Amherst Historical Commission to debate fate of 1800s farmhouse

By SCOTT MERZBACH

Staff Writer

Published: 07-05-2017 4:25 PM

AMHERST — A 19th-century farmhouse in North Amherst that has been used as a college-student rental in recent years could be demolished, along with an adjacent barn, to make way for another phase of the Mill District development.

The Historical Commission, which meets Thursday at 7 p.m. at Town Room at Town Hall, will take up the request from W.D. Cowls, Inc. to remove the buildings at 150 Sunderland Road, a property immediately north of the Amherst Survival Center that the company purchased for $320,000 in April from Chester E. Watroba.

“Unfortunately we’re not going to be able to rent the house or the barn because they are in such disrepair,” Cowls President Cinda Jones said in an email.

Jones said that she has no plans yet for developing what she is calling Mill District West, but observes that the property adds about an acre to the 15-acre “goat meadow” Cowls already owns on the west side of Sunderland Road.

The objective, Jones said, is to eventually tie this area to the Mill District Depot, on Sunderland Road north of Cowls Road, and to the Mill District developments on Cowls Road, including the Trolley Barn and Atkins Farms Country Market North and the future North Square at the Mill District, featuring 130 apartments and 22,000 square feet of new commercial space being developed by Beacon Communities of Boston.

“Part of our Mill District master plan is to help link town bike and pedestrian opportunities,” Jones said.

This would include connections to the Riverside Park shopping plaza at the heart of North Amherst center.

The plans fit with the town’s vision for improvements in North Amherst, which include seeking a MassWorks Infrastructure Program that would pay to realign the confusing intersection of Montague and Sunderland roads.

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Town Manager Paul Bockelman told the Select Board at a recent meeting that the town has a compelling proposal. There is robust economic development that could be unlocked through the road and sidewalk improvements, he said, and installation of fiber cables throughout the village center would provide high-speed internet and Wi-Fi to current and future businesses and homes.

Last November, the town lost out on a $1.1 million application. The town was previously rejected in the same area for water and sewer line upgrades on Pine Street, eventually paid for with town money, and new traffic signals at the intersection of North Pleasant and Meadow streets.

But Amherst may have a better chance of landing this money after signing the Community Compact, an initiative of Gov. Baker’s administration, in April.

The realigned roads would pass through the .81-acre site where Village Auto Service was located, immediately north of the North Amherst Library, property the town acquired for $675,000 last year.

Bockelman said the concept would be to unify North Amherst’s civic center, including the library, the former North Amherst School building and its ballfield, with impediment-free walking paths. “We don’t have enough of those,” Bockelman said.

Jones said she also sees additional opportunities from the land acquisition, such as providing space for the Amherst Survival Center to have gardens or for a possible dog park being discussed by town officials, as well as the “Mill District Riverwalk” that could eventually link multi-use community trails along the Mill River and Eastman Brook to Mill River Recreation Area on Montague Road, bike trails at the University of Massachusetts, Puffer’s Pond and the Robert Frost Trail.

Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.

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