A dancing Prisby kicks off petition for senior housing at 25 Worcester St.
It’s not exactly traditional for a town official to introduce a Town Meeting proposal by holding up handwritten signs while dancing on a Facebook video.
Then again, we aren’t living in traditional times.
Select Board member Ed Prisby is filing a citizens petition asking the town to donate 25 Worcester St. to the Affordable Housing Trust for the purpose of building senior housing.
“The idea sort of came to me late,” Prisby said. “The way the meetings are stacked up, I wouldn’t have the means to get it introduced before the Town Meeting deadline. And frankly, every time I open my mouth, I get shot down.”
Citizen petitions, on the other hand, require just 10 signatures to get on the June 20 Town Meeting warrant. That can be tricky during a pandemic, so Prisby posted his knockoff “Love Actually” style video along with a copy of the petition for download.
He managed to gather eight signatures at his house, with about six other people doing the same at their homes.
“I think with the present crisis, people are starting to realize affordable housing is their friend and they are only a few paychecks away from needing this themselves, Prisby said.
The plot of land in question, 25 Worcester St., is a 2.3 area empty lot with a valuation of $143,200, according to the town accessor’s department. It was sold to the town in 1899 for $3,500 to build the town’s second high school, later called the Norcross Annex.
The lot has been vacant since the building was torn down in 1980. It had been proposed as a site for the Grafton Fire Department (now on Upton Road) and was floated as a home for the proposed Super Park. The Board of Selectmen at the time rejected it for the Super Park, suggesting it would better be used for affordable housing.
The land continues to sit vacant, save for the occasional parked cars on what once was the school’s curved driveway.
“It is this big enormous plot of land that’s in the middle of town,” Prisby said. “It’s close to businesses, we wouldn’t have to bring in new water and sewer or power. We can make it very attractive for a good developer.”
The Select Board met earlier this year at the senior center, where many seniors expressed interest in increased housing options.
“There was a question from them if there was a senior housing plan and we all sat there looking at them blankly,” Prisby said. “There is really now no reason to stare at a vacant 25 Worcester St.”
Prisby said the Affordable Housing Trust has “seven figures worth” of funds that could be used to examine the property and lure in potential developers. There’s a plus side: all of the senior housing units can be made affordable, which increases Grafton’s affordable housing inventory and leaves it less vulnerable to large 40B developments.
“For the last 40 years almost it’s been sitting there vacant,” Prisby said. “We’ve come to a point where something really has to happen.”
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