Two new affordable-housing projects have broken ground in Wareham that, when fully completed, will add 193 units of affordable housing to the town.

The projects - 144 units at The Retreat at Union Pond, located at 2880 Cranberry Highway in East Wareham, to be developed by the Gatehouse Group, and 49 units at 815 Main St. to be developed by J.K. Scanlon - bring the town closer to a state standard to have 10 percent of housing stock qualify as affordable. According to the latest Planning Board records available, dated as of May 2, 2008, Wareham currently has 8650 total housing units, 536 of which (representing 6.2 percent of the total) are considered affordable. Mobile homes do not qualify to be counted as affordable units under Massachusetts law.

Both projects are being developed under state Chapter 40B. Also known as the "Anti-Snob Zoning Law," Chapter 40B exempts developers from many local zoning restrictions in towns where less than 10% of the housing stock is deemed to be affordable, so long as a percentage of the new housing will be affordable.

The project at 815 Main St. was originally proposed as an 88-unit project, sparking concerns of associated traffic and scale. The development was scaled back in size to address density and zoning concerns and then stalled when the market crashed.

In October, it received a $8,531,022 in Federal Tax Credit Exchange funds, essentially no-interest, deferred loans using funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act provided for projects that, according to Project Executive Andrew Baker "were without an investor but were "shovel-ready." The project was one of ten stalled projects in the State that received this funding. The original developer, Cornerstone Properties, is still involved as "a member and part of this project" according to Baker.

The project includes ten buildings, nine of which are new construction containing 49 one- to three-bedroom rental units on an 8-acre parcel of land. According to Project Manager Anissa Leon, the house that currently sits on the site will be relocated and used as a community building.

"The first couple of buildings should be completed by June or July," Leon said. "We hope to get those rented out then and then continue on to the rest of the buildings, hoping to have everything complete by November."

The proposal met with local criticism due to concerns over added traffic and parking requirements as well as concerns that the project would not fit in with the rural character of the neighborhood.

Jane Gleason of Civitas Architecture said that she wanted to work on the project to address and mitigate those concerns.

"How our community works and it looks is important to us," Gleason said. "We didn't want to see this turn out badly, and saw being involved as a way that we could have a positive effect on something that was going to move forward regardless of whether we participated or not."

The project was also limited by sewer concerns, and developers were required to engineer a shared septic system for approval. Conservation Administrator David Pichette said that this limited the project's size and increased costs.
[With a sewer] "you don't have to worry about land for the leach field, or specific soil types," Pichette said.

The second, larger project, the Retreat at Union Pond, was able to tie into town sewer. The project is on a 15-acre site on the Cranberry Highway and the development's size and scale - the project was granted a variance that allowed up to 144 units in place of of the 10-15 single-family lots for a conventional single-family development in the zoned area - caused similar concerns about traffic and density as the 815 Main St. project.

The project will be constructed in two phases of 104 units and 40 units. Construction on phase one began in January. Gatehouse is currently submitting their proposal to the Department of Housing and Community Development for low-income housing tax credits to finance the second phase, said David Canepari, president of Gatehouse Management, the management company for the project, and principal at Gatehouse Companies.

The first phase of the project includes five new buildings - two, three-story buildings with 24 units, two three-story buildings with 24 units plus 4 units in a walk-out basement, and a clubhouse with a kitchen, great room, laundry facilities, a fitness center and assorted offices for the community. Phase two will include two more buildings to the project. All the buildings will be new construction.

"Concerns about traffic and density were all addressed during permitting process," said Canepari. "We have a great deal of open space as required by the conservation community, we don't think traffic will be much of a problem. There were traffic studies done which showed the increase in services was minimal."

Canepari said that they hope to begin leasing at the end of the summer or early in September, and that the first phase of the project should be completed by early 2011.

"We're absolutely excited," said Gatehouse Group Vice President Brian McMillin. "We think it's going to be a great community, and a beautiful setting."