Minutes of Mosaic Commons Meeting with Chris ScottHanson

Updates & Discussion:

Spent several hours with Stu at Nexum and went over the properties he wasn’t aware of yet - talked about whether he would be interested in participating on those and the politics of the properties he knew something about, particularly the one in stow (65 acre quirk property and the Framingham large property)  His 32 acre property is very close to the farm.

Quirk did not get back to him yet - left a message, didn’t hear back, not being overly pushy yet.  Learned more about him from a couple sources, including Stu. 

Did not hear back from the engineer yet. Was supposed to be today with whether he thought we could get perc to work. Greg and Chris will call him to chase this down.  Worried that he won’t give us a straight answer on this.

Report from meeting with Nexum:

• He is already doing a lot of research figuring out time and budget implications for a 40b application and 40a application.  “What does it cost, how long will it take”, for each.  There is an accepted educational 40a happening now in Framingham - methadone clinic.
• He thinks the property he has in Framingham doesn’t make sense for us unless we have a 40a, etc.  He’s been in a fair long negotiation on this site with the town, etc.  (more details on his current plans for the site not recorded) – we should keep this on the table but there’s nothing we need to do actively, because Stu is already doing the work, and will let us know if he pulls off the 40a.  (He’s interested in a letter from TCN saying we’re interested in 40a educational, etc.)
• The Eastleigh farm looks like it will be a long haul and not necessarily something we want to get involved with – there is a huge political will about this property – lots of about what will happen with this property.  Not clear if the people who are interested would be the sort who would like eco-village or not – trying to figure that out. Likely to be scary to hem because of the density – 40a may be the only way to do it, over neighbourhood objection.  This is a pipe dream long haul project.
• 40a may be a possibility for us on other very large sites such as the gravel site in Stow, but not on smaller sites.  Worth considering this process for other sites also? Let’s think about it.
• Decision: rule out / back burner the sites that require a 40a (Framingham sites)

Two more classifications of sites: 40b sites, or the one non-40b site:

After Stu and Chris talked about these sites, walked through them all with maps -  they feel the site that makes the most sense to pursue next – is the Taylor Road site. – Leave that at the top of the list.  Vulnerabilities of this site: Cost (high right now),  neighbourhood group.  (The fear is that that group may be more of a liability than a win because they may turn against us, etc etc. – this is unclear.)  Advantages: do not need to do sewer and water, which lowers the cost.  Another cost advantage of this site is the cost of a 40b – possibly a couple hundred thousand dollars.  (Chris has enough info on this to run a 24-unit budget for us on that site after he hears from Quirk, ask him to do so after this weekend)

Short form of strategy: Waiting on info from Quirk and will then do something of a counteroffer on all four sites and see what he has to say on it. – Being very careful not to piss him off, have him continue to take us seriously.

On the 65 acre site (gravel pit), if we can get it for 2-3 million we could make that happen.

Chris suggests that our point tonight be to rank the list and provide CSH with direction and priority, but that we not eliminate all the 40B sites, and leave our options open. He suggests that we might want to rank Taylor Brook at the top, confidentially.

Comment from John: As we do this process, consider the list of things that are important, what is necessary vs what is nice to have.

Matrix: one site is not on the list, rest are on there.

Gravel site: owned by Quirk, off Hudson road in Stow 65 acres, likely to want 2.5 million for it, dunno yet, waiting to hear.  Guessing we could do 40-80 units, 25-85k/unit for the land.  Would require 40b, Stow is friendly to that, we know it would be septic and well.  We know Nexum is hot on this site as a partner on this.  Because it’s gravel bed, we know it would perc, etc.  Risk: cleanup of environmental mess left by Quirk, pricey.  Beautiful property, but a lot of junk on it.  20 acres of wetlands, gorgeous 40’ stone wall as you come in, former part of a barn, there is a pond, etc.  Adjacent to the O’Grady land.  Cool property, though not as cool as O’Grady.  If Quirk wants much over 1.5 or 2 million, we might want to offer Pulte 200-300k to flip the option instead.

Pope Road / Farmview: In Acton, 2A off the rotary, just into Acton up Pope Road – up Pope Road, two properties.  Drive in through wet woods, back of the parcel is a knoll overlooking a horse farm, conservation behind us – asking a bit over a million . The amount of buildable land may be ~1.5 acres, hard to tell by the map.  Greg will calculate the amount.  Bordered on a couple sides by conservation land, wealthy neighbours elsewhere.  40b site.  Septic and well on site.   This may be as low as 12 units on this property from a land usability point of view.  Looks too small for us, rule it out.

Third choice site proposed by Dwight & Virginia – Rockland Ave site in Maynard.  (Dwight: sounded like it was developable, close to mass transit, and in Maynard, and a good price.  Kim: Christie says that Duggan gave her a price of 1 million for this site) Summary on this site: Corner of Rockland Ave and Acton street. 1.2 miles to the South Acton train, 6.4acres, owned by Quirk, roughly 30 units $33-34/unit than we budgeted.   Zoned industrial now, Duggan said rezoning was a possibility, or might need to do 40b.  Has sewer, has water.  Very cost effective property.  Sound quality rating – 1-10 – gravel yard and farm in Framingham are 10s, Pope Road a 9, this is a 4.   The south half of this property is very near compressors and the like from neighboring buildings and stuff – heavy white noise – can hear it through the site. 200 yards off of 27, also potentially a noise issue. Third negative – office building to the south, and a new one going into the east, across roads, but closest neighbors.  Industrial area. 

• Greg calculates at right on budget for 24 units.
• Roxanne has driven around the property a couple times – drove around the buildings, heard very little noise.  Lots of stuff knocked down – trees and stuff
• Virginia – would be happy to go tomorrow to see it. The noise can be lower once landscaping was in place, can do some sound management.
• We should go walk on it and listen for road and compressor noise.  (Office space for lease, will build to suit sign on that land)

Lincoln Property: Page Road – got a lot going for it, has great numbers (1 million, roughly), looks like we could make the numbers work, very motivated seller, but the seller’s realtor is convinced he wouldn’t do a deal over time (big cash flow problem for the group) – overwhelming concern is the guy who bought the neighbouring lot from the same seller and is going to be irate about this and cause all sorts of trouble.  Huge problem.  Karen is on the same page on this.  Drop this one off the list.

Other Pope Road property in Acton:  (wooded site): long shot – too small – 3.62 acres, lots of very visible neighbours.  Even with a 40b this would be very hard. 14-18 units, maybe? Not 20-24.

Decision - Order to pursue properties:

1. Taylor Brook (not 40b)
2. Stow Gravel (40b, split project partnered with Nexum)
3. Rockland (possible rezone or 40b)
4. Page Road Lincoln (Catya to follow up with Brigid)
5. Pope Road Properties (off for now)

This ranking is what we would like Chris to go after, we’re most interested in Taylor Brook, this expresses our values, our consensus on how we prioritize the properties.  Non-40b before 40b? Some reservations, based on the gravel property.   If we can do it without a 40b that is better, but doesn’t necessarily move it to the top of the list.

Much appreciation of work done by Chris, and also by Kim.

Roxanne: Is there a chance that Nexum could work something with Quirk? Chris is working on it.  Also working with Pulty.

Christie should stop contacting Duggan, we don’t want to give the appearance of more interest in the property.

Chris brings up concerns about Associates making the decision on property – he feels that when we get to the point of making the decision on the land, we might consider making a stronger, visible, distinction between equity members and the associates.  For example, different color name tags or, double rings – equity members in an inside ring, everyone else in an outside ring.  Ask outside ring for their opinions and guidance, and then interior ring makes the decision.  He says, doing it physically is important.  JP is having trouble keeping track – they ask for opinion of associates first, and then they call the equity members second.  Equity members make the call with Associate input that way.  (Virginia – exercise with ranking the properties done separately with associates and equity members?  Hasn’t seen it done.) (Roxanne – we already have associates not blocking, do we need more than that?) (Chris – don’t make a decision now, just consider this issue.  He feels some dissatisfaction from the group on this issue.)

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Last modified: June 11, 2002