Hi Barry,
Thanks for returning my call. As you will see from the data below, these apartment buildings produce an enormous revenue opportunity for the developers, and huge financial costs for the community. This is not a housing issue, but a case of Andover residents subsidizing the developers. Even on a smaller scale, your constituents suffer. Can you really support this knowing that we are scrimping on services, shutting off street lights, cutting library hours, and running out of space in the schools? I have presented this data to the google group community, and they are not pleased to have to pay for this. Is the state providing subsidies to the town to cover the shortfall?
Below is the actual data on # of students at the apartment complexes:
Windsor Green: 311 Lowell St
192 Rental Units (48 are affordable)
77 students enrolled in our schools
Student per unit ratio: .40
Cost of 77 students at Andover Public Schools = 77x$13,200 = $1,016,400
Current Windsor Green Property tax revenue = $404,000
WG Contribution to school expenses @ (67%) = $271,000
Annual Shortfall = $745,400
Casco Crossing: 168 River Rd:
96 Rental Units (24 are affordable)
29 students enrolled in our schools
Student per unit ratio: .30
Cost of 29 students at Andover Public Schools = 29x$13,200 = $382,800
Current Casco Crossing Property tax revenue = $183,000
CC Contribution to school expenses @ (67%) = $123,000
Annual Shortfall = $259,800
These two existing developments are costing Andover residents over $1 million every year to subsidize just their education costs and creating strain on our schools.
Using the actual percentages from the existing developments, we can predict that the new Andover Apartments @ Rolling Green development will bring an additional 120 students, at a total education cost of $1.556M.
30 Shattuck Road will bring 115 new students to Andover. Total cost to educate these students will be $1.518M.
Total new educational expenses from these two projects = $3.074M.
Total that Andover residents will be required to subsidize every year = $2.2M (using the actual percentages from the existing developments).
We’re already struggling financially to maintain our high standard of education and level of services for our children. The only way any additional projects should be allowed to happen is if the developers/landlords fully cover these costs – or even better, these profitable development projects and the high rental income from the units justify higher property taxes that would create a surplus that would help defray some of our community’s costs on an ongoing basis.
Are our town representatives willing to allow these projects to happen without the real estate companies paying their proportional share of taxes to carry the burden of providing education and services to these new residents?
Thank you for your attention to this matter,
I just finished a tour of the high school as I have an 8th grader going in next year. Average class size is 29 and is expected to jumpt to well over 30 next year. furthermore there aren’t enough seats to even hold all of the kids for lunch..kids have to share chairs….my daughter is a fith grader at sanborn..for the first 4 years her class size was 16 or 17…it is now 25…we as a town need to do something immediately as we can’t afford this