AMHERST — Two projects that would bring 100 new affordable homes to Amherst, including 30 duplex condominiums, and enhancements of the playing fields at Fort River Elementary School, are among requests for nearly $7.6 million from the Community Preservation Act account.
The CPA Committee on Nov. 10 begins reviewing the various applications, which range from preservation projects at historic churches to planning for reconstructing the 1950s-era bathhouse at War Memorial Pool. The committee will eventually make recommendations to the Town Council next spring.
Both Way Finders Inc., the Springfield nonprofit housing developer, and Valley Community Development, based in Northampton, have put in requests for projects they are undertaking.
Way Finders is asking for $1.8 million for the 70 affordable apartments it intends to build at the East Street School and on Belchertown Road as part of a $30.6 million project. The former school will have six of those apartments.
Valley CDC is looking for $750,000 for the Ball Lane Community Homes. These would be 30 homes, built at a cost of $20.8 million, with two-thirds sold to low-income residents, including historically marginalized groups. Much of the site is a former trucking terminal that has been demolished and cleared.
Other housing requests come from the Amherst Municipal Affordable Housing Trust, for $500,000 for unspecified projects, and $205,200 for the second phase of an Amherst Community Connections rental subsidy program.
The largest single request comes from residents Maria Kopicki, Rudy Perkins and Toni Cunningham, who are asking for $3 million for playing fields at Fort River School, 70 South East St., where a new 565-student, K-5 school could open in the fall of 2026.
Their plan includes improved fields, construction of a new Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant restroom and lighting for the fields. The project would be rolled into the building plans that would be supported by the Massachusetts School Building Authority and a Proposition 2½ debt exclusion next spring.
Another $450,000 is being requested to improve the playground at Crocker Farm School, at 280 West St. The application, from the school’s Finance Director Douglas Slaughter, states that the money will renovate the kindergarten playground, located on the hill behind the school. Designs have been completed using a previous CPA appropriation.
Wildwood Cemetery trustees are asking for $143,478 for Dickinson Farmhouse roof renovation to improve the 1790 building, including rebuilding two chimneys from the roof up. “Successful repairs will ensure preservation of the structural integrity of the Dickinson Farmhouse and reduce energy costs for the apartment and the cemetery office,” writes Rebecca Fricke, the cemetery general manager and member of its preservation team.
Two churches are also seeking money. South Congregational Church at 1066 South East St. would like $259,210 for steeple restoration and repair, while the Amherst Zion Church of the Nazarene, located in North Amherst center at 1193 and 1195 North Pleasant St., is seeking an unspecified amount in advance 200th anniversary of the building, on Nov. 15, 2026, that opened as the North Congregational Church. The amount will be determined by a structural engineer in consultation with Kuhn Riddle Architects.
The town’s Planning and Conservation Department is asking for $100,000 for improving conservation areas “to partially address the backlog of projects to maintain and enhance conservation areas throughout town,” writes Assistant Town Manager David Ziomek. Bridges would be replaced, trailhead parking and ADA walkways would be built,and more community gardens would open.
The Department of Public Works would like $200,000 for site design and building design for the new bathhouse at War Memorial, and $133,000 to fix the pool, with a new ADA lift,a new lining and drainage repairs.
Conservation of five paintings of botanicals by Mabel Loomis Todd, the famed editor and publisher of Emily Dickinson poetry, would cost $16,450 and comes in advance of an Amherst History Museum exhibit opening at the Strong House next summer titled “A Botany of Desire, Total Eclipse of the Heart and Lusty American Daughter.”
Other requests include $20,000 by the Planning Department for preparation of preservation restrictions to be placed on CPA-funded projects, and $15,000 by the Historical Commission for its historic barn and outbuilding assessment program.
