By Scott MacKeen
Staff Writer
6/25/09
With talks of 40B housing already swirling, the Town Farm may have a new proponent for an affordable-housing option. This one would be a nonprofit venture.
South Shore Habitat for Humanity, a group that partners with families in need to construct new homes, is eyeing the historic property off Canton Avenue as a potential site to partner with the town.
Jerry McDermott, executive director of the nonprofit organization, was invited recently to tour the 34-acre property with representatives of the town, including Town Planner Bill Clark. McDermott said it was a chance for him and the town to “begin nestling around the edges of what could be an opportunity” for a development.
“I had a chance to walk that land, and it’s a fantastic parcel. There are all kinds of opportunities there. It’s something we don’t enter into lightly,” he told the Gov. Stoughton Trust Land Committee during a presentation last week.
The committee, appointed by Selectmen over a year ago, is exploring how the town can best utilize the property under the parameters of Colonial Gov. William Stoughton’s will. Stoughton, former governor of Massachusetts from 1694 to 1699, willed his property to the town in 1701 with the provision that it be used to benefit “the poor” of Milton. The land, once the site of a poor farm, is home to the town’s animal shelter and other historic structures that are in poor condition.
Selectmen, as trustees of the land, are waiting to hear recommendations from the land committee – which could come in the next couple of months – before deciding how to best care for the land.
McDermott, who is currently overseeing home construction projects with families in Hanover, Hingham and Duxbury, said he is excited for a chance to work in Milton. If given the chance, he said, Habitat for Humanity would build “as many [homes] as the town would let us.”
“It’s something we’re very interested in,” he said. “We could really go in and do 10 units at once. We did that in Quincy. We would encourage people to look at what we’ve done with these other communities.”
According to McDermott, there would be opportunities to restore and renovate the structures currently on the Town Farm or build new homes “from the ground up,” depending on what the town and neighbors wish. He stressed that his group does not work unilaterally, but in collaboration with the municipality.
“We go in, we meet the neighbors, and we say, ‘This is only going to happen if you want it to,’” he said.
McDermott also explained Habit for Humanity does not simply “hand out homes” to families but has a rigorous process of selecting those who qualify under low-income regulations. The process includes background checks.
The chosen family must also volunteer up to 500 hours of their time to help construct the home, with Habitat volunteers, many of whom are qualified builders and construction workers, he said. Although they are a nonprofit, they do have paid site supervisors, he said.
Meanwhile, the town’s Historical Commission furthered its case last week that the Town Farm should be maintained as a historic site, and the town apply for designation as a National Historic Landmark. The town has two such landmarks already: Blue Hill Weather Observatory received the designation in 1989 and Forbes House Museum in 1996.
“The [Historical] Commission supports the preservation and restoration of all existing buildings and landscape features, in whole or as part of the master plan design to be recommended by the study committee” to the Selectmen, Commission Chair Meredith Hall wrote in a letter to the committee.
Hall wrote that the Town Farm, which has “not been significantly altered since 1941,” has served “not only an agricultural purpose, but a cultural standard, establishing Milton as a town which believes in caring for the poor and ill.”