Middle Line Project Moves Into Next Phase

By JAMES KINSELLA

After settling key questions about the Middle Line Road project at a
special town meeting Monday, the town of Chilmark now must sort through
a number of financial and regulatory questions as it turns the $3.5
million affordable housing development from an ideal into a reality.

Town leaders have yet to establish a schedule for permitting the
project, which will require approval from town boards and also from the
Martha's Vineyard Commission. In addition, the town must secure
funding, which will be drawn from at least four sources including the
town's Community Preservation Act funds.

The Middle Line Road development, the first affordable housing
project commissioned by the town, is slated for 21 acres of town-owned
land off Tabor House Road.

On Monday voters approved a plan that will include 12 affordable
housing units - six houses with deed riders to ensure permanent
affordability and three duplexes, each containing two affordable rental
units.

Chilmark voters also approved using $212,000 in Community
Preservation Act funds for engineering and architecture plans. The town
will issue a request for proposals to provide those plans.

The timeline for breaking ground and completing construction remains
open.

"Who knows?" said Steven Schwab, chairman of the
Chilmark housing committee. "We're asking the same question.
We have to come together and work that out."

Speaking for himself, Mr. Schwab said he would hope to see ground
broken by this fall, with construction under way by next spring.

But another advocate of the project, Chilmark selectman Warren Doty,
said he considered that time line quite optimistic.

"The architecture and the engineering will take quite some
time," Mr. Doty said. "We have a lot of process to sort out.
We just can't jump ahead and start to build next week."

The Middle Line train, Mr. Schwab agrees, is yet to start rolling
down the track.

"We just realized we have a train," he said.
"We're looking to load up the coal. We're taking a
breather."

A laundry list of tasks now await the town, Mr. Schwab said. In
addition to permitting, the tasks include:

* Advertising for applicants for the housing;

* Establishing a list of qualified applicants;

* Launching a planning board review of Middle Line Road itself;

* Working with the board of selectmen to determine whether the
town should lease the land to a nonprofit corporation as a prelude to
the development; and

* Hiring an architect and a contractor.

More decisions on the project lie ahead for Chilmark voters. They
will be asked to review the design for the homes and to decide whether
to steer more community preservation funding to the project.

While the town housing committee has led the effort to create
affordable housing at the Middle Line parcel, Mr. Schwab said the work
now facing the town may require the creation of a subcommittee to work
solely on the Middle Line project, or a separate group to oversee the
project.

Chilmark executive secretary Timothy Carroll said he hopes the
housing committee will continue to take the lead on the Middle Line
project.

The bulk of funding for the remaining cost of the Middle Line
development will come from the purchase of the six homes by private
owners, more community preservation funding, a mortgage loan on the
rental units and a contribution from a state entity known as the
Affordable Housing Trust.

As outlined in a conceptual design and feasibility study prepared by
South Mountain Company of West Tisbury in association with Keen
Development Corp. of Cambridge, estimated development costs total
$3,539,700.

Those costs would be covered by estimated revenues that include
$1,400,320 from the purchase of six homes by private buyers; $715,000
from a mortgage loan to be repaid through rents at the six rental units;
$839,380 of community preservation act funding; a $300,000 grant from
the state Affordable Housing Trust; $240,000 to buy the clay rights at
the parcel, funded by the town through a bond passed last year by
Chilmark voters; and $45,000 for the feasibility and survey grant, from
funds previously voted by Chilmark voters.

Chilmark has yet to apply for or receive the $300,000 grant from the
housing trust, although Mr. Doty said he believes the town likely will
receive the grant.

The feasibility study comments that if the housing trust funds are
not available, or if development costs exceed estimates, "the
resulting shortfalls could be made up with town funds, private
donations, increased use of CPA funds or any combination of these
sources."

The pro forma prepared by South Mountain and Keen includes a range
of home prices and monthly rents, depending on the income of the
occupants and the size of the structure.

The proposal would set aside a two-bedroom house for $161,500 and
two three-bedroom houses for $194,300 each for households making less
than 100 per cent of the Dukes County median income ($66,100 for a
family of four in 2004). The proposal also would set aside a two
bedroom-house for $260,700 and two three-bedroom houses for $308,950
each for households making less than 150 per cent of the county median
income ($99,150 for a family of four in 2004).

Rents would range from $938 for a one-bedroom unit for a household
making less than 100 per cent of the county median to $1,938 for a
three-bedroom unit for a household making less than 150 percent of the
county median.

Going forward, the wild cards sitting on the table include the use
of community preservation funding to help pay for Middle Line. That
funding may include strings that could affect the continued
affordability of the homes, as well as the desire of the town to target
the development at local residents.

Town counsel Ronald H. Rappaport consulted on the issue with Joshua
Davis, an attorney at Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo
P.C., a law firm in Boston. In a letter dated June 10, Mr. Davis
provided thoughts on the issue, though not a legal opinion.

Community preservation funds under state law are to be used for
so-called low or moderate income housing, Mr. Davis wrote.

"Thus, if the project includes for-sale units, use of CPA
funds would mean that heirs who do not meet eligibility requirements
could not legitimately own affordable units," Mr. Davis wrote.

That would open two possible paths to diminishing town control over
the units: one from heirs seeking to overturn the restriction, the other
from housing advocates looking to ensure continued affordability.

Mr. Doty said the town may target the CPA funding at specific units,
so as to avoid restrictions on the remaining units.

Also, Mr. Davis wrote, state agencies may look askance at residency
restrictions, given the use of CPA funds.

Mr. Schwab said the town hopes to use residency preferences rather
than restrictions in selecting who will occupy the units.

Another question concerns whether South Mountain - which has
worked on other affordable housing developments on the Vineyard -
could develop the Middle Line project, given its authorship of the
feasibility study.

Mr. Doty said the company has told him that the state ethics
commission has cleared the way for the company to seek the job, so long
as South Mountain does not participate in drafting the request for
proposals to build.

The company will not be involved in drafting that request, Mr. Doty
said.

While not diminishing the Middle Line tasks that are ahead, housing
advocates this week remained grateful that one of the wealthier towns in
the state has voted to build affordable housing.

"We're just very pleased and very proud of what the town
did," Mr. Schwab said.