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Flood Plain Field Trips

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Field Trips and Next Steps at Millers Meadow

Nic Miller led two field trips for those interested in learning about river restoration and flood mitigation. Nic is a fluvial geomorphologist. Fluvial geomorphologists study how rivers flow and change over time, and how human-built dams, channels, retaining walls, combined with increased storms due to human-induced climate change, are causing flooding that threaten our communities.

Spring 2024

In the spring of 2024 we visited the Whetstone River Restoration site, a 2017 project of the Vermont River Conservancy which restored a floodplain to prevent downstream flooding and created an attractive 12-acre park with native trees, shrubs, and a small wetland, in Brattleboro. When we visited, they were just finishing up the construction phase and were planting. To reconnect the site to the river and reconstruct the floodplain, they had removed a berm along the side of the river and many years’ worth of fill brought in by a lumber yard. We were told that before planting, they had killed many invasive plants including knotweed.

Fall 2024

In the fall, we visited a similar river restoration project completed in 2016 in Conway that Nic had designed, where a former floodplain-turned-cornfield was rehabilitated and reconnected to the South River.  Since the establishment of the South River Meadow in 2016, the meadow has already provided flood storage at least fifteen times over the past eight years. As part of the project, the impenetrable wall of invasive bittersweet and knotweed was removed, and boulders and logs were strategically placed in the river to protect a home on the opposite bank. In 2022, the Friends of the South River planted over 70 native trees and shrubs. Today, the site is fast becoming a fabulous native habitat and recreational destination.  

FRCOG Story Map

A document that gives perspective on all this is A Climate Resilient South River, a story map written by FRCOG which uses the South River as an example of the challenges involved in resolving flooding issues. It starts with an overview of these issues, and then goes into a self-guided tour of the South River project that includes photos of problems of erosion, canals, and culverts, as well as solutions. This is followed by explanation of how River Mapping can be used to lead to specific project recommendations. Other tools such as River Corridor Overlay Zoning District, and River Corridor Easements, are discussed. 

South River, Conway, Field Trip Photos

  • Conway Restored Plantings 11/24

  • Nic explains South River flood mitigation project

  • Nancy Explains

  • Undercut erosion

  • Downstream Green River, houses that would flood

  • A Resotoration remedy: S. River boulders creating riffles

Return to Millers Meadow, What is Our Vision?

After the trip to Conway, participants visited Millers Meadow and shared their vision for the meadow:  Bring the land to the level of the water for easier access and reduction of erosion?  Clear the invasive species along the bank?  Create a beaver pond where Maple Brook, a highly polluted stream, enters the Green River?  We dream of finding even more nature-based solutions to restore water quality,  reduce downstream flooding, protect Greenfield, and sequester carbon, all while creating native habitat for humans and critters alike in this twelve-acre parcel of land.

Are there grants to achieve this vision?

Presently, we are working with the City and Youth Climate Action Franklin County on grants to MassWildlife and Greenfield Community Preservation Committee (CPC) to achieve some of the visions above. The grants would create river access for fishing; enhance native habitat for pollinators, birds, and other wildlife;  and create paths and benches with a view of the river by removing some of the invasive plants, while ensuring that the 700 trees and shrubs recently planted will thrive.

Looking into the future

By 2027, we hope to have reports from two water-related FRCOG projects that will help us better understand the potential and cost-effectiveness of using Millers Meadow to reduce downstream flooding even more than projects to date. 

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Existing Greenfield Affordable Housing

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Existing Greenfield Affordable Housing

There are a huge number of Section 8 and  Massachusetts Rental Voucher Program (MRVP) certificates that are in a wide variety of houses around town.  Some are managed by larger landlords, some by small landlords.  We have not researched the exact number of certificates in town.  15% of Greenfield’s housing is either publicly owned or receives subsidies through Section 8 or MRVP.

Right now in January 2025, the Franklin County Regional Housing Authority has helped develop housing in Greenfield, but does not own any housing here.  (Though that may change.)  They own and operate housing in many of the towns around us. 

The state has a requirement identified as 40B.  This requires all communities in the Commonwealth to have at least 10% of their housing designated as affordable.  As noted above Greenfield has 15% presently and will soon have more than that.  The towns around us do not come close to their 10% (with the exception of Sunderland,  Orange, and perhaps Montague — mostly in Turners Falls).  What 40B states is that if a town does not meet its 10% and a farmer sells land to a developer, none of the town’s zoning rules apply.  All state building codes do, but if a town has 1 acre lots, a developer is not required to have 1 acre lots. 

Greenfield Housing List

Greenfield Housing Authority (GHA) (owned and operated)

Oak Courts –74 units (family housing)
Elm Terrace—108 units (housing for seniors and disabled persons)
491 Main Street—19 units—congregate living
94 Elm Street
9 Grove Street
37 Woodleigh Avenue
24 Pierce Street
23 Mill Street
159 Conway Street
279 Elm Street (318 Conway)
111A &B, 113A & B Conway Street
116 A & B, 118A &B Wells Street
74-76 Phillips Street
275 Elm Street
300 Conway Street
27-29 Spruce Street
Sullivan Lane—10 units
87 N &S, 89 N &S Elm Streets
87,190,195, 245 Briar Way

Greenfield Housing Associates Inc. (private non-profit affiliated with GHA)

Winslow — 9 Wells Street—55 units
317 Deerfield Street—4 units

Greenfield Gardens—Privately owned, receives Section 8 certificates from GHA, also rents at market rate
Leyden Woods—Privately owned by The Community Builders, receives Section 8 certificates from GHA, also rents at market rate
Millhouse—Privately owned by Beacon Properties, receives Section 8 certificates from GHA, also rents at market rate
The Highrise—Privately owned by Greenfield Acres, senior housing, receives Section 8 certificates, also rents at market rate

For properties under construction or under consideration see Supporting Housing Development.

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Past Projects

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Green Fields Food Coop progress report

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May, 2025,  In the past two months, meaningful progress has occurred since our expansion communication in mid-February.

Existing Business

Importantly, the financial results from our existing stores are moving in the right direction. Although the final numbers are not yet in, preliminary projections for the first three months of this calendar year are showing improvement, a major turnaround from the losses experienced during the last three months of 2024. Credit for the improvement goes to the entire Co-op staff, who together are making numerous adjustments to tighten the controls and shave costs wherever possible, and to our member-owners and customers who are responding to the call to increase purchases and promote the Co-op to others.

Expansion

After taking a step back to review where we stand with the expansion project, we’ve resumed work with energy and focus. Meetings are now being held every two weeks for all parties involved (Mass Development, The Community Builders, and Franklin Community Cooperative) to review progress and coordinate the multiple activities. We’ve been fortunate to have Senator Jo Comerford, Representatives Natalie Blais and Susannah Whipps, and Mayor Ginny Desorgher on these calls, instilling a strong sense of the importance of this work to the city and broader community.

With renewed clarity from these discussions, MassDevelopment is entering into substantive negotiations with the tenant to resolve the situation in a timely way that is fair to all.

The first phase of construction on the Wilson’s building – called the enabling phase – is scheduled to begin this summer. This will require significant work on the ground floor to prepare the entire building for the eventual build-out – adding code-required structural updates, clearing out old fixtures, conducting environmental abatement, and so on. As part of this work the 1970s addition (a portion in the northwest part of the building) will be demolished and the old external foundation (swimming pool) along Chapman Street will be filled in. The Community Builders will oversee this work. They expect to proceed with the development of affordable housing rental units on the upper three floors of the building in early 2026.

Financing

Our highest priority at this time is working to obtain the financing required for our portion of this project. We expect to be able to obtain a significant amount of our required capital in tax credits but will still need a substantial loan to cover the development costs. We are discussing financing options with MassDevelopment. These may, for example, include a mix of a conventional mortgage from a traditional financial institution, supplemented with some form of long-term, low-interest financing from MassDevelopment. Securing the member-owner loans was a vitally important first step. We remain deeply grateful for this generous support and the strong demonstration of community support for the project it represents.

We have added to the FCC team that is working to bring this initiative forward. The Board has hired David Rich, an excellent lawyer from Todd & Weld to handle any future negotiations, including conditions associated with the extension of our purchase and sale agreement. Our Board President Tammy Erickson is actively engaged in the process, communicating with the CEO of MassDevelopment and other key stakeholders on our behalf. Two respected consultants with extensive experience related to tax credits, Loryn Sheffner from Avenue Development and Doug Kelleher of Epsilon and Associates, are working closely with our General Manager John Williams and our Finance Manager David Russell to obtain financing through both historic and new market tax credits. Our Board Treasurer Jonathan Dean has joined the discussions with MassDevelopment’s financing group.

The next major step for FCC would be to invest in finalizing the construction and design plans. We will not take this step until we have assurance from MassDevelopment of their ability to provide the gap financing we will need.

Meanwhile, your support through your patronage of our existing stores remains vitally important. Positive financial results are essential to our ability to continue with the expansion project.

Nancy Hazard’s yard

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I enjoyed sharing my yard with you all, and discovering things that had just popped up, that even I had not seen!
Thank you so much for coming to my yard and braving the cold wind and rain!

For those who are not familiar with Doug Tallamy, I urge you to explore his work! As I mentioned, he is an entomologist. I discovered him through his first book Bringing Nature Home, that has lots of info about insects. I have not read Nature’s Best Hope, but I have heard that his message of why it is important the plant NATIVE plants, to address the climate and biodiversity crises, is clearer. You can also find a lot more about why it is important to reduced your lawn and plant natives at his website “Homegrown National Park.” The website invites you to join the effort to restore biodiversity by getting on their map and pledging to reduce your lawn.

During our exploration together, Jen shared the insect book that she has been having fun with in getting to know new insects in her yard. It is called Tracks and Sign of Insects and Other Invertebrates, by Charley Eiseman and Noah Charney. One of the authors, Charley Eiseman, lives in Northfield and gives talks often in the area.

I cannot remember ALL that we saw, but here is a synopsis of our tour. It started with spring beauties in the lawn (see attached photo). Then we explored my new forest with primarily birch trees (Btw Dave, Musclewood is Carpinus caroliniana.) that has Hobble bush, lots of dutchman’s breeches, and the tiny white flower, rue anemone. Then behind us, we saw foam flower emerging (but not flowering yet), one VA bluebell. Then beyond the Japanese maple, an early meadow rue (thalictum) with its weird gangly flowers, and blue cohosh, with black cohosh just coming up behind it.

While moving to the garden next to the sidewalk, we noticed the bright yellow marsh marigolds beginning to bloom along the stream edge, and a clump of trillium (wake robin). In the garden next to the sidewalk – I talked about the evergreen seersucker sedge that I love, that looked a mess at this stage as it put up its fruiting bodies, and we discovered Bishops cap about to bloom, and a small trillium! Behind that along the north edge of my porch (it NEVER gets sun) the blue cohosh and Solomon’s seal were just coming up.

We then passed by a fairly new area (3-year old) with a witch-hazel shrub, and a few bloodroot still blooming in the cool of the shade! As well as an evergreen marginal wood fern, with foam flowers and strawberries as ground cover. We than walked past volunteer sensitive fern along the side of the house. For the intrepid, we went up the narrow trail on the dry rocky hillside to get a birds eye view of the marsh marigolds blooming in the back swamp, as well as many of the plants we had already seen in the moist “flat land” surviving in this totally different habitat, amongst the logs from invasive trees that I had cut down.

WOW we saw a lot! But more is to come!

Acronyms & Orgs

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CHAMP Common Housing Application for Massachusetts Programs (State application for public housing,  but best to start with HRA)
Clinical and Support Options
Common Housing Application for Massachusetts Programs (but best to start with HRA)
Community Action Pioneer Valley, see CAPV
Community Builders, The Community Legal Aid
Community Health Improvement Network
Complete Neighborhood Initiative
COC, Continuum of Care, Three County – a program of CAPV
DHCH: MA Department of Housing and Community Development (but best to start with HRA)
FCCLT: Franklin County Community Land Trust
Franklin County Regional Council of Governments
Franklin County Regional Housing and Redevelopment Authority, see HRA
GHA: Greenfield Housing Authority
Greenfield Community and Economic Development
HRA, Franklin County Regional Housing & Redevelopment Authority
IH2: Improving Housing to Improve Health – a program of FRCOG & others
Interfaith Council of Franklin Housing Assistance
Lifepath
MFH: Mass Fair Housing
MHC: Massachusetts Housing Coalition
Opioid Task Force and its Housing and Workforce Development Committee
RAFT: Residential Assistance for Families in Transition (Programs to help you with rent or other housing costs when facing eviction, lost of utilities and other housing emergencies, but best to start with HRA)
RDI: Rural Development, Inc.
RFP: Request for Proposals
Small Town Housing Workgroup an IH2 project Three County COC, see COC
TOPA: Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act
Western Massachusetts Network to End Homelessness

Housing Greenfield Meeting Notes –February 10, 2025

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 Present: Susan Worgaftik, Charity Day, Louise Amyot, Nikki Garrett, Edie Heinemann, Peg Hall, Dorothy McIver, John Garrett, Alyssa Larose, Mary McClintock, Pamela Goodwin, Tom Bledsoe, Sara Brown, Nancy Hazard, Jessa McCormack, Mike Penn-Strah, Amy Clarke, Emily Greene, Lexi Turner, Carol Letson, Erin Forbush, Nuri Sherif

Decisions and areas for further discussion were made are in red. Save the dates are in green.

Discussions

ADU Final Regulations—Susan Worgaftik
Discussion around the ADU regulations was brief and to the point.  The regulations basically state that municipalities cannot impose regulations on ADUs that would not be imposed on the original structure on the lot.  The regulations also grandfathered non-conforming structures so that they could become ADUs by right if so desired.  This means that if you want to make an ADU out of your garage which was built in 1920 and does not meet today’s requirements for a 10-foot setback, you are still allowed to make it into an ADU by right.  The present-day zoning requirements cannot be used to make it impossible for you to do so.

      There were concerns expressed about corporations buying up single family homes and turning them into rental units with an ADU as an additional apartment.  The overall tenor of the discussion was that corporations can buy up houses now and under Greenfield statutes can make apartments out of an existing one family structure by right.  This issue does not change with the availability of building an unattached ADU.  It can happen regardless.  The question of corporate acquisition of housing for profit is one that is important to consider on its own.  Including it in opposition to ADUs is not really appropriate.

       The footprint that determines the size of an ADU includes basements and attics so most small homes can accommodate an ADU as long as they meet other zoning requirements.  An ADU cannot be larger than 900 square feet without a special permit.

       The regulations emphasize that municipalities can regulate that ADUs cannot be used for short-term rentals like Airbnb.

       It is estimated in the housing plan that 18 ADUs will be built in Greenfield over the next 10 years.  This is not really an answer to the housing crisis.

Family Shelter Concerns—Erin Forbush
The family shelter at the Days Inn will be closed as of February 28th.  It is the first motel shelter to be closed in Western Massachusetts and others are likely to follow.  Presently, there are 6 families awaiting placement.  All have been placed in apartments and will move out before the closing date.  Overall, the Days Inn shelter housed about 60 families, all of whom have been placed in housing.  Most of them stayed in Western Massachusetts.  The Greenfield Family Inn at 128 Federal Street continues to run and is home to 16 families.

      Erin explained the changes that are looming for the family shelter system.  Massachusetts has been a right to shelter state for families (not for adult individuals or couples).  In previous years, the efforts were to remove barriers and get families into housing as soon as possible.  In general, the resources were there to do this.  The bill that has just passed the Massachusetts House of Representatives will change that if enacted by the Senate. The new rules will require applicants to prove Massachusetts residency, require documentation prior to providing shelter (a change from before where documentation could be acquired after being admitted to a shelter), and the allowable time in a shelter will be reduced from 9 months to 6 months.

Housing Greenfield is encouraging members to contact Senator Comerford to reject these restrictions as the bill goes to the Senate.  Information regarding this issue was sent to members directly after the meeting.

Wells Street Shelter Update—Alyssa Larose
Internal building construction has begun at the site of the former shelter.  Abatement and demolition are presently in progress.  There will be major renovations to the present structures.  The construction is expected to take 14 months for both the shelter renovations and the 36 units of supportive housing that will also be on that site.  It is expected that both will open at the same time in the spring of 2026.

Letter of Support Request—Alyssa Larose
Alyssa requested a letter of support from Housing Greenfield for the 170-186 Main Street project.  The application will be submitted to the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities on February 27th.   It was unanimously agreed that Housing Greenfield should do a letter of support.

Alyssa will contact Susan about the basic content for this letter.

Reports

            Continuing the work of Housing Greenfield—Susan Worgaftik
Susan was pleased to report that Housing Greenfield now has a coordination team.  Yay!! The team includes Nikki Garrett, Jessa McCormack and Lexi Turner.  The group is just starting to meet and will establish what roles they will each take over the course of the next few months.  In the meantime, do not be surprised if you receive an email from one of them about Housing Greenfield concerns.

                 Last month, Pamela brought up the question of whether our meetings should be recorded and made available to anyone who wants to view them.  Our discussion centered around the ability of people within the group to be able to be open about what they think about issues.  People felt that there is a great deal of trust within the group, and this is an important element of why the group works.  After considerable discussion, the membership at this meeting voted not to record the meetings, but to make the notes available to anyone who is interested in reading them.  It was also mentioned that the notes are available on the greening greenfield website https://greeninggreenfieldma.org/programs/housing-greenfield/

            Rental Housing Survey Project—Susan Worgaftik
Jessa and Susan have begun working with our GCC intern, Bela Bupp-Chickering to prepare him for doing the visual survey of rental housing in Greenfield.  Susan and Bela will meet on February 11th to try out the computer-based form that credential for Bela to wear when he does his surveys and the police have been informed that he is doing this work.

            Transfer Fee Bills—Greenfield and Statewide—Susan Worgaftik
After discussion with Amy Cahillane, Councilor Sara Brown, Anna Oltman and Christian LaPlante, it was decided that the request for a home rule petition for the transfer fee should wait until we have a municipal affordable housing trust established.  The statewide Local Option for Housing Affordability coalition (LOHA) has been informed of this decision and concurs that it is the correct move at this time.

Meanwhile, LOHA is once again trying to get the transfer fee passed.  The transfer fees would be a local option.  Transfer fees are fees attached to the sale of property (in this case housing) that become part of the transaction.  The LOHA coalition and the home rule petition that Susan submitted to some city councilors (see attached) would provide for a transfer fee of .5% to 2%(determined by the municipality) on the amount paid for a property that is MORE THAN the county median.  So, if my house were sold for $350,000 and the median for Franklin County is $300,000, then the transfer fee would apply to the $50,000 above the median.  If Greenfield decided on a 1% transfer fee that would allow for $500 to go to an affordable housing trust for support of affordable housing.  The community would decide if the $500 would be paid by the buyer, the seller or split between them.  The transfer fee could be included in the mortgage.  The transfer fee bill would have to be approved by the city council and then would go to a community vote.

  Greenfield Warming Center—Susan delivered a report from Amy Cahillan
Folks in residence at the warming center are averaging 15-17 per night that the center is open.  This is slightly higher than was anticipated.  The partnership with the Salvation Army, Medical Reserve Corps, Opioid Task Force, the Sheriff, Police, Fire and the city administration is going well.  They are still working out kinks, both large and small.  They anticipate that there will be a need for a warming center next winter as well, so they are solving both short-term concerns while planning for the long-term.  They would welcome any feedback that anyone has to offer.

Announcements

               The Community Preservation Committee will be holding a public hearing on all of the applications received for this round of CPC funding on February 27th 5:30 pm at the Jon Zon Community Center.  The meeting will be hybrid.  Housing Greenfield provided support letters to two applications:

            Noah Grunberg’s gray water diversion project for the Stone Farm Lane development.  Greywater Recycling Pilot Project

            Pioneer Valley Habitat for Humanity’s development of an affordable home on Birch Street Birch Street Project

            It would be great if some members of Housing Greenfield could attend this public hearing in support of these projects.

Housing Greenfield members will receive a reminder later in the month about these hearings.

            Alyssa mentioned that she has read the Commonwealth’s new housing plan and has found that it is underwhelming in regard to housing needs in Western Massachusetts.  We agreed that we will read it for discussion and possibly action at our March meeting.  The link is https://www.mass.gov/doc/a-home-for-everyone/download

Next Meeting

      Our regularly scheduled next meeting will be March 10th 6:30 pm on zoom.

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.