Construction fencing erected recently on the south end of the Cable Mills property in Williamstown.
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Three years after it received the final permitting, the third and final phase of the Cable Mills housing complex is on track to break ground later this year.
"The construction fence just went up and we are scheduled to start before the end of the year," developer David Traggorth of Causeway Development said last week.
When completed, the planned four-story, 54-unit apartment complex will bring to an end a multi-year project that began at the turn of the 21st century and started with the renovation of a 19th-century factory.
The renovation of the historic mill building to create 61 apartments was Phase 1 of the project. Phase 2 involved building townhouses along the Green River.
Phase 3 also involves new construction but, unlike the first two phases, the plan is to keep the remaining 54 units full-time rentals instead of marketing them as condos.
And, unlike Phase 1, where 13 of the 61 units are designated as income-restricted affordable housing, no fewer than half of the units in Phase 3 will be affordable.
No fewer than eight of the units in Phase 3 will be affordable to residents making up to 30 percent of the area median income. At least 19 will be designated affordable to residents making up to 60 percent of the AMI.
Those were the terms of a 2022 town meeting vote to allocate $400,000 in Community Preservation Act funds to support Phase 3.
Because of the affordable component to the planned Phase 3 "River Lofts" apartments, much of the project's funding comes from state sources; the $400,000 grant of town CPA funds represents the kind of local match that state agencies like to see before awarding funding.
Groundbreaking on Phase 3 has been delayed by at least a year because spiraling construction costs that forced Causeway Development to seek additional state funding and, ultimately, an $80,000 grant from the town's Affordable Housing Trust to match.
In April, Traggorth told the AHT board that the $80,000 in additional local contribution could be used to leverage and additional $5.4 million toward the project.
Last week, he indicated that strategy was successful.
"Yes we're finalizing our construction pricing and obtained the extra funds from the state," Traggorth wrote in an email replying to a request for an update.
Williamstown Community Development Director Andrew Groff confirmed on Monday morning that the existing permitting for the new apartment building are still valid, meaning Causeway will not have to go back before the Zoning Board of Appeals or the Conservation Commission, which each last considered the project in May 2021.
When Phase 3 is completed, the 27 new affordable units will be added to the more than 100 units of income-restricted housing the town has added in the last 15 years: 42 units at 330 Cole Ave., 40 age-restricted units at Highland Woods, 13 units at Cable Mills Phase 1, eight units at the former St. Raphael Church and rectory and two single-family homes built by Habitat for Humanity at the corner of Cole Avenue and Maple Street.
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Williamstown Planning Board Again Takes Up Short-Term Rentals
By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Planning Board on Tuesday discussed a bylaw proposal that might be ready for May's annual town meeting after bouncing back and forth between the Planning Board and Select Board the last couple of years.
But one board member said the regulation needs a lot more work.
Chair Peter Beck showed his colleagues a draft of a short-term rental bylaw that would allow unlimited rentals of a bedroom or an accessory-dwelling unit on a property where the owner resides and unlimited rentals of a primary home where the owner lives in an on-site ADU but limits the short-term rental of an entire primary dwelling unit to 90 days in a calendar year.
His draft bylaw only would apply in the town's residential districts, meaning that in commercial districts, any home could be on the market for services like Airbnb or Vrbo 365 days a year.
"What that leaves is a 90-day limitation on renting an entire dwelling unit [in a residential zone] when you're not living in an ADU on that property," Beck said. "That's all it does right now.
"Right now, it's just a rule. It would just be a zoning rule. It doesn't have an enforcement mechanism. It doesn't have a monitoring mechanism. These are other things we could consider adding. Right now, it's just a zoning rule that you have to follow, like all the other zoning rules that also don't have independent enforcement mechanisms."
Three years after it received the final permitting, the third and final phase of the Cable Mills housing complex is on track to break ground later this year. click for more
His draft bylaw only would apply in the town's residential districts, meaning that in commercial districts, any home could be on the market for services like Airbnb or Vrbo 365 days a year. click for more
The median property tax bill for fiscal year 2025 is expected to see its lowest year-to-year increase since 2019, the Select Board learned on Monday night. click for more
Golfers will light up the night sky and support a charity that helps underserved communities around the world at Waubeeka Golf Links this week. click for more
Williams College will be back before the Zoning Board of Appeals on Thursday for a development plan review for the school's planned art museum at the Field Park rotary.
click for more