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It was only in October that most of Franklin heard about the plans by the St. John's Episcopal parish to convert part of their large, undeveloped land parcel into housing. At the time, Rev. McAdams wrote as follows to the community:
Several years ago, St John's was approached by a for-profit developer that wanted to purchase most of our 20 acres of woods to build single-family homes. Our mission is about serving the community, not making a profit, so we refused this proposal. And, we started to discern what is the best use of this vital asset that we have.
We started to weigh our prime objectives: 1) To provide something that’s needed by the community, 2) To honor Creation by preserving most of the land for natural habitat, and 3) To provide needed revenue for the survival of the parish.
I attended a Franklin Town Council meeting where I learned that the Franklin Housing Authority manages about 200 units of housing for families, individuals, seniors and disabled people. There are 1300 individuals and 2500 families on the waiting list, but only about 20 units turn over each year. So affordable housing is desperately needed in Franklin and elsewhere.
That's when St John's started exploring what it would take to offer such a gift to the community. We were introduced to The Community Builders, a non-profit affordable housing developer, and decided to partner with them. They built and still manage Eaton Place on Veterans Memorial Drive, Franklin. We want to provide housing for people who can't afford to live in the town where they grew up.
So this project will be for people who make less than 60% of area median income (AMI) (some units will be for 50% and even 30% of AMI, so VERY low income). It will use less than a quarter of our 20 acres, and the rest will remain wild. We plan to create walking paths to connect with DelCarte, and even some public parking, so that the community can enjoy the land.
You are invited to an informational meeting on Sunday, October 23rd at 6:30 PM at St John's. We look forward to receiving your feedback.
After that community forum and a few appearances before the Zoning Board of Appeals, most recently this past Thursdsay evening. The project has passed muster and should have few impediments ahead.
Thursday's meeting, conducted via Zoom, saw several abutters and individuals from the St. John's neighborhood express continued reservations with the project, with many concerns still focused on traffic. Here, the Board was satisfied with proposed mitigations and, after a relatively short time, voted to close the hearing and then voted unanimously to approve the project.
Chair Bruce Hunchard commented that 'this is the first real 40B I have seen in my time on the ZBA.'
