News Flash

Presented at the April 11, 2023 Affordable Housing Trust Meeting.

Community Housing Survey Results

Survey results will be presented, and feedback solicited, at the meeting of the Affordable Housing Trust, April 11, 2023, after the Select Board Meeting

At the April 11th meeting of the Affordable Housing Trust, consultants from Barrett Planning Group and Dodson & Flinker Landscape Architects, will present an analysis of the results of the Community Housing Survey, as well as a review of the findings and feedback of the February 15th Community Housing Engagement Forum. The consultants will also provide information regarding project feasibility and financing for various development scenarios for Town-owned properties at Main Street, West Chatham and Meetinghouse Road, South Chatham.

The online Community Housing Survey, which closed on March 12, received an impressive 878 responses. This survey allowed residents and others with a connection to Chatham to provide comments and feedback on the development design concepts for the Main Street and Meetinghouse Road properties that were presented at the February forum, as well as a series of images of various housing types and densities of development.

The February forum PowerPoint presentation can be found on the right hand column of this Housing webpage, and the forum itself can be viewed here.

The Affordable Housing Trust will have the opportunity to provide comments and feedback to the consultants regarding preferred development parameters, including density, housing type, site layout, for each site, taking into consideration feedback from the community engagement forums, the results of the community housing survey, and information provided by the consultants regarding project feasibility. There will be an opportunity for public comment.

This feedback will inform landscape architects Dodson & Flinker, who will then draw up the preferred design concept plans, in keeping with a grounded, feasible community vision for each site. These updated and refined plans will be shared with the community during the third and final community meeting of this engagement process in May, date to be announced.

Community Housing Survey

Open February 22 through March 12

The Town of Chatham would like to hear from you!

Please take the 5-8 minute survey about affordable and attainable housing development scenarios at two Town-owned properties:  Main Street, West Chatham and Meetinghouse Road, South Chatham

The survey follows two community outreach forums in December and February, where several design concepts were presented to illustrate the development potential of each site. The concepts, which are included in the survey and available on the Town’s Housing webpage, do not represent official plans for either property, but rather are for discussion purposes to allow the community to respond to a range of options for housing types and overall site configuration. You can access the survey by a link on the right column of the Housing webpage or at www.surveymonkey.com/r/ChathamHousingSurvey

The survey provides the opportunity for the Chatham community to provide feedback directly to questions on each concept design, as well as more nuanced visual preference questions relating to architecture, landscaping, building form and type, and site layout. This will allow our consultants to refine preferred concepts based upon community feedback received from the February meeting as well as the online survey.

Second Community Engagement Forum for Affordable and Attainable Housing Wednesday February 15 at 5:00 pm

This hybrid meeting will take place in the large meeting room at the Town Hall Annex

The Town of Chatham, along with Consultants Barrett Planning Group and Dodson & Flinker, have scheduled the second of three community engagement meetings to look at possible affordable and attainable housing development scenarios on the recently purchased properties on Main Street, West Chatham (the former Buckley Property) and Meetinghouse Road, South Chatham (the former Diocese of Fall River property). This hybrid meeting will take place on Wednesday, February 15th, at 5:00 pm, in the Town Offices Annex on George Ryder Road.

Meeting Purpose

This meeting will continue an inclusive community visioning process launched in December 2022 to guide the direction future development on each Town-owned property. The Meetinghouse Road site, was purchased exclusively with Affordable Housing Trust funds and will have affordable housing, while the Main Street site will likely have a combination of both affordable and attainable housing.

During the meeting, Barrett Planning Group will provide project background information, including an overview of the longer-term timeline that will follow this visioning process. Landscape architects Dodson & Flinker will present several design concepts to illustrate the development potential of each site. The concepts presented will not represent official plans for either property; they are solely for discussion purposes to allow the community to respond to a range of options for housing types and overall site configuration.

Online Survey

Following the December community meeting, the project team determined that the online survey included in the project scope would be best utilized to allow the Chatham community to provide feedback directly on the concept designs. Thus, the visual preference survey originally slated to occur in January will now launch immediately following the second meeting. The survey will now include questions about each concept design, in addition to more nuanced visual preference questions relating to architecture, landscaping, building type, and more. This will allow Dodson & Flinker to refine preferred concepts based upon community feedback received from the February meeting as well as the online survey.

Next Steps

Following the February meeting and online survey, the Select Board/Affordable Housing Trust/Town Staff will determine preferred concepts for Dodson & Flinker to refine, incorporating input from both community meetings and the online survey. Revised preferred sketches will be shared at the third and final meeting of this process this spring, date to be announced. The design concepts for each site will ultimately inform Requests for Proposals (RFPs) for future development in keeping with a grounded, feasible community vision for each site. This visioning exercise is the beginning of a longer-term development process; following this engagement effort, the Town will begin to focus on the development of each parcel.