Opinion: Whither the Hampshire College Campus?

Sadly, many people involved appear to have given up on reincarnating Hampshire College as an innovative educational institution. Even though the college is not quite dead yet, the land vultures are circling, eager to carve up the 800 acre campus. 

Town officials, backed by funding from the state with real estate developers in the background, are working on the mechanics of rezoning, mapping wetlands, evaluating condition of college buildings, all to provide a basis for residential development of college land. The only vision is facilitating real estate projects that will maximize profit for developers, with the profit-motive masked by liberal rhetoric about meeting a need for affordable housing. Public input will be just for show. The fix is in.

Anyone familiar with real estate development knows that residential development of Hampshire College land will be a money loser for the town, not withstanding simplistic rhetoric calling for “putting Hampshire College land on the tax rolls.”  Commercial and industrial development generate positive property tax revenue. Residential development only increases the burden on essential municipal services that in Amherst are chronically underfunded and understaffed.

Such development will only exacerbate Amherst’s dire financial straits that include inadequate public school funding, streets in poor condition, dangerously inadequate fire department staffing with a century-old central fire station in need of replacement, the need for a new Department of Public Works building, and an ongoing very expensive public library reconstruction.

How will the Town of Amherst pay for the infrastructure needed for potentially hundreds of new units of housing on Hampshire College land? How will the town provide a public water supply adequate for firefighting?  Will a new elementary school be required for many new families with children? Who will fund improved public transportation for affordable housing occupants who may not have reliable cars? 

Michael Pill is a former resident of Amherst, and a current resident of Shutesbury. His law practice is based in Northampton.