Territorial

 290 West Street (Tuesday morning)

Those of you who drive to or by Crocker Farm school may have noticed a DPW crew doing work at the entrance to the school yesterday morning.  The town was reclaiming the public way borrowed by an absentee landlord for tenant parking.

When the Gralinski's owned 290 West Street (as they did since 1952) Esther used to operated the farm stand selling vegetables, and the public way was borrowed to create a turn out for the convenience of drive-thru customers.

When the family sold the estate in 2008 to carpetbagger, err, developer You-Pan Tzeng he immediately petitioned  the Zoning Board for a Special Permit to turn the one-family home into a two-family home with a new addition,  thus increasing the occupancy to eight unrelated individuals. 

Thus increasing the need for parking spaces.  But the tenants of Mr. Tzeng will now have to find another plot for parking.

Using town property for personal parking gain is kind of like expecting the Police or Fire Department to act as babysitters for rowdy tenants.  Yes, the town is getting territorial about that as well.

 290 West Street (this morning)

Exponentially Expanding Empire

60-62 Railroad Street (left) 64-66 Railroad (right) 

On December 13 the Amherst Zoning Board of Appeals will decide if two contiguous Railroad Street properties, currently zoned as "two family" dwellings (allowing eight unrelated tenants per house) can expand by 50%, going from four to a total of six units, or 24 unrelated occupants.

GP Amherst, LLC purchased the properties back in July.  The man behind the LLC is YPT, You-Pan Tzeng, who also owns five properties in town under his own name.   Four more via GP Amherst and another five using KH Associates, or a total of 14 properties.

In the past year, using those two LLCs, he has purchased ten houses. 

Yes, Mr. Tzeng is in the BIG Leagues. A property empire totaling $5 million in valuation, generating $100,000 in tax revenue to Amherst this year.

So you have to wonder if special treatment comes into play -- especially regarding code enforcement?

When You-Pan Tzeng purchased 321 Lincoln Avenue it came with a legally binding "owner occupied" provision, the result of an expansion from one family to the current two family back in 1993.  In a hearing last April, where he tried to get the Zoning Board to remove that provision, a bevy of neighbors descended on the public meeting to vociferously remind the ZBA about the detrimental impact non-owner occupied housing unleashes on neighborhoods.  

The zoning board unanimously reaffirmed the loud-and-clear difference between owner occupied vs absentee owner.  They denied the change in Special Permit.  So then what happened?  Did the house revert back to the original 1996 zoning of only one family (four unrelated housemates), thus costing the new owner $15,000 per year in rent? 

Well, no.  Apparently Mr Tzeng moved his residency from a ritzy $489,300 Longmeadow home to a tiny one-room unit at 321 Lincoln Avenue with seven housemates.  Hmm ...

And when friendly neighbors from the 'hood dropped by to welcome him to one of Amherst's oldest neighborhoods he seemed never to be at "home."  The college-aged roommates never seemed to know of his whereabouts either, and reportedly got nervous when asked about it.

Double hmm ... 

Barn Blast

 290 Lincoln Avenue.  A barn no more

Despite a desperate last minute attempt from neighbors for a stay of execution, the quaint old barn at 290 Lincoln Avenue is now kindling, paving the way for the construction of an additional non-owner occupied rental unit.  The other thing neighbors are seriously concerned about.

The Historical Commission decided not to impose a one-year demolition delay on the barn, rumored to have once been used by poet Robert Frost (but a rumor started by a real estate agent, so not exactly a reliable source).  On Monday rookie Building Commissioner Rob Morra issued a demolition permit, but neighbors filed an appeal with  the Town Clerk, setting up a possible hearing with the Zoning Board of Appeals.

That deliberation, however, would only judge whether the Building Commissioner acted properly in issuing the demolition permit, and since the landowner, You-Pan Tzeng, had a legit permit in hand at the time of this morning's demolition, the episode is now moot.

Somewhere in the distance, a Barn Owl wailed.

Lords Over the Land

290 Lincoln Ave, barn on death row in rear

Just in the past five months using two different LLCs as a cloaking device, KH Amherst PE LLC and GP Amherst LLC, You-Pan Tzeng has purchased a half dozen Amherst houses, three of them on Lincoln Avenue -- one of the oldest streets in overly Democratic Amherst, named after a Republican President before a bullet to the back of the head elevated him to sainthood.

Over the past two years at public meeting after public meeting, residents of Lincoln Avenue have brought to the attention of town officials the persistent problem with unruly party houses, usually single family homes that have been bought up by speculators, subdivided into a" two family homes" and then crammed with eight unrelated, college aged tenants (Amherst zoning legally allows four per unit).

321 Lincoln Ave


The term "tipping point" was used often, meaning the number of owner occupied units was slowly becoming the minority on this historic old street that leads directly to UMass, our largest employer.

The recent purchase of three homes on Lincoln Avenue may very well have tipped the balance ... once and for all.

328 Lincoln Avenue

While Mr. Tzeng is keeping his cards close to his chest, he has tipped his hand with the filing of a ANR plan (Approval Not Required) before our Planning Board to jury rig a second building lot in a location now occupied by a historic old barn.

Even more ominous, You-Pan Tzeng testified before our Zoning Board of Appeals when he converted a one family house at 290 West Street to a two family operation that he "uses Eagle Crest Management for all aspects of property management ..."  Yikes!

Yes, although Eagle Crest owner Jamie Cherewatti testified before the Zoning Board for one of his conversions at 156 Sunset Ave last April that he did not want to be know as the "slumlord of Amherst", it would appear he doesn't work very hard at it. 

For starters, moving his business office from 73 Main Street Amherst into space above Stackers Bar, a youthful, less-than-elegant tap room in town center Cherewatti recently purchased using one of his front LLC's.  In addition to Stackers Pub Railroad Street Partners owns another half dozen rentals in town.


Nothing like staying on top of the source of your success:  alcohol and partying. 

Now that Cherewatti has partnered with You-Pan Tzeng (or vice versa), no neighborhood in Amherst is safe.  The town needs to call a moratorium on all housing conversions until this spring, so Town Meeting can takes up Planning Board articles that attempt to tame the Wild, Wild West. 
  
290 Lincoln Subdivide

The rest of You-Pan Tzeng's very recent purchases:

695/697 Main Street (yes, the garage is 695)

42 Shumway Street

300 West Street