Amherst Center: On finding new foundations

Published on April 25, 2008

Did you see those houses rolling through the streets of Amherst last week? The striking image of something so solid and rooted gliding to a new place has become almost commonplace, as the third house in a year rolled down Main Street to sit on a new foundation, the ultimate in recycling.

After our recent election, our town government is similarly rearranged. Much is familiar, but new faces and voices mean the perspective is different. The question now is, how will those elected actually govern?

The electoral pendulum has swung widely in recent years. Each "revolution" seems to sow the seeds for the next counter-revolution. Tough issues have divided many of us into opposing camps. But what is it that we're fighting over? How can we stop the pendulum from swinging so widely, and end up in the "sensible center" where most of us live?

The fiscal crisis remains the number-one challenge facing our town and its elected officials. We don't have enough money to cover all our expenses. Will this divide us or bring us together?

Faced with a crisis, there are encouraging signs that we are starting to come together. A decent master plan that respects open space, affordable housing and local business concerns is emerging. Over two-thirds of Town Meeting members agreed last fall to support economic development-focused zoning changes. A broadly representative citizens' committee has just been appointed to ask residents for our common fiscal priorities and then propose a plan for the future.

What we heard from voters this year was a desire for a new, energetic focus on how to strengthen our tax base and spend what we have wisely. Arguments that we could just cut our way out of our fiscal problem or magically keep everything the way it is didn't sit well with the majority of voters.

At Amherst Center, we will continue to push for a more fiscally sustainable Amherst. This isn't a "corporate" agenda - it simply recognizes that to sustain the things we love about Amherst, including strong schools, open space and affordable housing, we need a tax base that will pay for them.

We therefore offer the following challenges to our newly re-formed leadership to strengthen our tax base and spend what we have wisely:

The Select Board should ask the town manager to work with the Redevelopment Authority to identify and begin work on three new, tax-generating development projects by the end of this year, 2008.

We have heard lots of great ideas. A (taxable) "student village" near the university, outside existing neighborhoods, seems like a slam-dunk, near-term revenue generation opportunity. Redeveloping the north end of downtown as an attractive and vital gateway, with mixed-used buildings across from the new Kendrick Park, seems like an attractive prospect.

University Drive has so much potential - away from neighborhoods yet close to UMass, this area too should see focused development, especially with the new Research and Development-designated zoning Town Meeting put in place. Spring Street shows promise, with new zoning and new investment from Amherst College. And there's the North Amherst area already zoned as a research park, near Route 116 and not far from UMass.

What we need now are specific plans for specific projects. The Select Board and town manager need to step up and provide the leadership and drive for these projects to become real and begin delivering value to the town.

The Select Board should also set a date for a report from the town manager on his blue-ribbon panel on potential cost savings in our town and school operations. This will be critical not only to save tax dollars but also to ensure public trust in future fiscal plans.

And Town Meeting should hear from the Finance Committee on the pros and cons of increasing the CPA tax from its current 1.5 percent to the proposed 3 percent. This tax brings state revenues with it, for things we care about - open space, affordable housing and historic preservation. But taxing residents more for these uses may make them less able to pay for other services like schools, public safety and roads. It would be useful to have these pros and cons laid out clearly.

We have so many strengths. We sit in a picturesque valley, in a beautiful college town, filled with a highly qualified work force. Now that we have some new people in place with new energy and views, we need some concrete plans to leverage our assets so we can maintain the diverse, green, intellectually stimulating, small-town quality of life we all live here for.

Let's work together to put our old, familiar house on a new, more solid foundation.

Amherst Center is a monthly column which appears in The Amherst Bulletin that seeks to portray local issues from a centrist perspective. It is written by Town Meeting members Baer Tierkel and Clare Bertrand and School Committee member Andy Churchill. Amherst Center appears in The Amherst Bulletin on the last Friday of each month.