Peter A. Gagliardi, executive director of the Springfield-based HAP Inc. said he first stepped on to the 4.1-acre site in September 2000.
Butternut Farm, an affordable housing project in Amherst, features three new buildings and a renovated barn. The 26-unit project recently opened. AMHERST – Heather Steele had been living at Echo Hill for eight years hoping some day she’d be able to move better place.
Only July 1, and she and her 9-year-old son moved to Butternut Farm at 12 Longmeadow Drive. “This is like a palace,” she said of her two-bedroom apartment on two floors.
Before she had bedrooms off the living room on one floor. Also, her son now has room to play outdoors.
Tenants like Steele began moving into the affordable housing project July 1, a project first envisioned more than a decade ago.
Peter A. Gagliardi, executive director of the Springfield-based HAP Inc. said he first stepped on to the 4.1-acre site in September 2000.
But the project had been delayed because residents had filed a series of legal challenges. The Supreme Judicial Court ultimately affirmed a Land Court ruling that the Zoning Board of Appeals did not exceed its authority when it granted a comprehensive permit for affordable housing in South Amherst.
Such a permit allows a project to be built in a residential zone because it is classified as affordable housing.
The project then faced some funding issues as the economy suffered, but in 2009 the project was awarded $6.5 million in federal stimulus money.
Gagliardi said he wants to focus on the present, not the past. The completed project is “providing better housing opportunities than they (tenants) had before. It just feels really good (to see it done.)”
The units are nice, he said, as is the setting just of Route 116 with a bus stop near by. “I think it works well.”
The idea was to provide housing for people who worked in town but couldn’t afford to live here or for those like Steele who already lived here, but wanted a more suitable place. Gagliardi said 70 percent of the tenants fit those categories.
The complex has 26 rental apartment or townhouse units in three new buildings and in the restored farmhouse. There’s also a community room with a kitchen where neighbors can gather and a play structure and basketball hoop.
“This is very nice, people are great,” Steele said of her new neighbors.
Allison Ahearn had been living in town and she, her partner and three children moved in because the units “they looked really nice.” She said they “were affordable and the school system is great.”
“I like the neighborhood,” she said.
To be eligible, tenants need to have incomes at or below 60 percent of the median income. Several units are reserved for tenants with lower household income thresholds. A single person can earn no more than $32,880 with income for a household of six capped at $54,480.
One or two units might be available, said Director of Rental Property Management Faith Williams, as the paperwork on those units is still pending.
Anyone interested in living here may call the property management division at HAP at (413) 233-1711.