HADLEY — With a new senior housing overlay district in place, adopted by voters at a special Town Meeting Thursday, Amherst developer Barry Roberts said his team will begin preparing to bring forward a proposal for 55-and-over housing on a 30-acre property off North Maple Street known as the Babb Farm.

“Engineers will go to work to figure out what this project looks like,” Roberts told residents, after about 30 minutes of discussion that concluded with a 95-12 vote, giving the rezoning more than 88% approval and easily clearing the necessary two-thirds majority to authorize a zoning change.

Residents who came to Hopkins Academy for the special meeting, which ran more than 3½ hours, approved all 21 articles on the warrant, including adjusting the accessory dwelling unit bylaw to bring it into compliance with state law and providing funding for a protective area beneath the new playgrounds at Hadley Elementary School.

New overlay district

The new overlay district for senior housing is bounded by Route 9 to the south, Route 116 to the east, Rocky Hill Road to the north and North Maple Street to the west.

Roberts said he doesn’t know how many units the project will encompass, but it could be up to 50, depending on the amount of wetlands. He assured that all infrastructure will be complete and 15% of the homes will be affordable.

Jan Peterson of Stockbridge Street said she is enthusiastic about having more 55-and-over housing options. “I’m dying for this to happen,” Peterson said. “I want to age in Hadley and I can’t do it unless I downsize.”

Roberts has already built out the 35-unit East Street Commons for those 55 and over, but a request to extend the senior overlay district to Middle Street was defeated by Town Meeting in 2019.

The rezoning won support from members of the Select Board, including David J. Fill II, who said it is the best option for the land and comes with no infrastructure costs for the town.

Select Board Chairwoman Molly Keegan said the project will bring revenue and is aligned with the town’s housing production plan.

The approval came over the objections of some residents who sought some form of compensation.

Andy Morris-Friedman of Roosevelt Street referenced the rezoning more than 20 years ago along Route 9 that allowed a Lowe’s home improvement store to be constructed, with the developer establishing a dedicated fund for conservation and recreation projects.

Michal Docter of Bay Road said voters were “bestowing a very generous gift” and suggested Roberts make an offer to preserve farmland or provide more affordable housing elsewhere.

Accessory dwelling units

Voters also made changes to Hadley’s current accessory dwelling unit bylaw, ensuring it aligns with state law, allowing these to be up to 900 square feet or half the area of the primary structure, and allowed by right in all residential districts.

The main changes will allow detached accessory units, which are currently prohibited, and no longer require that the primary or accessory unit be occupied by the owner.

“Planning Board and town don’t anticipate a run on accessory dwelling units,” said Planning Board Chairman James Maksimoski.

Playground, speed limits, other articles

Among the largest spending articles was drawing $290,000 from the Community Preservation Act account so poured-in-place rubber can be used below the playground at the elementary school that opened this fall, replacing the wood chips currently being used as the padding.

School Committee member Tara Brugger said this surface will make the playground more accessible, safer and affordable, adding that for the $616,000 cost of the playground, more than half came from community donations.

“We have our playground and just to want to make it accessible, safe and affordable for our school and students,” Brugger said.

Brian Carroll of Breckenridge Road said he prefers seeing wood chips. “To me, it’s not the way to go,” Carroll said of the poured-in-place rubber. “I prefer natural.”

But a student who has used the playground, Darrow Pfannenstiel, told Town Meeting that the playground and the wood chips shift when children run on them and is less comfortable than rubber.

“When you fall off of play structures — occasionally — it hurts,” Darrow said, to laughter and then applause from Town Meeting.

The setting of a townwide speed limit of 25 mph for the thickly settled and business districts also generated discussion before passing in a 61-37 vote. The signs will be posted at the entrances to town.

“Anything we can do to make the streets of our town safer for people on foot, on wheelchairs, on bicycles, let’s do it,” said Jessica Kem of West Street.

Tony Fyden of Cold Spring Lane, though, said that slow speeds pose their own dangers and crashes “It causes confusion,” Fyden said, adding he also worries about police stopping more vehicles.

“I think it’s just wrong on its face. A traffic stop is a search and seizure, and it’s just not fair to stop someone going about their business,” he said.

Police Lt. Mitchell Kuc said the 25 mph speed limit came at the request of the community and that his department sees it as mostly educational.

Also coming out of CPA is $80,000 for a space needs study for both Town Hall and the former Goodwin Memorial Library building, and $2,000 to pay a consultant to commence work on an Historical Commission preservation plan.

The $946,500 in new borrowing, all within the levy limit or using reserves, included the purchase of a $310,000 multi-use excavator and a $75,000 ambulance, as well as $63,000 to replace and repair the Callahan Well building and $60,000 to replace water pumps.

The multi-use excavator passed by a 148-14 vote, as Finance Committee member Peter Matuszko called it an “overglorified lawn mower.” But Department of Public Works Director Scott McCarthy said the tractor would replace one that is 18 years old, can mow behind guardrails, and would be used 365 days a year, with less reliance on private subcontractors.

“I think it’s very beneficial to the town to have that,” McCarthy said.

Other spending is using $335,245 of the $1.02 million available in free cash

There is a $268,102 increase to the current municipal budget, with $202,767 of this amount related to union and nonunion personnel wage increases. Another $169,639 increase comes in the enterprise funds, with $100,000 of this amount due to higher sludge hauling costs.

Another $37,000 in free cash is funding town’s form of government study, which is looking at how to adjust responsibilities of certain positions; a solar project study to determine whether photovoltaics can go on the capped landfill; and the hiring of a town administrator search firm.

Keegan said the solar study is to fund an application to Eversource. “The long-term goal is to generate revenue for the town of Hadley,” Keegan said.

Docter said the town can get renewable energy at a fixed rate and a significant return on investment. “This is just to get the application started and the ball rolling, and get a determination to see what makes the most sense,” Doctor said.

But Fyden said there is no feasibility study and the town was getting ahead of itself in appropriating the money. “If you care about the project, you want it done right,” Fyden said. “I do think it’s a good idea, but I’m not into wasting money.”

The solar study passed 127-35.

Voters also supported a $350,000 transfer from the stabilization fund to support the town’s start-up ambulance service, transferred $60,000 in free cash for the employee compensated time fund and made two bylaw changes, one that prohibits disposal of yard waste and trash in public ways, the other that would make constables appointed, rather than elected, if the measure is approved at a ballot vote next May.

In other action, voters redirected $310,000 in previously authorized borrowing for painting the Mount Warner and Mount Holyoke water tanks to instead fund a project to replace those tanks, adopted a prudent investment rule, which would encourage the treasurer to work with the financial adviser to invest trust funds to the benefit of the town, accepted Adare Place as a town road and extended by two years the use of CPA money for repairing the Hockanum Cemetery fence, even though that project is almost complete.

Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.