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Support Juliana v. US Youth Climate Rights Case

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Re: Members of Congress File Friend of the Court Brief in SCOTUS Supporting Juliana v. US Youth Climate Rights Case

Dear friends of the Juliana 21,

On January 13, 2025, Senator Jeff Merkley and Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky led 41 other members of Congress, including Senators Booker, Markey, Sanders, Van Hollen, Whitehouse, and Wyden and Representatives Jayapal, Huffman, Khanna, McGovern, Ocasio-Cortez, Raskin, and Stansbury, in filing an amicus brief (“friend of the court” brief) with the U.S. Supreme Court in support of the 21 youth plaintiffs in Juliana v. United States, a landmark constitutional climate lawsuit.

PLEASE AMPLIFY your support for the Juliana youth climate leaders at SCOTUS and the amicus brief signed by members of Congress.

Here’s sample social media language: 

We are proud to stand w/ the 21 @youthvgov Juliana v. US plaintiffs along w/ 43 Congress members who joined a “friend of the court” brief urging SCOTUS to grant youth’s petition for certiorari, so their constitutional injuries can finally be heard! See bit.ly/amicus2025pr & bit.ly/cert-toolkit

Check out graphics and additional language in our toolkit.

Or please reshare OCT’s social media posts:

In solidarity with the plaintiffs, young people from across the country—ranging from high school students to future pediatricians in medical school—joined Congressional Youth Hill Days, co-hosted by Our Children’s Trust and Zero Hour. They urged Congress to support the brief and implore the Supreme Court to grant the plaintiffs’ December 9, 2024 petition for writ of certiorari and reverse the Ninth Circuit’s decision, so plaintiffs can proceed to trial.

Filed nearly a decade ago, no other case in history has faced this level of government opposition. In their brief to the Supreme Court, lawmakers emphasized that all citizens, including young people, should have the right to access the courts to obtain relief and protect themselves from government policies that harm them. “[T]he federal courts have a vital role in declaring the scope of the petitioners’ Fifth Amendment rights and the government’s constitutional obligations as a trustee of the climate for America’s youth,” the lawmakers concluded.

Key Links:

Both the amicus brief and the historic December 18, 2024 win in Held v. Montana bring hope that the 21 youth plaintiffs will get their day in court to tell their stories and uphold their unalienable rights to life and liberty. For the first time in U.S. history, a state supreme court has ruled in favor of youth plaintiffs in a climate lawsuit, affirming the right to a clean and healthful environment and recognizing the right to a stable climate system, while enshrining climate science in a legal order. Youth-led climate lawsuits show that young people’s voices and legal action are not just symbolic—they hold governments accountable to their constitutional obligations and lead the way toward real climate solutions, as seen in both Navahine v. Hawaii Department of Transportation and Held v. Montana. Now, both states of Hawaii and Montana recognize that their citizens have climate rights protected by their state constitutions, reinforcing the critical role of the courts in addressing constitutional injuries by issuing a remedy, even if the issue is climate change. 

We look forward to continuing our work together!

Sincerely,
Liz Lee and the Our Children’s Trust team

70% Native Plants for Pollinators and Birds

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We invite you to learn with us — make a difference!

Let’s make beautiful home landscapes for birds, butterflies, and ourselves!
Learn how to choose plants that make our planet healthier and more habitable.

Together we can make Franklin County more beautiful and biodiverse!

ACTIONS

Help build Doug Tallamy’s vision of a

one yard and one community at a time.

Learning Opportunities

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GG OFFERS A SERIES OF TALKS AND VIDEOS IN WINTER, AND OCCASIONAL NATURE WALKS.

COMING EVENTS:
2025 Series:  Birds! & Native Habitat

PAST EVENTS

2024: working with nature to restore our climate

Healthy Soils at Home, Rachel Lindsay, Ecologist and Designer, Regenerative Design Group. Rachel shared ways to protect soil health and increase climate resilience at home and beyond, & introduced us to the 2023 Massachusetts Healthy Soils Action Plan, the first statewide comprehensive plan of its kind that addresses non-agricultural soil management. Click here for a video of the presentation. April, 2023.

Regenerating life: We viewed and discussed this beautiful epic documentary film by John Feldman, which explores how life on our planet came to be, and reveals fascinating insights into the role of water and plants in nurturing and balancing pathways to restore biodiversity and our climate. Click here to rent or ‘buy’ the Regenerating Life.
– Water Cools the Planet Part 1, March 2023.
– Life Sustains the Climate Part 2, February, 2023.

Recommended videos:
Wild by Design, the Rise of Eco-Restoration (60 min) Ecologist, historian, and author, Laura Martin, PhD, shares stories of the women who created the eco-restoration movement in the early 1900‘s to support biodiversity and restore our climate.
Successful eco-restoration stories:
A Hundred Thousand Beating Hearts   (18 min) Fourth generation cattleman in Georgia, Will Harris, shares his journey to a humane food producer, and farmer of the soil, not cattle!

Miyawaki Forests: Spreading resilience one pocket forest at a time (60 min) Maya Dutta of Biodiversity for a Livable Climate shares slides of planting Miyawaki mini-forests in Boston, and explains why these forests are special.

Taking Root: The vision of Wangari Maathai, Kenya (60 min) PBS documentary 2008. Inspiring story of Wangari Maathai’s efforts to empower women to plant trees and restore areas desertified by colonial practices.

2023:  Transforming Our Lawns

Lawns to Meadows, talk by Ecological landscaper and author , Owen Wormser, April 2023

Living with Nature, David Small, naturalist, Athol Bird & Nature Club, shares his thriving yard, home of insects, birds, and salamanders! March 2023

Turning a Barren Lawn into Thriving Habitat, by naturalists Charley Eiseman and Julia Blyth

Recommended videos:
Nature’s Best Hope, talk by author Doug Tallamy and founder of Homegrown National Park, to the Endangered Species Society

Kill your Lawn, talk to Lexington, by Dan Jaffee Wilder

Creating and Managing Habitat for Native Bees, by Heather Holmes to Ohio State U

“Pollinators in the Woods?” by Dr. Kass Urban-Mead, researcher/staff at Xerces society

2022

Nature’s Best Hope, Doug Tallamy, PhD, behavioral ecologist professor, U.Delaware and author.  Big picture thinking about what we need to do in our yards and communities.

A (Virtual) Walk in the Garden  with Rebecca McMackin, Director of Horticulture at Brooklyn Waterfront Park . All about plants and what they do to attract bees.

Climate Change, Conservation, and the Role of Native Plant Horticulture  Jesse Bellemare, Associate Professor of Biological Sciences, Smith College, and Current president of the New England Botanical Club. Explore the idea of “assisted migration,” and his research with umbrella leaf.

We’d like to express our gratitude to Grow Native Massachusetts and the Ecological Landscape Alliance for their work and hosting these talks.

2021

Greenfield Public Trees Taking Stock and Planning for Our Future. With the Greenfield Tree Committee.

Birds, Insects and Plants:   Sustaining Healthy Food Webs with Keystone Plant Species a talk by Meredith Gallogly, Manager of Programs at Grow Native Massachusetts, takes a deep dive into the ecological links between birds, caterpillars, and native plants, and what we can do to support this system while adding beauty to our yards and communities.  Meredith’s handouts, March 2021 for GG

70% Native Plants: trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants count! Check out “WHY” this campaign, watch video by Dr. Desiree Narango, find plants to support our birds, butterflies, bees and more! FEb 2021 – new GG campaign launched

Where the Wild Things Are: Native Plants for Pollinators, a talk by Dan Jaffe Wilder and a film on how building soil health helps reduce the climate crisis by sequestering carbon.Kiss the Ground. Jan 2021-suggested viewing while sequestering. Watch anytime! Hope for Wild is a talk by Doug Tallamy, author of Bringing Nature Home, The Living Landscape, and recently released Nature’s Best Hope, A new approach to conservation that starts in your yard. He shares stunning photos he took in his yard, and fascinating stories of moths, birds, and Butterflies and more.

2020: CAMPAIGN KICK-OFF: 70% NATIVE PLANTS FOR POLLINATORS AND BIRDS 

Gardening For Wildlife: Why Native Plants Matter To Pollinators & Songbirds– Dr. Desiree L. Narango, research scientist kicked-off the weekend with a talk about her latest findings on what to plant to bring pollinators and birds to your community.

2019:  CAMPAIGN KICK-OFF: PLANTING FOR POLINATORS!

Fall Gardening for Pollinators, Helping Bees & Butterflies Survive Winter – Larri Cochran, Western MA Pollinators Network, will talk about putting a native garden to bed for the winter in a way that supports pollinators.
HAND-OUTS: Bumble Bee Species,  Native Plant List, August 2019, 2019 Pesticide Free Sources of Seeds and Plants

Test Aspects post

Written on . Posted in Updates.

Waste Reduction Ideas and Local Resources

To help reduce potentially negative environmental impacts of purchasing new goods and disposing of used items consider

  • Giving experiential gifts;
  • Buying previously owned items; and
  • Donating gently used items you no longer need.

Click here for local ideas.

We’ve all heard the refrain “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle”, but did you know or notice there is a reason to that order?

As we try to create a human-influenced world that more closely mimics nature, what has typically been called the “Solid Waste Hierarchy” is now better referred to as the “Materials Management Hierarchy,” because one entity’s “waste” must really become some other entity’s …well, if not “treasure”, then how about “feedstock”?   

So while we love and support recycling, where most of the attention has usually gone, let’s see if we can focus more attention on reducing, so there is no waste to begin with, and on reuse, so that what we do make can save some raw materials even before thinking about recycling.  We need a major paradigm shift.  See the original The Story of Stuff video, and while you’re there, check out many more-recent offerings.

Greening Greenfield isn’t going to be your primary source for information on this topic, but we can send you to our own Definitions page to get started and to a few of our favorite, or most useful other sites.  When we talk about waste reduction, we are often discussing plastics, so check out the discussion and links on our Plastics page.

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DEP draft WQC coming soon

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The draft Water Quality Certificate should be released near the end of January.  DEP has announced that there will be an official public hearing and a public comment period on a DRAFT WQC decision beginning on January 24, 2025, and lasting until February 24, 2025. “MassDEP will hold an in-person and a virtual public hearing during the week of February 17, 2025 (they may be combined or on separate days). Notice of the location for the in-person public hearing will be provided on the DEP webpage as soon as possible and in the official public notices on January 24, 2025. Please note that public hearings are solely for the purpose of MassDEP receiving public comments, and not engaging in a dialogue or a question and answer session with the public.”

Housing Greenfield Meeting Notes — December 9, 2024

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Present: Susan Worgaftik, Anna Oltman, Charity Day, Amy Cahillane, Ella Condon, Mike Penn-Strah, Louise Amyot, Nikki Garrett, Edie Heinemann, Nancy Hazard, Andrea Donlon, Peg Hall, Dorothy McIver, John Garrett, Bob Williford, Alyssa Larose, Jen Hale,  Nuri Sherif, Jack Redman, Mary McClintock, Kate Albrecht, Wisty Rorabacher, Pamela Goodwin, Shaundelle Diaz, Rachel Gordon, James (Hope Street)

EOHLC draft ADU regulations are available.  I have sent out the email that I received from them to everyone on our list.  Please let me know if you did not receive it. Susan W.

DISCUSSIONS

Possible Zoning Regulation Changes—John Garrett and Alyssa Larose

There are two changes regarding residential housing that are being considered by the Council Economic Development Committee on December 10th:

1. To support the amendment to allow first floor development of residential housing in mixed use and central commercial districts, allowing that the entrance for such housing will be on the side of the building with the least traffic.

We discussed this question, especially in regard to the “busier street” provision and agreed that this has a potential for offering some new more accessible housing downtown.   We noted that the present apartments in the mixed use and central commercial districts would be grandfathered in and this change would apply to the time moving forward from its enactment.

 We voted to support this zoning amendment and requested that Susan send a letter to the Council and the Planning Board expressing this support. (Susan’s note: an email to this effect was sent on 12/9/24 to all Councilors and the Planning Board.)

 2. To support the strike through to eliminate the restriction of development of multi-family buildings in the mixed use and semi-commercial district to 24 units because other zoning requirements are adequate to meet the City’s needs in regard to larger residential development.

 In the discussion, Councilor Garrett mentioned that he had just received a communication from Al Norman who had been opposing this amendment that this by right allowance in the multi-family and semi-commercial districts would be fine as long as other districts would have a special permit requirement for more than 24 units.  This seemed to the group as a reasonable accommodation.

 We voted to support this zoning amendment and requested that Susan send a letter to the Council and the Planning Board expressing this support. (Susan’s note: an email to this effect was sent on 12/9/24 to all Councilors and the Planning Board.)

 After these zoning changes are passed, preliminary development work will be started on the Hope Street lot, including community planning meetings.

REPORTS

Rural Development Inc. Update—Alyssa Larose

     The renovation of 42 Cleveland Street, which had been vacant for a decade, has been completed and is now a home with 3 bedrooms and 1.5 bathrooms.  All agreed that the photos of the renovation were impressive.  The lottery for the new owner has happened and the final details are being worked out.  It is expected that the house will be occupied before the end of 2023.  There is a 15 year deed restriction on the home.  It is designated as a home for a low income first time home buyer.

      The feasibility studies for 170-186 Main Street have been completed. There will be 32 units of housing made available through this project.  The income range will be 30%-80% of Area Median Income.  It will be a fully residential building with no commercial space on the first floor.  The current commercial tenants are not preparing to move at this time. As noted in the presentation, we do not expect anything to happen on site until 2027. RDI and the owner will be in close communication about the project timeline and the owner will be working with the current tenants when the time comes to assist them with relocating. The first floor will be a community room and a laundry room.  The apartments will be primarily 1 bedroom, but there also would be 2 and 3 bedroom units.  Some of the units will be fully accessible and all will be visitable. RDI staff are meeting with the Historical Commission and the Parking Commission to discuss relevant issues.

     There will be a site plan review with the Planning Board in January, possibly on January 2nd.  Alyssa will let us know when that will be happening.

     We voted to provide an organizational letter of support to the Planning Board for the 170-186 Main Street project.  We will send it as soon as we know that it is on the Planning Board agenda.  Housing Greenfield members are encouraged to attend this meeting if they can or to write letters of support to the Planning Board.

     Also, RDI is confirmed on the agenda for the January 2, 2025 Planning Board meeting for site plan review. We very much appreciate Housing Greenfield’s support! Please attend if you can.

Request for a letter of support for Pioneer Valley Habitat for Humanity

  Susan reported that we had received a letter from PVHH for a support letter to be sent to Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities Secretary Ed Augustus to request that the $500,000 allotted to PVHH in the Affordable Homes Act be part of the FY 26 budget so that PVHH can create more efficiencies for the work that they are doing in the region.

We voted to send that letter of support before the end of 2023. (Susan’s note: letter was sent to Secretary Augustus on 12/10/23.)

New Housing Possibilities

     Through the research of Bob Williford, we learned that 46 Severance Street and 77 Petty Plain Road are both city properties that might be made into housing.

     46 Severance Street is 3.4 acres of property across Route 2 that has been held by the city for about 60 years with the expectation that a park would be built there.  77 Petty Plain Road is a part of the Green River School property.  The Green River School is slated to be a children’s enrichment/education program.  There has not been a designation for the house on the land, however.  Amy Cahillane has done the research on these properties and has them on her radar screen.  Susan will discuss them with Mayor Desorgher at her monthly housing meeting this week.

Winter 2024-2025 — Anna Oltman

     The warming center will be at the Salvation Army.  Staffing will be through the Medical Reserve Corps.  The trigger temperature is 15 degrees for opening the warming center.  Our discussion encouraged that the 15 degree temperature trigger should include wind chill numbers as the temperature can be higher, but the wind chill can make it feel very cold.

The Greenfield shelter is moving its guests to the temporary shelter site during the week of December 9th.

 PLANS

Rental Housing Survey Planning

     We have hired a GCC student to work on the Rental Housing Survey.  He will start at the end of January and will work through May.  He will be working for us 20 hours per week and will receive GCC credit for his work with us.  We expect to survey approximately 3000 units in that time.  We also have been working with City Assessor, Chuck Green, about enhancing the project to include some basic information about the housing for the Assessor’s Office. Susan will be going to the Assessor’s meeting on December 17th to discuss this with them. Susan will also try to connect with Neighbor to Neighbor to Neighbor to see if they are interested in providing some basic tenants’ rights literature that will be part of the project as well.

 LEGISLATION

     The Local Option for Housing Affordability coalition (the transfer fee group) is trying to get as many home rule petitions requesting the transfer fee into the state legislature as possible.  Susan has model home rule language and Councilors Brown and Garrett have both expressed interest in filing this the home rule petition with the City Council.  Susan said that she would like to start the local process in January. Louise said that she would work with Susan on the language. We will present the language at our January 13th meeting.

     Review of Greenfield’s Housing Violation Fees—Susan brought up the idea of reviewing Greenfield’s Housing Violation Fees to establish if these fees are in line with other cities or if we need to increase them.  Susan was seeking a committee to assist in this process.  Amy Cahillane said that this is actually something that Eric Twarog is doing for the city as a whole.  Susan will contact Eric and find out what is happening and if there is any way that we can or should be involved.   Peg suggested that the Massachusetts Municipal Association might be helpful in learning about the fee structures of other municipalities.

 Next Meeting

      Our regularly scheduled next meeting will be January 13th 6:30 pm on zoom.

Because we just received the ADU draft regulations and the schedule for public hearings and public comment do not fit with our schedule, anyone who would like to have a special meeting just on the ADU regulations during the first week of January should contact Susan.

Waste Reduction Ideas and Local Resources

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Waste Reduction Ideas & Local Resources

Give Experiential Gifts

  • Artspace, 15 Mill St., Greenfield: classes and workshops
  • Berkshire East Mountain Resort: berkshireeast.com for ski lift tickets
  • Franklin County YMCA, 451 Main St., Greenfield: membership
  • Green River Festival tickets: greenriverfestival.com
  • Greenfield Garden Cinemas, 361 Main St., Greenfield: gift cards
  • Greenfield Ice-Skating Rink, 1 Barr Ave., Greenfield: gift cards or season pass
  • Greenfield Recreation Dept: greenfieldrecreation.com for youth program gift cards or Greenfield River Swimming and Recreation Area season pass
  • Hawks and Reed event tickets: hawkesandreed.com for tickets
  • Pioneer Valley Symphony: pvsoc.org/tickets for season pass or event tickets
  • Shea Theater Arts Center, 71 Ave. A, Turners Falls: sheatheater.org: tickets to local plays
  • Stone Soup Cafe, 399 Main St., Greenfield: bake sale purchase or donation
  • Other ideas:  Dance, Yoga, Tae  Kwon Do, Tai Chi, Qi Gong classes/lessons

Buy Previously Owned Items

  • Antique shops in Greenfield, Turners Falls and surrounding towns.
  • Ed L Dealer in Used Furnishings, 374 Deerfield St.
  • Giving Circle Thrift Shop, 3 Sugarloaf St., South Deerfield
  • Franklin Area Survival Center, 94 4th St., Turners Falls
  • Hens and Chicks, 308 Main St., Greenfield
  • Looky Here, 28 Chapman St., Greenfield
  • Rethreads, 14 Bridge St., Shelburne Falls
  • The Salvation Army Thrift Store, 56 Hope St., Greenfield
  • The Salvation Army Thrift Store, 220 Avenue A, Turners Falls

Donate Gently Used Items No Longer Needed

  • Franklin Area Survival Center, 96 Fourth Street, Turners Falls
  • Hartsprings Foundation, (supports Big Bros. Big Sisters), 413-732-7111, ext. 1 
  • Redistro, 15 Arch Street, Greenfield:  Check their hours at redistro.net; closed in winter.
  • The Salvation Army store, 206 Avenue A, Turners Falls.
  • Swanson’s Fabrics, 320 Avenue A, Turners Falls.

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Easing the Biodiversity Crisis One Flowerpot at a Time

Written on . Posted in Updates.

GUEST ESSAY—NEW YORK TIMES 11/25/2024

By Margaret Renkl

Ms. Renkl is a contributing Opinion writer who covers flora, fauna, politics and culture in the American South.

This article is part of Times Opinion’s Giving Guide 2024. Read more in a note from Times Opinion’s editor, Kathleen Kingsbury.

With very little time left to prevent the most hideous effects of climate change, Americans elected a president and a Congress whose policies will cost the planet four years of progress and send us backward at the same time. In this crisis, the greatest risk we face is the temptation to surrender to helplessness. For people who care about preserving life on Earth, the stakes are too high to do nothing, but it is all too easy to believe there is nothing we can do.

With any question of justice, the big picture can feel overwhelming. At those times, I have almost always found it helpful to zoom in, to focus on the same problem at a smaller, more manageable scale. I may not be able to save the zebras and the leopards, but I can help save the zebra swallowtail butterflies and the giant leopard moths. I can do that, at least in my own small yard, by nurturing the host plants they need to reproduce. Making a discernible, measurable difference to my wild neighbors is an act of resistance, too.

Plants and animals evolved together. To create a microhabitat that sustains your own wild neighbors, you’ll need to grow the endemic flowers and shrubs and trees they evolved alongside. The problem is that exotic plants are now ubiquitous in American gardens, and few of us know the difference between a native plant and one from the other side of the world. Most garden centers stock mainly the roses and lilies and pansies and chrysanthemums their customers recognize. And those plants evolved to feed some other continent’s creatures.

Two undersung nonprofits aim to change all that.

Wild Ones began in 1997 as a garden club in Milwaukee. Today it is a national conservation nonprofit with more than 125 formal chapters and “seedling” chapters that advocate gardening with native plants as a form of active conservation. One of the greatest threats to biodiversity is the loss of habitat. Preventing habitat loss on a global scale is complicated, but there is nothing complicated about converting garden space, no matter how small, into a wildlife sanctuary.

The Wild Ones website is a crash course in how to create habitat that is every bit as beautiful as any garden full of introduced plants that feed nobody. The site offers downloadable landscape designs tailored to specific growing regions, a path for your garden to earn certification as a native habitat, advice about how to climate-proof a yard, webinars about gardening as a conservation tool, a state-by-state list of native-plant nurseries, as well as local plant sales and seed exchanges, among others.

Another grass roots call to action comes from Homegrown National Park, which is inspiring the creation of an entire network of homegrown wildlife sanctuaries that seek to stem the loss of biodiversity, one yard and flowerpot at a time. Through its website and its robust social media activity, this nonprofit continually makes the case for converting every available bit of soil — not just in yards and balcony planters but also at schools, businesses, public parks, places of worship, even sidewalk hellstrips and parking-lot margins — into habitat.

It lays out the arguments for eliminating herbicides and insecticides, explains the importance of keystone plants, makes the case for letting fallen leaves serve as natural weed control and offers tips for making the most of a container garden. It includes a searchable directory of resources and links to native-plant databases at other conservation organizations. It offers resources for helping teachers and parents inspire young people to become habitat stewards, too.

We are not entirely powerless in the face of the biodiversity crisis, but in the dark time that is coming, we will need regular vibrant reminders of that truth. What both of these nonprofits understand is that planting a little garden, if only in a window box, will make you feel better. The bumblebees and the butterflies and the lightning bugs will come. So will the songbirds and the tree frogs and the box turtles. You will, almost instantly, be making a visible difference to the struggling natural world. And the more people who take up a trowel, the more visible that difference becomes.

A changing climate, a changing world–sidebar

Climate change around the world: In “Postcards From a World on Fire,” 193 stories from individual countries show how climate change is reshaping reality everywhere, from dying coral reefs in Fiji to disappearing oases in Morocco and far, far beyond.

The role of our leaders: Writing at the end of 2020, Al Gore, the 45th vice president of the United States, found reasons for optimism in the Biden presidency, a feeling perhaps borne out by the passing of major climate legislation. That doesn’t mean there haven’t been criticisms. For example, Charles Harvey and Kurt House argue that subsidies for climate capture technology will ultimately be a waste.

The worst climate risks, mapped: In this feature, select a country, and we’ll break down the climate hazards it faces. In the case of America, our maps, developed with experts, show where extreme heat is causing the most deaths.

What people can do: Justin Gillis and Hal Harvey describe the types of local activism that might be needed, while Saul Griffith points to how Australia shows the way on rooftop solar. Meanwhile, small changes at the office might be one good way to cut significant emissions, writes Carlos Gamarra.

 

Housing Greenfield Meeting Notes – November 4, 2024

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Present: Susan Worgaftik, Anna Oltman, Charity Day, Amy Cahillane, Ella Condon, Mike Penn-Strah, Louise Amyot, Nikki Garrett, Edie Heinemann, Nancy Hazard, Andrea Donlon, Al Norman, Peg Hall, Mitch Speight, Joan Marie Jackson, Dorothy McIver, John Garrett, Bob Williford, Alyssa Larose, Jen Hale, Sara Brown, Nuri Sherif, Patty O’Neill, Carol Letson, Erin Forbush, Megan McDonough

DISCUSSIONS
     Distressed Properties — Amy Cahillane made a very thorough presentation of how distressed or abandoned properties are handled by the City of Greenfield.  The attached slides provide the key points of her presentation.  A few definitions for those of you unfamiliar with bureaucratic alphabet soup:

  • HPG—Housing Preservation Grant (US Dept. of Agriculture)
  • CDBG—Community Development Block Grants (Federal funds that come to the city through the Commonwealth)
  • GSB—Greenfield Savings Bank

 A couple of notes that were not in the slides:

  • Community Action runs the Greenfield Housing Rehabilitation program for the city.  The city administers it.  If you are interested in this program, contact the city’s Department of Community and Economic Development for an application
  • It is often difficult to find developers who are willing to take on smaller repair jobs.  If non-profits or community groups are interested in encouraging such work, the Department of Community and Economic Development would be happy to work with them to move through the process.

      The Accessory Dwelling Unit Petition — A petition including more than 100 signatures was submitted to the City Council.  It will be considered by the Council in November.  The wording of the petition is:

 As part of the site plan review, the Planning Board shall determine that the total land area of a parcel submitted for the addition of an Accessory Dwelling Unit shall not be less than one half (.5) acre.  The new acreage of total land in a parcel, minus all dwellings, including all proposed Accessory Dwelling Units, internal roads or driveways, or other buildings or developments, shall be considered open space, and shall comprise at least 50% of the parcel.  All Accessory Dwelling Units shall meet the minimum setback requirements for the district in which it is located.  ADUs shall not be used for short term rentals.

Al Norman, Mitch Speight and Joan Marie Jackson made presentations in support of this petition.  Their presentations are attached to these notes.  Following the presentation there was a question-and-answer period and then a discussion of what position, if any, that Housing Greenfield should take on the matter.  One question that came up was whether an increase in housing would cause rents to rise.  Anna provided the following information to demonstrate that this would not be the case.  https://commonweathbeacon.org/housing/study-says-boosting-housing-production-tempres-rents/

After much discussion, the membership agreed through a vote to submit testimony to the joint public hearing of the City Council Economic Development Committee and the Greenfield Planning Board on November 7th.  This attached statement to go before this public hearing reflects the discussion.

     Request for a letter of support
Megan McDonough of Pioneer Valley Habitat for Humanity presented their plans for developing a small, affordable single family home for people at 60% of the Area Median Income at 5 Birch Street in Greenfield.  This project is presently before the Greenfield Community Preservation Committee for funding.  A vote was taken and it was agreed that Susan will write a letter of support to be submitted as part of the proposal to the CPC.

UPDATES

     Rural Development Inc. — Alyssa Larose
The 42 Cleveland Street receivership project has received its certificate of occupancy from the city.  The Greenfield Tree Committee has planted 2 trees in the front of the house.  A lottery for the property was held.  There were 30 applicants and 11 were deemed eligible.  Names were picked in the lottery and the chosen applicant has been notified.  If, for some reason, that person is unable or unwilling to take occupancy of the house, the next applicant in the lottery will be notified.
     This receivership project was an experiment that generally has been successful although it was very expensive and did require grant funding for completion.  The Affordable Homes Act (Housing Bond Bill) did make some changes that make it easier for non-profits to be involved in the receivership program.
     RDI is looking at a second project in Montague and also looking at some other sites in Greenfield.

The 156-182 Main Street development has received funds from Mass Development’s site readiness funds.  Alyssa hopes to provide more information about this project at our December meeting.

Winter 2024-2025 — Anna Oltman

  • The warming center will be at the Salvation Army.  Staffing will be through the Medical Reserve Corps.
  • The Greenfield shelter is planning to move its guests to the temporary shelter site during the month of November.  The specific dates are not clear.

CONTACTS AND PLANS
     Rental Housing Survey Planning — Susan reported that she has talked to folks at GCC about this project and they are going to assist us in finding a student who will receive a stipend for assisting in the survey.  The student will also receive academic credit.  The original plan was for three students to work for a couple of weeks to get the data.  GCC suggested that working with a single student for a semester would be more effective and we agreed to go in that direction.

     Contacts — Because none of the rural/Western Massachusetts supported amendments to the Housing Bond Bill were included in the final Affordable Homes Act, Susan was concerned about how the “regional equity” statements would actually be accomplished in a political atmosphere where there will be great pressure to get as many units of housing built is as short a period of time as possible.  Toward that end, Susan has spoken with Kathleen Bitetti, State Auditor’s Office; James Fuccione, Massachusetts Healthy Aging Collaborative, and the CHAPA legislative team.  More to come on this.

NEXT MEETING — It was agreed that our next meeting will be Monday, December 9th at 6:30 over zoom       (Yes, we are back to our regularly scheduled second Monday.)