Petition presses UMass, Amherst on housing

AMHERST — A petition is going to University of Massachusetts and Amherst officials recommending they find ways to confront a townwide housing shortage and the existing pressure created by student rentals.

Coming a few months after Town Council rejected a package of zoning changes that supporters had said would address the demands on Amherst’s housing stock, former town councilor Darcy DuMont recently sent the petition to UMass Chancellor Javier Reyes and the president of the Student Government Association, as well as the Town Council and Planning Board.

It asks for UMass to commit to a plan to house significantly more students on campus, and for Amherst leaders to prioritize new and existing housing developments for families and seniors, low-income and workforce residents, and not students.

“Support a sustainable and balanced population, strong schools and a meaningful, transparent town-gown partnership,” the petition states. “UMass cannot continue to offload this burden onto Amherst. We call on the university to act now, building on-campus dormitories that reflect its values of stewardship, responsibility and service to the common good.”

DuMont explained that this effort is related to the previous proposals aimed at housing more UMass students on campus and protecting the downtown and neighborhoods from the creation of more dorms and student houses. It is also a rebuttal to the latest housing production plan adopted by the Town Council, which doesn’t distinguish between student housing and housing for families.

“The new housing production plan treats all groups equally, thus allowing developers to choose, and they tend to choose the more profitable student housing,” DuMont said.

UMass officials have repeatedly said the university is committed to plans to address the housing challenges in the community, including putting out a request for proposal to find a developer to invest in new campus housing and rehabilitate existing buildings. University officials note that UMass has previously collaborated on the public-private partnership known as Fieldstone, the mixed-use building located on Massachusetts Avenue.

In addition, the university says it houses one of the largest percentages of students on campus as compared to its national peers. Of 209 ranked public universities, UMass is among the top five for highest percentage of on-campus students, with 60% of undergraduates living on the campus.

The petition also references the UMass strategic plan and how it has a vision for education, innovation and community stewardship, but not ways to handle what petitioners claim is a shortage of on-campus student housing.

Reyes responded to the petition, referencing the critical need for housing across Massachusetts and the hope UMass can find a willing private partner.

“UMass has been, and will continue to be, committed to being part of the solution,” Reyes wrote.

He noted that members of his team recently met with Amherst councilors and management “to advance our long-term, collaborative planning efforts to meet the housing needs of our students, staff, faculty, as well as others who may not be affiliated with the campus who call — or hope to call — Amherst home.”

For the town side, the request follows the December rejection of zoning changes that were brought forward by a different petition. That called for focusing on regulating housing geared toward college students and potential conversions of existing homes into student rentals, along with a year-long pause on construction of multi-tenant apartment buildings.

The latest petition cites similar statistics, such as Amherst having a year-round resident population of 13,000, or less than one third of the town’s total population of 40,000. It states that 9,000 students live off campus in Amherst, contributing to a growing imbalance in the downtown, the village centers and neighborhoods.

Other problems are called out, such as the elementary school enrollment declining by half from its peak, the town’s tax base being strained, the fact that while 27,000 students live in Amherst for nine months of the year they don’t contribute directly to road repairs, public safety and other services they rely on, and inadequate payment in lieu of taxes from UMass.

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