for waivers. Rather, we intend to comply with all of the local by laws, as well as DEP.

· How will this project be sensitive to the water demand on the Ipswich River?

o We are very concerned with the question of water and have approached the Ipswich Watershed Association to address these concerns. Harborlight Community Partners is committed to making Maple Woods “water neutral”. To address the concerns of IRWA and others, we are agreeing to recommendations from IRWA to:

o Use only native and drought resistant plants;

o Not use pesticides;

o Not use outside irrigation after the initial plant establishment;

o Use very high efficiency fixtures to minimize water use;

o And finally, to offset any gallon of water used at this project with at least a gallon of savings in another place within Wenham. This would likely be done by installing more water efficient equipment (faucets, toilets) in other areas of Wenham. The result of which is that for each gallon used by Maple Woods, a gallon would be saved elsewhere in Wenham to match it. The total impact in Wenham then would be no additional water use.

· What are the proposed impacts on the Town Services and what do Town officials have to say about that?

o We expect there to be two main impacts:

§ There will be some emergency calls by elderly residents in need of help;

§ There will be some residents who will participate in the Council on Aging activities;

§ We expect the public officials will comment on these uses in the permit process.

· What is the current price of the land?

§ We have an option to purchase the property for $1.8M

§ We have an appraisal for roughly $1.5M. The appraisal in part reflects the value per unit created as opposed to a value per acre.

§ We expect the eventual sale price in the purchase and sale to reflect a combination of purchase price ($1.5M) and consideration for holding the property off the market for multiple years.

· Is there a traffic study and what is the impact of the additional traffic?

o Yes a traffic study was done in the spring of 2014 and then a new data collection process was performed in November of 2014.

o Please see the Spring data here: http://www.harborlightcp.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/768-MR01_Final.pdf

o The traffic engineers estimate that the project will generate one extra car on Maple Street per minute.

o As with our Turtle Creek and Turtle Woods properties, we intend to contract with a transportation company through our Service Coordinators who would organize weekly trips to the markets and other locations. A number of our residents take advantage of this service, which also reduces the number of car trips by individuals to and from the building.

· Is this the largest project in Wenham?

o No.

o Enon Village an existing affordable senior project on Larch Row is 90+ units or a total of 33% more units than Maple Woods is projecting.

o There are other larger buildings in Wenham as well.

· Is this a commercial building?

o No. This is a residential building.

· Does this project use any Town money that can be used for other Town services?

o No. The request was to use existing Town Funds that are restricted to use for affordable housing. The funds from the Wenham Affordable Housing Trust can only be used for housing purposes. 10% of the Community Preservation Fund resources can only be used for affordable housing purposes. We would not be requesting any Town funds that can be used for any other purpose. We would only be asking for resources already committed to affordable housing.

Thank you again for your interest! If you have any questions or would like to see any reports or visit the site please see the link here: http://www.harborlightcp.org/news/current-projects/maple-woods-a-wenham-senior-housing-project/ or contact me at 978-922-1305 x 207 or adefranza@harborlightcp.org.

Best Regards,

Andrew DeFranza

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