ROWLEY – Town Meeting in May is likely to reconsider and may reverse a vote from last year to fund a portion of a new affordable housing project near the Market Basket shopping center on Rte. 1.
The Rowley SelectBoard voted four to one last week to support a request of $500,000 from Community Preservation Funds for the project, called Windward Crossing, by Harborlight Homes.
The recommendation now goes to the Community Preservation Committee for its approval before going to the Town Meeting.
The SelectBoard’s approval was a major step for the not-for-profit organization toward winning approval for its first-ever project in Rowley.
Plans are to build on a 3-acre lot 20 affordable townhomes along with a group home and a community center that will be managed by a non-profit group and not cost the town money.
Town Meeting last year turned down a $400,000 proposal for the same housing project. When asked why the project increased by $100,000 in a few months, Harborlight executive Pat Connolly said the ask last year was for $300,000 to $500,000. The town split the difference.
Since then, “prices have gone up,” he said.
SelectBoard member Cliff Pierce said the project was voted down last year in part because it was caught up in the discussion over the controversial MBTA’s Section 3A, which was also voted down.
Danby Whitmore, chair of the town’s Housing Partnership Committee, said it felt like Harborlight’s funding request was “brushed over” at the meeting. “Nobody knew what they were voting on,” she said.
Resident Matt Grenier questioned why the SelectBoard and the CPC were voting again on the Harborlight proposal. “It just seems like you’re diminishing the will of the people,” he said.
If approved the units will remain affordable for at least 30 years because of a deed restriction filed with the state Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities, Connolly said.
The affordable units will be reserved for people earning 50 percent or less of the area median income, around $49,000, or less,
Windward Crossing will feature a 20-unit apartment building with services for seniors, a group home with five bedrooms that would house people with autism, another building with condominiums for three residents plus a caretaker.
Harborlight is partnering with the Cusack family of Ipswich, which is underwriting a portion of the project philanthropically. ♦
