Architect: Brown Lindquist Fenuccio & Raber Architects, Inc., Engineer: Coastal Engineering Company, Inc.
SANDWICH – Work is underway for a long-planned affordable housing development in Sandwich.
Terrapin Ridge will include 30 one-, two- and three-bedroom units on a six-acre parcel off Quaker Meeting House Road.
The project is beginning with road and infrastructure work.
The infrastructure work will include site clearing and grading, drainage and sewer system installation, and a parking lot.
The work will also provide for improvements to roads and crosswalks for the existing development on George Fernandes Way.
“We’ve cleared the land. We are putting a road in and we are starting the septic systems,” said Paula Schnepp, the executive director of the Sandwich Housing Authority.
A $1.5 million MassWorks grant was awarded for the project in the fall of 2018 for the road and utility construction.
The development also received grant funding through the state’s 2019 Affordable Rental Housing Awards.
The Department of Housing and Community Development will support the project with Low Income Housing Tax Credits and subsidy funds.
The Town of Sandwich is also supporting the project with $1.4 million in Community Preservation Act funds.
The development should have all financing in place for the housing construction by March.
Schnepp hopes the construction is finished by the end of this year.
“There are always things that kind of delay [work],” Schnepp said. “A certificate of occupancy I would imagine would be in early 2021.”
The Women’s Institute for Housing and Economic Development, a Boston-based organization, is the project’s developer. It specializes in the creation of affordable housing throughout New England.
“For the last two years they have been doing all the work required to do the feasibility study, architectural drawing and to submit a funding request into the state,” Schnepp said.
Planning for the project began a decade ago.
Schnepp said it is not uncommon for projects like these to take this long to develop.
“Usually the state takes over a year to make decisions about housing,” Schnepp said. “Often times they don’t select a first time requester so we had to go in twice.”
There were also delays in choosing a developer for the project and it took the town a few requests for proposals.
Schnepp said her office has been receiving calls from families interested in housing units. She said the earliest that public notices will go out for applications would be this fall.
“People can stay tuned for more information about these units in fall of 2020,” she said.
About CapeCod.com NewsCenter
