Becket — After several months of tense public hearings, a proposed project to convert the Dream Away Lodge property into a glamping resort will not happen.
The lodge is located at 1342 County Rd. and has been closed for two years.
In March 2021, owner Daniel Osman, the owner of the lodge since 1997, had put the lodge up for sale for $1,250,000.
In February, a special permit application was submitted to the town by Hit the Road RV, LLC, a subsidiary of the Davis Companies of Boston.
The Davis Companies is a real estate investment and development firm.
The company wished to purchase the lodge and the adjacent parcel at 1402 County Rd. to reestablish the location as both a restaurant and a glamping facility to be known as the Dream Away Campground.
However, over the subsequent months at Zoom-based public hearings held by the town’s planning board, residents spoke out against the plans, mostly citing potential traffic issues and environmental issues, along with the potential influx of people coming into town.
By the time the last public hearing was held by the board on June 8, more than 80 residents had signed up to speak on the application, but the board only called on five residents to speak during the hearing.
At the Thursday, July 13 planning board meeting, Chairman Robert Ronzio said that a few hours right after the previous public hearing on June 8, he received an email from Hit The Road managing partner Daniel Weinstein requesting a withdrawal of the special permit application.
“It was apparent tonight that the planning board is unable to make a decisive decision on what’s best for the town with regard to our application,” Weinstein wrote in his email, which has been obtained by The Berkshire Edge. “With that said, we are respectfully withdrawing it and wish Becket the best of luck.”
Weinstein would not return calls for comment for this story.
At the July 13 meeting, Ronzio said that the board still had to vote to accept the withdrawal of the application.
Eventually, the board voted to accept the withdrawal of the application with prejudice.
According to Ronzio, accepting the withdrawal with prejudice means that “the applicant cannot reapply for this type of facility in the town for two years.”
The motion to accept the withdrawal with prejudice was made by board member Howard Lerner and was seconded by Ann Krawet.
“I just think that we spent a lot of time dealing with this,” Lerner said. “For them to just pull it off the table, these kinds of actions should have consequences.”
Member Alvin Blake disagreed with Lerner and Krawet.
“I would like the opportunity for the applicant to come back with a much smaller design of what they originally proposed if they choose to do so,” Blake said.
“They had that option and we gave them that option,” Lerner said. “They chose not to exercise that option. After the first hearing, they had an idea that we had lots of issues with the size and scope of the project. They chose not to come back with much of a modification.”
“As far as this application is concerned, I more or less believed that the applicants basically proceeded along very, very well with this application,” Ronzio said. “The language that was used in [the email] indicated that the board didn’t have the ability to make a decision. I’ve been on this board for over 20 years, and I have never seen an applicant react the way they reacted. If it were me and it was my sole decision, I would vote to approve this withdrawal with prejudice.”
The motion to accept the withdrawal with prejudice was approved with all board members approving the motion except for Blake, who abstained from the vote.
Calls for comment from Osman were not returned to The Berkshire Edge.
However, according to the Dream Away Lodge’s website, the property is back up for sale.
