West Stockbridge — More than 100 residents attended a very contentious public hearing on Tuesday, November 1, over The Foundry’s application for a special permit.
The Foundry, a performing arts venue that opened in March 2019 at 2 Harris Street, is owned by Richmond resident Amy Brentano.
In December 2020, the retail store Sala moved into the building’s gallery space, while the West Stockbridge Farmers Market operates its market on the property’s green from May to October. Next door to The Foundry is Truc’s Orient Express Restaurant co-owned by Truc Nguyen and Trai Thi Duong. Brentano and Nguyen were present at the hearing, which was held at Town Hall’s gymnasium and lasted for more than two hours. The special permit application is for Brentano to continue to operate The Foundry as a commercial amusement venue.
At the beginning of the meeting, Planning Board Chairperson Dana Bixby told the audience that residents at a special town meeting on October 6 approved a change to the town’s zoning bylaws that gives the board the right to approve or reject the special use permit.
Board member Ryan Beattie recused himself from the meeting due to being an abutter of the property. Chairperson Bixby said that at the board’s October 11 meeting it named Sarah Thorne as an alternate.
Bixby said in an email to the board before the meeting, however, that Pittsfield Attorney Mitch Greenwald, who represents Nguyen, questioned the decision because Thorne is a volunteer for the Farmers Market and sits on the market’s steering committee, which he said derives benefits from The Foundry. “It’s really up to Sarah to determine whether or not she can serve impartially,” Bixby said. “We are acting upon advice from town counsel.”
Despite Greenwald’s objection, Thorne said that she could serve impartially and was allowed to sit on the board as an alternate during the hearing.
Brentano was the first to speak at the hearing and spoke to the town about her business. “Despite the closures and restrictions of a world pandemic, The Foundry continues to actively achieve its mission of giving a platform to unheard voices, including LGBTQ+ and BIPOC artists, while simultaneously bringing together intergenerational audiences from all walks of life to experience the unique high-quality performance,” Brentano said. “The Foundry is not a nonprofit, but it is a community service that survives and pays its operating expenses through monthly subscriptions of supportive patrons, liquor sales from our full state liquor license, and ticket sales. Because we ticket prices accessibly, often offering large blocks of tickets free to the community, The Foundry donates more than it takes into this project and is, therefore, a labor of love.”
Brentano said that, since The Foundry opened, it had hosted 600 events involving multidisciplinary artists, serving approximately 5,000 patrons. She added that over 140 letters of support for the business to obtain its special permit were sent to the town.
During the discussion, Chairperson Bixby said that Brentano submitted an additional supplemental application regarding sound issues and parking at the site. Later on in the meeting, attorney Greenwald said that the supplemental application was submitted on Monday, October 31 to the town. “This was submitted only one day in advance of this hearing,” Greenwald said. “We are supposed to have 14 days to review material that’s part of the application. We would ask that there be at least 14 days for us to review this material and have the right to comment on it further before the hearing is closed.” Chairperson Bixby did not respond to Greenwald’s request during the meeting.
During this year, Nguyen made several formal complaints to the town and the West Stockbridge Police department concerning parking and noise violations. Brentano said that the supplemental application, which was not available to The Berkshire Edge at press time, is an attempt to address the complaints. “In terms of sound control, when we first opened in 2019, we installed these two by four foot sound baffles, which are panels that are made out of professional sound baffling material that is all over the walls of the foundry,” Brentano said. “It creates an acoustic situation that is professional and appropriate for theater, including anything in terms of sound because the building was previously a glass-blowing studio.”
Brentano said that, in terms of parking control, in the previous permit for the building there was a provision that the company would make a reasonable effort to have crowd control. “We don’t have large crowds ever at The Foundry,” Brentano said. “It’s a miracle when we sell out, especially now. When people purchase tickets on Eventbrite, which is a third-party ticketing service, we can email them tickets to the event. We give explicit instructions about where they should and should not park. We explicitly put in the instructions that they don’t park at Truc’s Orient Express. We haven’t had any issues for a while.”
Brentano said that The Foundry has held several outdoor performances since it opened. When Chairperson Bixby asked Brentano what would happen if the board made a condition in the special permit that The Foundry would not have any outdoor performances, Brentano said “I would probably have to close.”
Later on in the meeting, by request of Chairperson Bixby, Zoning Board of Appeals member James Pinkston read into the record minutes of an October 12 public hearing that appealed previous decisions made by Building Inspector Brian Duval regarding Nguyen and Duong’s enforcement requests against The Foundry. “The appeal was made due to Duval’s decision not to enforce West Stockbridge’s zoning bylaws,” Pinkston said.
Pinkston said that the ZBA could not address the multiple sound-level complaints made by Nguyen. “We make the findings that the applicant has not fulfilled her burden of proving a violation of sound level requirements of the special permit, simply because of the controversy and conflict in the evidence about the manner and how sound testing was done or recorded,” Pinkston said. “And that under the circumstances, the testing simply did not meet a sufficient level or toward a finding up for about relation to that.”
It was later revealed in the meeting that Nguyen made her sound decibel measurements with an iPhone, which the ZBA did not find to be an adequate sound-measuring device. Pinkston added that the ZBA deferred to Building Inspector Duval to issue any citations regarding parking and trespassing violations, which Chairperson Bixby said he has not done as of November 1.
Later on during the hearing, Truc’s attorney Greenwald told the board that “we’re okay with an indoor operation, as long as it can’t be heard outdoors.” Greenwald elaborated, “The steps that were taken to keep the sound indoors I’m sure were partially effective, but they didn’t do the job. If it’s indoors and can’t be heard, it’s no problem. But if it’s outdoors, it’s a problem. We don’t think that any outdoor events or sound that is produced are appropriate.”
Truc spoke to the board after Greenwald and said that “not every performance [at The Foundry] harms me, but certain performances that have an amplification of bass and drums.” True explained, “I’m not contesting dancers or theater, but there are certain types of music that are being booked there that hurts me … When the performances start, typically at seven, I have to endure two hours of deep bass and drums through my home, which means it goes through my body, and it goes through my head. Even at the furthest point of our home, during the summertime, if there’s that type of performance, we can’t even open our windows to enjoy the cool Berkshire air. And I’ll say this again, none of you would accept that. So you can fight and support each other all you want. That’s great. But if harm is being done to one, and I’m the one screaming about this for two years now, it is a problem. We’ve had parking violations that I’ve had to go out there and take pictures of. And this isn’t just someone who’s quickly parked and went inside the timing of this as well into performances in the middle of their event. If they’re mitigating it, they would have caught it before I happen to see it. We’ve had to call the police. That’s not the use of taxpayer dollars. But that’s what we were told that we had to do so there could be enforced and we did that. And we are still denied that and that’s why we have to go to the ZBA. Three parking violations with police reports, but yet no violations.”
Truc said that she measured the alleged sound violations from her iPhone because “the town refused to put any mechanism in there that could be independent. I had no choice.”
During the meeting, residents spoke both in favor and against the special permit, and Chairperson Bixby hurriedly read out loud letters the board received throughout the hearing. Chairperson Bixby told the audience that she was reading the letters quickly to get them into the record before the hearing ended. However, by 9:15 p.m., despite a stack of multiple letters that had not yet been read by Chairperson Bixby, the board all agreed to continue the hearing on Monday, November 7 at 7:15 p.m. at Town Hall.
Find a Brentano’s special permit application here.
Find Nguyen’s alleged license violations here.
Correction November 3: Article originally incorrectly referred to Bixby as “Chairman”. Bixby’s proper title on the Planning Board is Chairperson.
