Nearly three months after the Board of Selectmen (BOS) formally contracted with Patriquin Architects to conduct an affordable housing feasibility study on the town-owned Woodruff/Driveway property near the train station, Guilford officials now have a better sense of potential challenges and opportunities related to development of that property. While some of those challenges have shifted some of the original plans, officials say an affordable housing development on that property is still very viable.

Guilford began looking into developing more affordable housing in town a few years ago after a survey showed a lack of affordable housing for all ages was a big concern among residents. The definition of affordable can vary. For Guilford, where the median household income hovers in the $98,000 to $99,000 range, a home would be considered affordable to a household with an annual income of approximately $76,000. According to state guidelines, that household could afford up to 30 percent of its income or $1,980 monthly for housing costs.

The feasibility study is funded by a $50,000 grant the BOS accepted in January from the state Department of Housing (DOH), obtained by the local Housing for Economic Development Planning (HEDP) Committee.

An earlier grant from the state had allowed HEDP to identify several properties in Guilford that could be used for affordable development. Of the eight sites identified, the committee moved forward with a parcel known as the Woodruff or Drive Way property located near the train station across from the Town Garage. The town applied for the DOH grant in July 2016 to further investigate this specific property.

To conduct the feasibility study, the town hired Partiquin Architects to take a closer look at the Woodruff/Driveway property including looking at the physical capability of the project on the site in regards to things like sewage disposal, the potential number of units on the property, permitting needs, preliminary designs, and discussing the project with neighbors and the wider community.

After months work, Selectman and HEDP Chair Sandy Ruoff said the committee has a pretty good sense of the challenges. The property itself is about nine acres and is bordered by Old Whitfield Street, Driveway, and Stone House Lane. The property is town owned and currently has the daycare, the food bank, and a small park on the land, none of which would be touched in a potential development.

“They [the architects] have been working on it for about three months and we are finding out good and bad things,” she said. “The main things that we have to deal with if we are going to be successful enough to put something there is the fact that a lot of the land is non-buildable.”

The problems include wetlands, flood plains, and the remnants of an old landfill along the Driveway portion of the property. Ruoff said the landfill would be too expensive to remediate and trying to build in the floodplain might disqualify the project from some federal or state funds, so the committee is now looking at the possibility of putting the development in the middle of the property.

Town Planner George Kral said originally the hope was to access the housing development on the Driveway side of the property, closer to the train station, but now the committee will look to extend the driveway used to access the food bank and daycare on Stone House Lane to reach the potential development.

“Everything so far seems to be indicating that we still have a viable project, but that is something we need to keep an eye on as things unfold and we get a little closer to a real development,” he said.

The middle of the property can handle the handle septic requirements and right now Kral said the consultant has three models that would provide anywhere from 15 to 20 housing units across a potential maximum of five buildings at this time.

“One of the things we have targeted in this project is that this is going to be housing that is family oriented. It is not going to be reserved for or exclusive to seniors,” he said. “Therefore we are hoping to create some two-bedroom and even three-bedroom units that would be more suitable to households with children.”

Right now the designs are simple, according to Kral, with drawings (available in the Town Clerk’s office) showing a few two-story buildings in keeping with the character of the area because it’s within the historic district. At this time, Kral said the goal is to figure out if the project is viable, not the exact details of design.

“What we are trying to do here with this phase is establish that a 20-unit or a 15-unit housing development is feasible more or less along the lines that we are describing here and then to create a vocabulary—the types of units sizes, approximate rents, etc.—for what kind of development we would like to see there,” he said. “The next phase of the project, assuming the town approves all of this, is to invite developers to submit proposals to develop a specific project in conformance with the criteria that this feasibility study establishes.”

A developer, once selected, would take the project through all the necessary permitting and secure the funding for the project. The town’s role would be to either sell or lease the land via town meeting when the time comes. Kral said this is the exact same model that was used when the Apple Tree Lane development was built.

While Kral said the committee was disappointed the development could not be accessed via Driveway due to the landfill, Vista Life Innovations owns the neighboring property on Driveway, a six-apartment home used to help people transition to independent living. Kral said the committee is in talks with Vista to see if they could both benefit from this project.

“Vista is uncertain about the long-term use of this particular building on this lot and they are interested in cooperating with us in some undetermined form right now with an affordable housing development since that is one of the things they do, provide affordable housing for their clients,” he said. “There are a number of possibilities to somehow dovetail whatever might happen with their property and their building with this development.”

Kral and Ruoff have spoken with adjacent property owners and the next step is to present the information to the public on Tuesday, Aug. 21 and allow people to ask questions and look at renderings. As the conversation moves forward, Ruoff said it’s important to remember what affordable means in the context of this development and Guilford.

“These are the people we want to keep in town—our beginning teachers, firefighters, single-parent families,” she said. “…These are people who have the means to pay rent; they are just getting a little bit below market price on the rent. That is really the only break.”