Stockbridge — On behalf of the Stockbridge Affordable Housing Trust Committee, Vice Chair Jan Ackerman presented the town’s Select Board with its proposal, the Stockbridge Housing Production Plan, providing data about the local housing market, determining the housing needs and priorities of Stockbridge, and offering strategies or goals to meet those needs.
“It’s really laying out what are the objectives in terms of creating official housing over the next five years,” Ackerman said on April 18 of the 119-page draft plan released in February. Although the document doesn’t denote specific projects, its stated objective includes a goal of producing five units of affordable housing per year in Stockbridge for the next five years, or about 25 units within that time frame.
The nuts and bolts of Stockbridge housing
The plan’s facts and proposals are the culmination of various projects aimed at obtaining community input on the state of the town’s housing market, including a July workshop, a survey resulting in 77 responses, and a community housing forum held last month, with the latter information to be incorporated into the next draft.
Currently, 1,638 homes exist in Stockbridge; however, the structures are aging, with 80 percent of those homes built before 1980 and 40 percent pre-World War II, Ackerman said. The town boasts 811 full-time homeowners, as opposed to seasonal homeowners, with the cost of local residential housing exceeding the Commonwealth’s affordable housing threshold. As for affordable housing communities, Stockbridge lists Heaton Court, with 61 units for seniors and younger disabled residents, including eight units of the Stockbridge House in back; Pine Woods Apartments, with 30 units; and Riverbrook/DDS Group Homes, with 22 units for women with intellectual disabilities.
According to Ackerman, Stockbridge’s resident population has declined about six percent in the last decade, with fewer residents aged 30 to 50. The town’s median age is more than 60 years old as compared to 2010, when the median age was 41 years old, and the community’s median household income has decreased. With 40 new residential units constructed over the last decade—a growth rate of three percent—housing starts are slowing and occupancy rates increasing.
“We have housing costs that, for many, are no longer affordable in Stockbridge,” Ackerman said.
One in three households spends more than 30 percent of their income on housing, and one in eight households spends more than half of their income on housing, she said. “Whether we like it or not, over the last decade, there have been significant changes in the community in Stockbridge,” Ackerman said.
The plan shows a need for both rental and owned units in town, with funding needed for owners to improve housing stock, monies many don’t have, she said, adding that federal or state grants need to be identified to help those owners. Additionally, the town has a need for greater handicap and accessibility housing, as well as support services.
Twenty-five affordable homes in the next five years
The state’s Housing Production Plan mandates that towns consider a housing goal, with that goal for Stockbridge being producing five units per year of affordable housing, an increase of one percent of the total number of homes existing in the town today, Ackerman said.
“We also see that there is a need to address a wide range of housing income over time,” she said.
Whereas Ackerman doesn’t envision a “significant need for zoning changes” to accomplish these goals, the Affordable Housing Trust Committee has discussed adopting regulations for accessory-dwelling units (ADUs), or housing units created on a property typically occupied by the homeowner. She acknowledged that most of the community is in favor of incorporating ADUs, with state guidelines coming out soon on the topic. Other goal-oriented strategies include adding cluster areas of homes, promoting multifamily and mixed-use developments, and partnering with a developer to improve privately owned property.
Select Board member Jamie Minacci said the census data used in the plan contains some flaws: Stockbridge doesn’t have 19 mobile homes as stated; a transfer tax listed hasn’t been passed yet; and transportation options omit a micro-transit project that has been operating for two years. She noted that the town’s high real estate prices aren’t exclusive to Stockbridge. “We are not unique, and we are not alone, and we have not done something terribly wrong,” Minacci said of property valuations. “It’s everywhere.”
Member Patrick White called the plan’s goal “aspirational” and not policy. He said the changes proposed were “roughly modest.”
However, resident Jackie Harris said the plan was more than aspirational and that its detailed sewer section will be ready in two weeks. “It’s a plan to help the town of Stockbridge address some of the critical needs that we’re talking about, not only in this town, but in the country,” she said. Citing Stockbridge’s “neighborhood character” as a big issue for residents, she implored the Select Board to be sensitive to its “small-town nature” and to consider larger parcels within its borders to possibly serve as affordable housing and add federal-funding programs as an appendix to the document.
Planning Board Chair Kate Fletcher urged the Select Board to take their time reviewing this plan before moving forward, and, via Zoom, Patty Caya voiced concern over including any discussion about ADUs in the document since state guidelines are forthcoming. A second-home owner, she mentioned the town’s previously proposed ADU bylaw that failed but prohibited second-home owners from constructing ADUs. Caya asked the Select Board to take a look at what visually happens when single-family homes are taken down and replaced by two- or multi-family homes on the tract, and “not just photos in a Powerpoint.”
Lenox and Stockbridge move forward with feasibility study to enhance walkability
The Select Board unanimously approved in the town joining Lenox to request the Berkshire Regional Planning Commission (BRPC) fund a feasibility study to add sidewalks or trailways connecting Lenox Center and the Stockbridge Bowl. The agenda item followed Lenox Select Board’s unanimous approval on April 10 of the study, with the BRPC requiring both towns to consent to the project before embarking.
White said he pursued the safety improvements with Lenox Select Board member Marybeth Mitts a year ago after hearing traffic-speeding concerns from White Pines residents over walking home from concerts and Orthodox Jewish constituents who don’t drive from Friday at sundown to Saturday at sundown. Referred to as the “Berkshire Emerald Amethyst Necklace,” White said the project is “years away.”
The Lenox referendum approving the study states that the connections could start at the Lenox monument, down both West Street and Old Stockbridge Road, before connecting to new sidewalks or trails extending to Gould Meadows on 183/Interlaken Road, Hawthorne Road (Lion’s Gate, Linde Center) to the Stockbridge Bowl causeway and back up Hawthorne Street (Hawthorne Gate, Tanglewood Institute) connecting the loop with Old Stockbridge Road. When prompted by a resident asking if there could be an alternative route or whether the route will be paved, White replied that no decisions have been made but that the study “is just a way to start a conversation.”
Fletcher commented that she preferred the rural character of the area rather than the proposed pathways in the study; however, Caya said she liked the idea. Chair Ernest Cardillo explained that the project won’t be done “overnight” and will include public input “from start to finish.”
“The first thing is identifying what’s feasible, what’s possible,” Town Administrator Michael Canales said.
At the meeting, the Select Board also:
- Approved a $6,500 proposal to Andrea Goodman to coordinate the Chime Tower playing this summer, including four one-hour special demonstrations beginning Memorial Day weekend;
- Moved forward with a budget resulting in a 4.2 percent increase to the average tax bill;
- Approved the Town Meeting Warrant;
- Approved an application for an annual On Premises Restaurant Wine and Malt License for Once Upon a Table at 38 Main Street;
- Approved requests by representatives for the Boston Symphony Orchestra for 14 one-day alcohol licenses for the Koussevitzky Music Shed, Tanglewood, and five one-day entertainment licenses for extension of hours;
- Appointed Gary Kleinerman to the Stockbridge Bowl Stewardship Commission; and
- Heard Alan Wilkin approach the dais with a request on his own behalf and that of his neighbors to reconsider paving Old Meeting House Road and Field Road as the asphalt would change its historic nature. Highway Superintendent Hugh Page replied that the chip seal on top will make the road look like it does currently as “a historic, rustic road.”
