To: Those involved with the multi-family housing market in Pittsfield
From: Government Affairs Chair, Barbara Davis Hassan
Subject: City of Pittsfield: Urban Housing Initiative Plan

A meeting will be held on Tuesday May 6 at 7:00 p.m. at the City of Pittsfield Council Chambers to discuss a possible vote on the zoning change for a proposed Smart Growth zoning plan (UHI) and a TIF (Tax Increment Financing) request presented by the City of Pittsfield’s Department of Community Development.

Anyone interested in this initiative needs to get involved NOW.

In a nutshell, the proposal contains an overlay zoning of 300 acres in downtown Pittsfield to develop low income multifamily housing and subsequently quality for tax subsidies. (no taxes on improvements) The Pittsfield Department of Community Development’s application and request state:

1. The City currently has waiting lists for all subsidized rental housing programs.

2. Approval of the UHI-TIF zone would be an incentive package available for prospective developers interested in creating much needed affordable housing.

3. A recent market study by Bennet Franklin Real Estate Services discovered that the vacancy rates are recently 0-5% with most apartment properties in the City experiencing a 0-1% vacancy rate. NOTE: this report was commissioned by the developer of the New Amsterdam Project as a feasibility study to support the adding of affordable housing stock to the City of Pittsfield’s inventory.

4. The First affordable housing project that will be utilizing the newly created UHI-TIF program will be the New Amsterdam Project located on Bradford Street with a planned development of 67 units of affordable housing in the West side neighborhood. NOTE: by accepting the Zone area does not automatically approve the TIF agreement (tax relief) of the New Amsterdam Project per Justine Dodds of the Dept. of Community Development. She indicated to me that a project had to be included as part of the cities application process to define the ZONE area.

Minutes of the Office of Community and Economic Development April 2 and April 17, 2008 meetings discussing this Housing Initiative indicated that Councilor Bianchi did not feel that adequate time has been given to consider this initiative and he wondered why only one community had done a project like this in the entire state since 2005. Councilor Lothrop wanted to add a preamble and Councilor Marchetti wanted to direct DCD to draw up rules of how the Council would approve a particular project.

An ETA community may offer a Tax Increment Finance (TIF) agreement to a job-creating business. A TIF provides an exemption on property taxes on the additional value added to the property by the participating company. The exemptions can be from 1 to 100% of the added value of the property for a period of 5 to 20 years. In addition, under a TIF agreement an exemption of 100% of the value of any personal property is provided to the business. Benefits of the TIF and EDIP program can also be achieved in circumstances in which businesses lease facilities.

I am left with many, many questions after reading the proposal and am concerned that the approval is on a "fast track".

Please let me know your comments and what if any position should be presented to your councilors as a whole. Sorry for such short notice but not being a resident of Pittsfield I just happened to stumble across this matter while catching a small segment of the Cable Access TV of Pittsfield.

Thank you,
Barb Davis-Hassan
Chair – Government Affairs Committee

• Link to full UCH/ TIF Final Draft Proposal (pdf 51 pages)

• Mass.gov information on Smart Growth Tools, including TIF (Tax Increment Financing)