A well-known Farmington Valley developer is pursuing an 8-30g proposal to build 71 apartments in Tolland, with the possibility that 80% of them will qualify as “affordable.”
Metro Realty’s new plan is largely similar its initiative at a defunct Farmington nursing home, where it is planning to charge affordable rents for 80% of the 90 apartments it’s building.
In both cases, Metro Realty is relying on extensive public financing to make the projects feasible. It is also working with local support groups for the developmentally disabled because some apartments will be set aside as supported living for mentally challenged adults.
“The proposed community will address Tolland’s need for affordable housing and assist the town in meeting its affordable housing goals,” said a letter to Tolland’s Planning and Zoning Commission from attorney Andrea Gomes, whose firm is representing Metro Realty.
Commissioners have set a hearing for July 27 at 7 p.m. at the Hicks Memorial Municipal Center.
The complex of one- and two-bedroom apartments would be built on part of a 31-acre tract roughly bordered by Goose Lane, Baxter Street and Route 195, which is also known as Merrow Road in that area.
The property is currently woodlands and wetlands; Metro Realty proposes six two-story buildings and 120 parking spaces and the section that can support development.
Metro Realty has included supported-living units in the mixed-income Trailside apartment complex that it recently built on New Britain Avenue in Farmington. It collaborated with Favarh, the Arc of the Farmington Valley, on that 90-unit project, which has 20 apartments designated for tenants with intellectual or developmental disabilities. Favarh assigns on-site staff to provide support.
The company is also looking to build a similar project on the site of the shuttered Touchpoints nursing home in that same town. Metro Realty paid $1.5 million for that property during the winter, and has town permission to build 62 apartments — a mix of one-, two- and three-bedroom units.
Metro Realty anticipates using public financing for a significant part of the Farmington construction budget, and is setting aside 40 units to be priced at state-set “affordable” rates for at least the next 40 years. It also expects to reserve some units for intellectually challenged tenants.
In Tolland, Metro Realty plans 33 one-bedroom apartments of 800 to 930 square feet, and 38 two-bedroom apartments ranging from 1,070 to 1,280 square feet. Its zoning application promises in-unit washers and dryers, a stone dust walking trail to the south of the apartment homes, and sustainably designed mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems.
“Metro has partnered with MARC Inc. of Manchester a local chapter of The Arc, a community-based organization advocating for people with intellectual and development disabilities. In an effort to further MARC’s mission, 12 of the 71 apartment homes will be ‘supportive housing’ units, reserved for individuals with intellectual disabilities,” Gomes wrote.
“MARC Inc. will maintain an office on-site and will have staff available 24/7 for its supportive housing residents. In the last five years, Metro has constructed other affordable communities with supportive housing units, including in Farmington and Cheshire,” she wrote.
Metro Realty will seek financing through the federal Low Income Housing Tax Credit program, which lets corporations and investors buy federal credits to offset tax liability. Their money is spent on the affordable housing development, offsetting the developers’ lost revenue from offering below-market rents.
If that financing goes through, Metro Realty would set aside 57 apartments for tenants with low to moderate incomes. There would be different levels, with some targeted toward people earning up to 80% of the region’s median income, and others as low as the 30% income level.
The remaining 14 apartments would be leased at market rates.