Lee — According to a report by Lee tax assessor Sarah Navin to the Select Board on October 17, the town added 10 single-family homes to its borders during fiscal year 2023 for a fiscal year 2024 total of 1,853 single family homes.
For fiscal 2024, property in Lee totals $1.34 billion, with the average single-family home in the town valued at $383,584.13, up from fiscal 2023’s average single-family home value of $345,403.69, she said. New construction year over year added $14 million of valuation in the town, including $6.9 million in real estate, commercial, and industrial construction, as well as $7.2 million of personal property, statistics that Navin said are “going to help lower the tax rate.”
Following the report, the board unanimously approved retaining one tax classification rate for single-family homes and open spaces together with commercial, industrial, and personal property in the town.
At the meeting, board members conditionally executed a contract for the purchase of 41 Railroad Street, a commercial tract contiguous with property the town of Lee already owns. According to real estate records, the property is .25 acres and owned by local residents Jared, Justin, and William Biasin. The new site is subject to town meeting approval and is slated to be a part of Lee’s proposed public safety facility, Town Administrator Christopher Brittain said. The purchase price is $375,000, he said, and the seller signed the contract for sale prior to the Select Board meeting.
Chair Robert “Bob” Jones said the area is “somewhat blighted” and “needs updating.” He said the town must either start repairing existing infrastructure or start anew with constructing government facilities. “This is a first step [to] bringing it to the town at a town meeting to see what’s possible for all of us,” Jones said.
“It’s time and something we have to do for the community,” Clerk Gordon Bailey said.
By unanimous vote, the Select Board approved the disbursement of the Housatonic Rest of River Municipal Committee reserve funds totaling $1.5 million to be deposited into the Committee’s general fund. Each of the five member towns—Great Barrington, Lee, Lenox, Sheffield, and Stockbridge—must approve the action following the Committee’s October 3 recommendation to dissolve the fund. The Lenox Select Board unanimously approved the disbursement on October 15.
Created by an Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) in 2013, the Committee is charged with pushing for increased cleanup by the Environmental Protection Agency of the Housatonic River following decades of General Electric Company depositing now-banned polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) into the waterway from its Pittsfield plant. The Rest of River is the third segment of the river to be remediated and stretches from the confluence of its east and west branches at Pittsfield to Connecticut.
A 2020 agreement—a permit exacted between the Rest of River’s five Berkshire towns, as well as GE and the EPA—provided that an Upland Disposal Facility (UDF) would be established in Lee. Additionally, each town would receive monies from GE, with Lee and Lenox receiving about $25 million each, the largest financial amount.
Lee representatives recently sought to withdraw from the Committee when it appeared that the group would extend its scheduled three-year existence to continue its oversight of the proposed UDF, Jones said. But, he said the Committee had “a change of heart,” with Lee deciding to remain in the Committee long enough to expedite the elimination of the monetary fund and “to see [that] the town of Lee gets the funds owed to it from the agreement.”
Brittain said he has reached out to a number of environmental firms that could provide technical consulting to the town for the Rest of River remediation plan, and has narrowed that field to three options. He said he hopes to have proposals to bring to the board to review in the next week or so.
Member Sean Regnier, who also serves on the Master Plan Committee, reported that the group is close to finalizing the document’s housing section, with some changes making it easier for developers to focus on areas within the center of town, promoting central housing developments rather than looking to the outer parts of Lee. A public forum regarding the future of the town’s open space and recreation areas is scheduled for 11 a.m. on October 21 at the Lee High School auditorium, 300 Greylock Street.
At the session, the Select Board unanimously approved gas permits, with three permits to install test stations at 110 Marble, 63-65 Center and 72-74 Columbia streets. A fourth permit was approved to retire the gas service at 88 West Park Street.
