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[PDF] 2023 Powerpoint - Lakeside community meetings
Powerpoint - Lakeside community meetings
Slide 1
Lakeside Apts Meeting Minutes 10/11
Attendees:
WHA: Alex Corrales, Peter Proulx, Michael Murphy, Tiffany Shliapa, Billy Ayala, Edlin Ortiz, Patrick Travaglio-Romeo, Erik Storm, Walter Bird
Tremont/ E3: Rich Mazzocchi and Eliza Datta
HOU: Vanessa Rivera
Location: 14 Lakeside Ave – 2:00 & 5:30 PM
Meeting minutes: Patrick Travaglio-Romeo
Presenter: Alex Corrales – CEO
Introduction
Lakeside Apts Meeting Minutes 10/11
Presenters:
Alex Corrales – Worcester Housing Authority
Rich Mazzocchi – Tremont Development Partners
Eliza Datta – E3 Development
Topics Covered:
Development Team, Concept Plan, Phasing, Timeline, Relocation, Building and Site Amenities, Affordability
Resident Questions, Presenter Answers:
How will you build around the existing terrain and keep water bodies intact?
The site has a sloping topography, and the development team is working on ways to build with the existing slope, including the use of retaining walls. The project will also have an erosion/sediment control plan and the team will work to adhere to all wetland and floodplain buffer restrictions.
What will the total impervious area look like?
The development will improve the amount of pervious area on site.
I have a business on Garland Street, how will that be affected by the construction activity?
As we get closer to the construction start date, there will be community meetings to update all residents and abutters on construction activity and there will also be a construction management plan which will detail road closures and site boundaries.
How will you ensure the construction site is safe and we won't have water and noise issues?
The development team will work on a construction management plan which will ensure safety for all residents and abutters.
Will the Columbus Park School have input on the relocation plan?
The development team has hired a relocation consultant, Housing Opportunities Unlimited (HOU), who will take the lead on the relocation plan. We intend to discuss the plan with the Columbus Park School and ask for input.
Who should I reach out to with questions?
Anyone from the development team:
Alex Corrales: corrales@worcesterha.org
Rich Mazzocchi: rmazzocchi@bostoncapital.com
Eliza Datta: edatta@e3devco.com
Will you be using any green financing programs with the State? What sustainable features will there be?
The intent is for all rental phases to be passive house certified. The project will include solar panels and Energy Star Certified LED light fixtures and appliances (where available) will be utilized throughout. The development team is exploring all State and City green financing programs.
How many units will be ADA?
The rental projects will have at least 10% ADA-compliant units. The homeownership units will be townhouse-style units, and therefore, will not be ADA compliant.
Will there be any community gardens?
The development team is working on programming the open space and is considering community gardens.
Will there be any change in unit composition?
The unit composition will be similar to the current unit mix.
What phase will the linear park be in?
Phase 3, 2026 or later.
Lakeside Resident Meeting 7/12
Presenters:
Alex Corrales – Worcester Housing Authority
Rich Mazzocchi – Tremont Development Partners
Eliza Datta – E3 Development
Laura Cella-Mowatt – Davis Square Architects
Topics Covered:
Development Team, Concept Plan, Phasing, Timeline, Relocation, Building and Site Amenities, Affordability
Resident Questions, Presenter Answers:
How will the project be accessible?
The project will meet all current accessibility standards, the rental portion will include 10% accessible units and there will be elevators in each building.
Will the project connect to the Boardwalk still?
Yes, the connection will remain.
Will there be enough parking?
The project is anticipated to maintain the current 0.7 parking ratio including on site and Lakeside Avenue parking. Current utilization rates suggest this ratio will satisfy the future population.
What is the phasing timeline?
Anticipated timelines are as follows – these are subject to change:
Phases 1 and 2: Relocation starting in July 2024, Construction starting in early 2025
Phase 3: Relocation starting in 2025, Construction starting in 2026
Phase 4: Relocation starting in 2027, Construction starting in 2028
How will relocation work and when will it occur?
It is anticipated that relocation for Phases 1 and 2 will start in July 2024, at the earliest. The development team has hired Housing Opportunities Unlimited, a relocation consultant, to provide relocation services to all residents. The process will start with individual meetings to discuss each resident’s wants and needs. A more detailed relocation-specific meeting will follow.
What will the Homeownership units look like?
They will be townhome-style units, similar to what is at GBV.
Can I purchase one of the affordable condos?
To purchase one of the condos in Phase 2, a resident must meet many requirements related to credit score, assets, and income that are traditionally required in purchasing a market-rate condo. WHA encourages residents to utilize the FSS program through WHA. More information on purchasing these condos will follow at future meetings.
Lakeside Apts Meeting Minutes 5/31
Attendees:
WHA: Alex Corrales, Peter Proulx, Michael Murphy, Tiffany Shliapa, Billy Ayala, Edlin Ortiz, Kelly Mayer
Boston Capital/ E3: Rich Mazzocchi and Eliza Datta
Location: 14 Lakeside Ave – 6:00PM
Meeting minutes: Edlin Ortiz
Presenter: Alex Corrales – CEO
Introduction
Alex introduced himself and did an overview on the purpose of the meeting for those who were not in attendance prior (this was the third follow-up meeting to provide more information to residents for this project initiative).
Vision/Impact
Alex reviewed WHA’s vision with Lakeside Apartments.
The goal is to increase affordable housing opportunities in the city, transition Lakeside to a mixed-income community, and provide residents with more amenities/space, while also diversifying the neighborhood. The WHA recognizes that at this time based on the current waitlist, there is a great need for affordable housing and our goal is to assist and address this through our current portfolio. This will afford residents the opportunity to remain within their community if they are no longer eligible to meet our current subsidy requirements.
All residents that are currently with us from the 202 will be returning, no resident will lose their housing because of this redevelopment.
Unfortunately, to complete the process, the WHA will need to do it in phases and relocate residents temporarily while we demolish and rebuild.
Housing Opportunities Unlimited (HOU) will be the relocation agency in place. Alex shared some information regarding this process and the assessments HOU completes to ensure all of the residents’ needs are met. He also expressed that this process will not be taking place any time as we are still in the preliminary stages and the agency still looking into funding.
The project and the relocation agency will assist with all moving costs, transferring current services, and any other interruption that may come as a result of the redevelopment. We will work with HOU because they are the experts, they know all the rules, tenancy rights, and how all residents are to be accommodated in this process.
We encourage all our residents to make notes of all the questions that may arise as a result of the meetings so that they can get addressed and answered during the next meeting.
The meeting minutes are always recorded, and residents will have access to all questions in case they are not able to attend the meetings.
Homeownership
Residents were re-introduced to the potential concept of homeownership. Alex shared information on WHA self-sufficiency programs (FSS and ABL) and the impact it has on our residents in becoming homeowners. Introducing the idea of homeownership to the residents of Lakeside was very welcoming because it creates an opportunity for our residents to become homeowners through the agency and our self-sufficiency programs.
Features
The new design will address concerns relative to elevators, and wheelchair accessibility.
All apartments will have sprinkling systems to improve safety.
(Conceptually) The goal is to build higher buildings so residents can have better views
All buildings will be mixed-income featuring different income levels.
Boston Capital/ E3 introduced themselves to the residents and shared the partnership between E3 and Boston Capital.
Alex emphasized that the WHA’s job is to get all funding on a local/state level to support this project. As funding passes, we will share the information with residents during the meetings.
Q&A
RQ: At the first meeting we were told 2-5 years and the new notice said 6-8 years, what’s the timeline?
A: The entire project is probably an 8 yrs. Phase 1 is probably 2 years and each phase will take approximately 2 years, by the time you take into account moving within buildings, lining up the demolition, and the re-construction of the buildings will average out to 2 years per phase. For instance, at Curtis (a much bigger project) it will take longer, perhaps about 10 years by the time is fully completed. However, the first phase will be about 2 years and then it continues to move to all the other phases. Some folks will not be immediately impacted, only the phase 1 residents, when that time comes. This is a lengthy process and we do not want anyone feeling alarmed today. Each phase will require funding and those are potential delays that we hope we don’t find!
RQ: What will be in the view for residents that will be in the middle of the building?
A: In the initial concept we would like to take advantage of the water view. We recognize that not all residents will have access to the water view, some may be the courtyard. However, the view will be similar to what we have now with more trees and improved green spaces. The goal is to remove the asphalt and to create more green spaces.
RQ: How are you going to fit all these improvements in such a small area? How are we going to accommodate mixing low-income residents with Section 8 and high-income families? Not all residents want to be a part of a mixed neighborhood with different lifestyles.
A: We have some undeveloped land that we are not using and maximizing right now. #2 I will respectfully disagree, we don’t want to segregate people by income level, we believe there are a lot of people with Section 8 vouchers that would like to relocate to a brand-new apartment in Lakeside vs. living in a 3-decker home. Having a mixed neighborhood is something we stand behind.
RQ: Residents would like to feel secure just like everyone else that makes more income.
A: Our goal is to get all residents to co-exist in a mixed community. Residents will not know what you pay unless you share that. Our goal is to create a community in which our folks are not targeted by their income level and where they live. We also want to afford residents the opportunity to remain in their communities even when they are over the current income level. Right now, if a resident is over income, they have to move out. Now with the new redevelopment, there’s an opportunity for them to remain in the community and have those resources available.
RQ: What will the parking space look like?
A: The city of Worcester has specific requirements regarding parking therefore there will be more parking. More units, more parking spaces. We will make sure it makes sense for the resident’s needs.
RQ: Will residents be able to have a garden?
A: Not sure but based on the need we may be able to add it to our discussion.
RQ: When you do Phase 1 and relocate residents, is it to another WHA property?
A: Let me share with you what we have done at Curtis, as we have empty apartments from other phases at Curtis, we now have been able to relocate phase 1 families to those, to keep them within their development, and by the time phase 1 is done they are able to return to the new apartment. Ideally, we would like to keep folks within the same development, however, it is a challenge because this is a smaller development with limited vacancies. Secondly, there at times with the relocation when residents are offered a Section 8 voucher. They can go live and return once their development is completed. They can also have the option of permanently relocating to their temporary unit.
RQ: How many bedrooms will the apartments have?
A: We have not finalized with the concept design the actual bedroom breakdown by building however there will be a one-to-one replacement for the current 1-2-3 bedrooms. We haven’t gotten to that stage with our architects but part of it will be addressed based on the need according to our waitlist. For the time being no 4 bedrooms are in the plans.
RQ: Will the playgrounds be bigger?
A: If the decision is to put a playground, it will not be what you have today. It will be improved and completely different.
RQ: What are we going to do to improve wheelchair-accessible units?
A: Currently we only have 2-units that are wheelchair accessible which doesn’t meet the need. We want to make sure we build more, and we are committed to building more.
RQ: A lot of our residents don’t speak English and some of the ender residents don’t have access to the website/internet, how can we give them access to the information?
A: We can ensure that all the materials get posted in Spanish, residents come into the management office very often, therefore this is another place where we can make the information available. We want to make sure our residents are informed so we will make sure we get the information to them. We’ve had Spanish interpreters at all meetings, and we’ll continue to ask and assist residents in translating.
RQ: We have a need for other languages, Arabic, and Vietnamese?
A: If there’s a need for other interpreting services, we want to meet that need. If there is a large contingency and there’s a need for Arabic, we will plan and accommodate. We recognize that it may not be in every language however we want all residents to be informed.
RQ: What area will be Phase 1?
A: We haven’t determined that 100% however, we are projecting to begin in the back. We will inform all residents when this is determined.
RQ: Is WHA going to increase security if we have more apartments?
A: Generally, we don’t measure security by the number of apartments. However, our job is to make sure that the property is safe and if there are issues contributing to the property not being safe, we address those. Lakeside unlike some other sites, is one of our quiet properties, but the goal is to have folks live in a safe and secure environment.
RQ: Will utilities be included?
A: Because the apartments are transforming into Project Base Vouchers which is a different funding source for us, rent will essentially be the same 30% for residents however residents are now projected to receive a utility allowance to contribute to their utility cost.
RQ: What kind of washers and dryers will we have?
A: We don’t know currently, but the goal is to have those answers as we continue to meet.
RQ: When relocated, will the move financially negatively impact her?
A: No, in some cases your rent may be less. The goal is for residents to not be negatively impacted or inconvenienced by this project.
RQ: In the next meeting will we be learning something different?
A: We want the meetings to be productive and want to bring residents current information. At some point the meetings will get spaced out to bring the latest information. All residents will be notified of all upcoming meetings, please encourage your neighbors to join us so we can answer all of your questions!
| Worcester Housing Authority |
| 630A Plantation Street |
| Worcester, MA 01605 |
| Phone: 508-635-3000 |
| Hours: 8:00 AM - 4:30 PM |
