At her first meeting as a new Chilmark Select Board member on Tuesday, Rebecca Haag helped to push forward the stalled Peaked Hill Pastures, the first sign of movement for the affordable housing project in roughly a year.
Haag, who was elected to the Chilmark Select Board last month, had requested that Peaked Hills be on the agenda so she could get up to speed on the project’s status and prepare herself moving forward for the roughly $12 million effort which plans to construct four home units, 10 rentals, and two “turnkey” owner units. Turnkey means a developer designs and builds the housing units, and then a lottery system is used to choose eligible buyers.
“When I asked for this to be on the agenda, it was more like, where are we currently on this particular project?” said Haag. “Two years ago we sent a RFI [request for information] out. At that point, I understand that Island Housing Trust said it would be a year before they could get to it. Now it’s been two years.”
Town administrator Timothy R. Carroll said Island Housing Trust was the only organization to respond to the initial RFI, but they said it would take a year for them to begin the project, and they also had suggested alterations to the project design based on other developments they’ve led, which the town was not in favor of.
Carroll said the Chilmark Select Board has not formally responded to the Island Housing Trust’s bid.
Carroll also outlined the most recent progress at the meeting. Voters approved a zoning bylaw change last year at town meeting that now allows 10 rental units on site instead of nine, a detail that had snared the project’s progress. The project also currently has a $900,000 state infrastructure grant, extended until June 2027, as well as a separate $72,000 seasonal community allocation from the state for electrical design and engineering which expires in June of this year. Carroll said despite the funding, without an owner’s project manager (OPM) and a design for the project, utilizing the funds within a year is going to be tricky.
“It was a very short turnaround,” said Carroll of the $72,000 allocation. “They ordered it for us with no time to spend it, so it’s kind of tight.”
Under Massachusetts state law, an OPM is required as a first step for public projects that cost greater than $1.5 million and Chilmark officials agreed they need somebody to have sole responsibility of leading the project.
“None of us working on this project, staff or committee members, has the sole responsibility for this project. We all have other stuff that’s going on,” said Climate & Energy Committee member, Steve Lewenberg. “This is a very important hire because we need to have a paid individual whose responsibility is to coordinate this project.”
Town officials said ideally they would find an individual or firm to be the OPM within the next month to lead the project daily.