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November 18, 2008: Daily Hampshire Gazette, by Staff Writer

NORTHAMPTON – Once again, the panel charged with overseeing the development of Village Hill Northampton needed more time Monday to decide whether to allow the construction of 100 more housing units after hearing the public sound off on the proposal.

The Northampton State Hospital Citizens Advisory Committee took comment from more than a dozen residents, many of whom were concerned about the impact of additional housing on the neighborhood.

Elizabeth Murphy, representing the lead developer of the site, MassDevelopment, and Lawrence S. Spang, representing architects Arrowstreet Inc., opened the meeting with a presentation outlining their plan to build up to 100 new housing units on the north campus of the former state hospital. As with earlier presentations, the slide show focused on preserving the natural amenities already on site while offering those living in the community a lot of open space and diverse housing types.

In response, residents raised concerns about traffic, the seemingly uneven distribution of housing types across the community, the balance between commercial and residential properties, and whether there would be a building designated for community functions.

“I came here to argue about the additional 100 housing units, but you have really taken my breath away with the numbers regarding the additional cars from the community,” said resident Christina Peterson. “I live about a mile from the state hospital and I drive on those roads all the time and I don’t know if you guys pull up to the intersection of West Street and Main Street between 4 and 6 o’clock but it is already impossible.”

Joel Russell, local attorney and chairman of the Northampton Design Forum, said in the current economic climate the city has plenty of time to make up its mind.

“There was a lot of information presented tonight and I would like to encourage us as a community and you as a committee to take a deep breath and step back,” said Russell. “The real estate market is not really active anywhere in the country right now and this is an opportunity to step back and make the most of what the site presents.”

Russell went on to present an alternative site plan created by students in the Notre Dame University Graduate Urban Design department. Although the plan the students produced was widely dismissed by committee members as being too radical, Mayor Clare Higgins suggested a summary of their ideas be presented at a later meeting.

Committee member Harriet Diamond, who had already seen the revised master plan at a similar meeting last month, said she had hoped developers could have produced various concepts with fewer proposed housing units rather than the same outline.

“If the picture is going to be a determining factor here, then we really need to have more than one picture and I think that refusing to draw another one makes it very hard for us to have a discussion that seems to go anywhere,” she said.

So far, 122 residential units have been built or are under construction at the development, and the current master plan calls for the building of another 101 residential units.

To address the many different questions raised at the hearing, Higgins said she would schedule two meetings for next month. The first would be a workshop the advisory committee and the city’s Planning Board. The second will be another developer presentation, with public comment, at the same location.

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