37 Shattuck Street / Re-Use

The Select Board began planning in 2017 to move the town offices from the current Town Hall site (37 Shattuck Street) to a new facility; the existing Town Office building at 37 Shattuck Street has reached the end of its functional life.  Town Meeting support for three related building projects has made it possible for us to move forward now with plans to relocate Town Hall.

Library: October 2019 Special Town Meeting approved construction funding for the new Library which opened in November 2021. Formerly housed at 37 Shattuck Street in the space currently occupied by Park & Recreation and Land Use & Buildings Departments, the new Reuben Hoar Library offers significant services for Littleton residents.

Center on Shattuck Street: May 2022 Town Meeting approved construction funding for the new senior center which will include offices and activity centers for the Elder and Human Services Department, Council on Aging, and Veterans’ Agent – all currently operating at 37 Shattuck Street. The new building will open in May 2025.

36 King Street: Feb. 2023, November 2023, and May 2024 Town Meetings approved the purchase, design, and funding for renovations at 36 King Street. The School Department/Superintendent’s offices and Parks, Recreation, and Community Education Departments will move from 37 Shattuck Street to this site later this spring.

Approval of Articles 12 and 13 at the May 10, 2025 Town Meeting would allow the Select Board to move forward with the next steps to move the town offices and pursue redevelopment of the 37 Shattuck Street site.

The Select Board will not know the answer until we issue a Request For Proposals (RFP) and consider the responses. The Town wants the best deal it can get, so we will consider competitive bids from anywhere in Littleton. Assuming we identify a superior location for the new Town Hall, the Town is also prepared to offer the 37 Shattuck Street site to be redeveloped for a minimum of 40 “deeply affordable” senior rental housing units, a need the Town has also recognized and tried to address for many years. However, the Town will remain at 37 Shattuck Street until it is ready to move to the new Town Hall.

It’s the right thing to do. “Deeply affordable” senior rental housing is desperately needed and has been in discussion for several years by the Council on Aging, the COA Housing Subcommittee, the Affordable Housing Trust, and the Planning Board. Further delay increases the cost of constructing this in-demand category of housing. Furthermore, the permitting and necessary State financing support for the housing will take much longer than the permitting for the new Town Hall.

The next step toward relocating Town Hall and redeveloping 37 Shattuck Street site for deeply affordable senior housing is affirmative votes at the May 6, 2025 Annual Town Meeting on the Article 12 motions. This would allow the Select Board to issue a detailed RFP in which the Town will offer 37 Shattuck Street site for a minimum of 40 “deeply affordable” senior rental housing units in exchange for another site, including land and a building, for a new Town Hall. The goal is to achieve a win-win for Littleton residents: occupying a new Town Hall at the lowest possible cost to the community and providing deeply affordable apartments for seniors. 

The Select Board has authority to determine the criteria, which it will review and adopt in an open meeting. At a minimum, the criteria would include meeting the needs of everyone who uses Town Hall – our residents, employees, Board and Committee members, and visitors – as well as costs, location, and accessibility. The criteria will also include evidence that the respondents have the knowledge, capacity, and experience to develop and manage deeply affordable housing senior housing.  

This will be a multi-year process. If Town Meeting approves the three motions under Article 12 and the Legislature passes the proposed Special Act - only after that can the Select Board negotiate with developer(s). We estimate that it will take approximately five years before we move into a new Town Hall. It will take around 12 to 18 months for the Special Legislation to be approved. The process to choose a developer and negotiate details is estimated to take several months. After that, the chosen, qualified developer would need to design, obtain permits, and gain approval for affordable housing tax credits; that process is a multi-year endeavor. None of that work can begin until the Town and developer reach an agreement about the terms and conditions for eventually transferring ownership of 37 Shattuck Street. This is why relocating Town Hall and securing a qualified senior housing developer for 37 Shattuck Street are so closely connected.

The Town will own the new Town Hall building and land.

Any funding for a new Town Hall and/or redevelopment of the 37 Shattuck Street site will require future Town Meeting approval. Once costs, benefits, and other tradeoffs are identified through the RFP process, the Select Board will ask for Town Meeting approval of costs associated with the new Town Hall and redevelopment of 37 Shattuck Street. The Select Board and Finance Committee closely monitor the financing of municipal projects. They will only recommend future expenditures if it is in the best interest of the Town and is in accordance with the Town’s financial policies. The request is for approval of three motions under Article 12 in order to keep the ball moving forward. 

Today it means a household income below $69,480 for a senior living alone or below $79,440 for an elderly couple. Some units will be affordable to seniors with lower incomes as well. The greater the amount of State tax credit and other subsidies awarded to the development, the more affordable the units will be for the seniors who really need this housing.

This will be determined after responses to the RFP is received and negotiations with one or more developer(s) has concluded. The Select Board intends to include requirements in the RFP that it remain at 37 Shattuck Street until the new Town Hall is ready for occupancy. 

Yes, the Town will make a request to the State Office of Housing and Livable Communities (EOHLC) for the maximum local preference allowed by law, which is currently 70 percent of the units. 

The Sewer Department continues to work to add more sewer capacity to meet the needs of all planned developments, while maintaining its priority to support redevelopment in the Littleton Common area for “small” property owners.

Yes. Parking, access, and providing safe and suitable housing are all important components that will be included in the final plan.

This will be determined after responses to the RFP is received and negotiations with one or more developer(s) has concluded. If funding is required to acquire and/or build-out a Town Hall shell the Select Board will bring another request to Town Meeting for funding of the Town Hall project. Any agreement for a new Town Hall will be contingent upon obtaining Town Meeting approval of the proposed acquisition and any necessary funding. 

The special legislation exempts these projects from public construction bidding and public procurement laws while ensuring that any construction work performed at 37 Shattuck Street and on the new Town Hall will be subject to prevailing wage law.  The benefit of obtaining special legislation is that it removes any ambiguity or question over what public bidding laws may apply to the projects and   ensures that construction workers are paid a proper wage on the projects. The special legislation does not add any new requirements on the Town, instead it gives the Town more flexibility to establish its own competitive and fair process that is uniquely designed to achieve the Town’s goals in a manner most advantageous to the Town. To that end, the Select Board intends to issue one or more RFPs, as described above, to select one or more (preferably one) developer partner(s) to work with. 

Towns that wish to enter into a more complicated development agreement or partnership with real estate developers encounter difficulties in carrying out their vision due to ambiguous and sometimes overlapping and contradictory application of various procurement laws. Some real property transactions have the qualities of public construction projects, and these two types of public procurements are regulated under different statutes. A community that follows the Uniform Procurement Act to select a developer for negotiation is at risk of facing a bid protest under the public construction bidding laws once construction on the project is underway. It is impractical, however, to select a developer following the public construction bidding laws because developers themselves are not construction contractors capable of carrying out a large public construction building project.

The solution to this problem is to seek special legislation exempting the Town from both public procurement and public construction bidding laws, but guaranteeing that any contractor working on these projects will be paid prevailing wage. This will allow the Town to engage in its own procurement process, which is specifically tailored to meet the Town’s needs while preserving the intent of public bidding laws, to ensure a fair, transparent, and competitive process.

A yes vote authorizes the Select Board to work with our legislative delegation to pursue a special act. The legislation will allow the Town to partner with one or more developers on two projects.  The first project is to sell and develop the Town Hall building at 37 Shattuck Street as deeply affordable senior residential housing (subject to the Town’s approval of article 13).  The second project is to construct and acquire a new Town Hall at another location within the Town. The Town will continue to use the building at 37 Shattuck Street while both projects are being developed and won’t move out until a New Town is ready. Finally, the special act clarifies that these projects are not subject to public construction and procurement laws and ensures that contractors working on the projects will be paid prevailing wage. Any funding needed to accomplish these project(s) will require an appropriation at a future Town Meeting.   

A no vote means that the Town must comply with all public construction and procurement laws in the event it chooses to proceed with the projects described above. 

The Select Board has voted to ask Town Meeting to pass over Article 13. Article 13 will not be voted on at the May 6, 2025 Town Meeting.

The Select Board has voted to ask Town Meeting to pass over Article 13. Article 13 will not be voted on at the May 6, 2025 Town Meeting.

If your household qualifies for deeply affordable housing on the basis of your income, you will most likely be eligible for a deeply affordable rental unit even if you sell your home. Unlike senior affordable homeownership units, where applicants have to meet both income and asset limits, subsidized rental units usually do not have an asset ceiling. However, interest income generated by an asset (like a savings account or certificate of deposit) will account toward the calculation of your total household income.  

Yes, the 2017 and 2021 space needs studies are linked below. 

• Littleton Town Offices Space Needs Program - December 8, 2017 by Allen Lieb Architects & Associates, P.C.
• Littleton Town Hall Building & Space Needs Assessment - March 5, 2021 by LLB Architects