GA Blog: Amesbury

5.14.10 Amesbury Weir Repairs

The Amesbury News reports that Amesbury residents are appealing a recent Department of Environmental Protection ruling which would allow the city to repair an aging weir on the Powow River near Newton Road in Amesbury.  The DEP ruling allowed the city to begin repairing the more than 50-plus-year-old weir, which helps supply the Amesbury residents with fresh drinking water from the Powow River.

The weir is used to ensure that the river reaches a certain height so that water can be drawn into the city’s intake pipes and into the water treatment plant.  Currently, the Powow River supplies roughly 3 million gallons of water per day – improvements could add an extra 1 million galloons per day. If the weir were to fail, that number would be cut to 1 million or 2 million gallons a day and lead to several water shortages.

Read the entire Amesbury News article.

5.14.10 Ipswich Powderhouse Development Helps Close in on Chapter 40B

According to the Ipswich Chronicle, Powderhouse Village, the 48-unit affordable housing complex to be built on County Road by the YMCA, will raise Ipswich’s affordable housing units to 492 – making 9.1% of Ipswich’s housing stock affordable as defined by Chapter 40B.

Chapter 40B requires that all cities/towns have at least 10% of its housing stock to qualify as affordable for the town to become exempt from the state’s 40B affordable housing bylaw which allows for developers to bypass a community’s zoning laws as long as the project contains a sufficient amount of affordable housing, which is determined by a formula based on the community’s median income.

Tom Bentley, the housing coordinator in the Planning Department, says that to be counted as affordable, a rental housing unit must have a deed restriction that says the rent cannot be raised above a certain limit.

For more on the Powerhouse Village development, click here.

3.15.10 Amesbury Transportation Center

According to the Amesbury News, the Town of Amesbury will receive $8.6 million to help pay for a new transportation center in the Lower Millyard. Amesbury will kick in $1.5 million for the new the Merrimack Valley Regional Transit Authority hub, which will also house city facilities, including the Amesbury Senior Center, the Health and Human Services Department and Amesbury Veterans’ Services.

Construction of the transportation center is expected to take about 18 months. The project is expected to create 125 construction jobs and will be paid for using a combination of state, federal and federal stimulus funds.

Read the entire Amesbury News article.

3.4.10 Cider Hill Farm in Amesbury Awarded “Green” Grant

The Amesbury News report that Amesbury’s Cider Hill Farm received a $30,000 energy efficient grant from the Massachusetts Department of Agriculture to install a new photovoltaic (PV) system, which uses solar panels made of silicon to convert sunlight into electricity. The farm currently has a 10kw PV system that consists of 56 solar panels –– the new system will be 25.6kw which will have 128 panels. These two systems will be in addition to the three wind turbines churning out energy (two shown above).

Cider Hill Farm has also received grants to make their greenhouses more energy efficient using a special film and also to turn its greenhouses into high tunnel greenhouses which sit on the soil and do not use any heat.  The farm is also looking into micro hydro-energy (energy from moving water) and geothermal heat (using the heat of the earth).\

Read the entire Amesbury News article.

6.23.08 Chapter 40B Battles in Amesbury

The Boston Globe reported that Amesbury has appealed 2 recent decisions from the state Housing Appeals Committee, in an ongoing battle Amesbury has fought to prevent projects proposed under Chapter 40B, the Commonwealth’s affordable housing law.

The first project is a proposal to construct 269 townhouse condominiums on a 155-acre site off Kimball Road (Meadowbrook Estates).

The second proposal is a 56-unit rental development on a 10-acre site off Clark’s Road (Eagle Point).

According to the Globe, the recent rulings followed a decision by the Housing Appeals Committee against the city last October on another Chapter 40B project, a proposal to build 40 condominium units on Haverhill Road.

Read the entire Boston Globe article.

6.21.08 Whittier Bridge in Newburyport Need Repair

The Newburyport Current reported that the I-95 Whittier Bridge that spans the Merrimack River between Newburyport and AmesburyWhittier Bridge that spans the Merrimack River between Newburyport and Amesbury is a priority repair, according to State Treasurer Timothy Cahil.

Read the entire Newburyport Current article.