Your Questions About Harwich’s Proposed Pine Oaks Village IV
Our mission has always been to supply housing with below market rents.
- The long-term vision is to add affordable homes to the Harwich area.
- Keep young families in our communities,
- Allow seniors to age in place,
- Grow & retain a workforce needed to sustain our businesses, and
- Benefit our community for generations to come.
- There is no big developer looking to make money on this community. All our income is re-invested into our communities.
Pine Oaks Village Homes’ mission has always been to supply housing with below market rents. We want to create the first step toward saving for future homeownership. This community will significantly help the Town of Harwich achieve their Subsidized Housing Inventory (SHI) requirement.
When fully built in 10 years, Pine Oaks Village IV will consist of 242 units of mixed income family rental housing on 30.5 acres of land in North Harwich. We will build our new community over five phases. Of the thirty-acres, 22.7 acres will be reserved through design and preservation of open and green space with walking trails, picnic areas and more.
New Data from the recent draft of the Harwich Housing Production Plan:
Median Single-Family Home in Harwich
- To afford this median price, a household would have to earn an estimated $191,200 based on 95% mortgage financing
- Because of this, more affordable rentals are urgently needed in Harwich based on the concentration of service sector jobs. 42% of renters with incomes at or below 80% AMI are paying too much for housing.
- We are concerned about traffic, which is why Pine Oaks Village engaged in a traffic study by a highly regarded firm.
- Pine Oaks Village Homes has met with the Cape Cod Regional Transit Authority to bring a route to our community.
- The proposed entrance to our site has excellent sightlines.
- We are committed to working closely with the Town to find the proper solution to the traffic in that area.
Myth: “Pine Oaks Village is asking the Town to provide 18% of the funding for Pine Oaks Village IV.” This is untrue and deceptive to the public.
Fact: Pine Oaks Village Homes’ anticipates only 5% of the funding to come the Harwich Affordable Trust or Community Preservation Committee.
Myth: “Each year Pine Oaks Village will receive and pocket $5 Million in revenue from Pine Oaks Village IV.” This is highly misleading.
Truth: Pine Oaks Village Homes IV will have many, many financial obligations to pay with the revenue generated from the rental income. Snow removal, landscaping, utilities, insurance, janitorial services, property taxes, street and property maintenance (within the community), debt service (mortgage payments), on-site property management personnel and more. Half of the money that’s left (Net Operating Income) will be used to repay the subordinate debt related to the development; most of the rest will provide a return to the outside investors who purchased the tax credits and for future capital needs of the property.
The number of school age children is not a factor under Chapter 40B; that said, based on various studies the number of additional school age children is expected to be approximately 69.
Myth: “Over 1,000 people will reside in Pine Oaks Village IV.” This is untrue.
Fact: For Massachusetts communities the data comes from the 2015 ESI Residential Demographic Multipliers [1]. The multipliers are specific to rental units with 1, 2, and 3 bedrooms. Based on the proposed number of bedrooms, the model predicts there will be 518 residents living in the entire Pine Oaks Village IV community.
1. 2015 Residential Demographic Multipliers, November 2017, WHO MOVES INTO MASSACHUSETTS HOUSING? Prepared by: Econsult Solutions, 1435 Walnut Street, 4th Floor | Philadelphia, PA 19102 | 215-717-2777 | econsultsolutions.com Data derived from 2011-2015 ACS-PUMS
- There is NO BIG DEVELOPER!
- Mid-Cape Church Homes d/b/a Pine Oaks Village Homes is an entirely non-profit volunteer board comprised group of individuals who live, work or own businesses in the Harwich area.
- While we were founded by members of a church, we are not affiliated with any church.
- 2025 will be our 50th anniversary.
We will abide by whatever the legal requirements are for paying, or not paying, real estate taxes. The acute need for affordable housing simply must be addressed and we expect no adverse impacts. We currently pay 50% at Pine Oaks Village I, II and III.
For the initial rentals, the local preference favors families already in the Monomoy School System.
There will be an initial local preference for Harwich residents (in each phase), which will cover up to 70% (subject to state approval) other units will be open to people regardless of where they live.
