GREAT BARRINGTON — In a debatable move that was met with opposition on Monday, the selectboard agreed to issue a special permit to a Mahaiwe Street carpentry and masonry business for a home and a contractor’s yard.
The board also voted to grant a special permit for the contractor, Brian Hazelton, to perform the work in the town’s Water Quality Protection District because the proposal will increase the impervious surfaces on the property by more than 15 percent. Both votes passed by a margin of 4-0. Board member Leigh Davis abstained because she works for an abutter, Construct, Inc.
Hazelton, who owns and operates Wood to Stone, also cleared one of his last hurdles Tuesday night when the Zoning Board of Appeals voted unanimously to approve his special permit application for an expansion of his nonconforming building. The project will still need site plan approval from the Planning Board.
The selectboard approved the permits with conditions, some of which were suggested by Hazelton and his attorney, Dennis G. Egan. But that did not satisfy opponents of the project, many of whom are neighbors who cited Hazelton’s checkered history of compliance with Great Barrington’s zoning bylaw.
See video below of Monday’s Great Barrington Selectboard meeting. Fast forward to 32:15 for the extended portion of the meeting devoted to Brian Hazelton:
David Soles, who purchased his home at 29 Mahaiwe Street last year from the Greco family, said he had learned the Grecos had filed formal complaints with the town “about cutting and grinding and clanging, shouting and high volume of vehicular traffic, putting heavy machinery up and down onto trailers and deliveries from tractor trailers” that sometimes blocked traffic on the 20-foot-wide street.
Soles said the Grecos asked building inspector Edwin May to issue a cease-and-desist order in 2019 because Hazelton was operating an illegal contractor’s yard in violation of the town’s zoning bylaw.
According to Michael Kernan of 12 Mahaiwe Street, who wrote a letter to the board, May issued a second cease-and-desist order the following year. In neither case were enforcement actions taken, Kernan said.
Click here to view Hazelton’s special permit application, which includes letters from the neighbors and a statement from Hazelton himself. For his part, Egan attributed Hazelton’s transgressions to “ignorance” of the bylaw.
“The best proxy for how someone would act under a special permit is how they acted when they were under a cease-and-desist order,” Soles told the board.
And so it went. There were also several speakers during the public hearing Monday night who supported Hazelton’s proposal, including former selectboard member Dan Bailly, who is himself a building contractor.
Bailly said the town needs to be supportive of small businesses because they aid in Great Barrington’s economic development by paying taxes and employing workers.
“We have been customers for 15 years,” added Robert Norris of Prospect Street. “We recognize [Hazelton] as an outstanding businessman.” Norris added that Hazelton’s expansion will have “minimal impact on the environment.”
“I’ve been with Brian as a partner and now as an employee,” added Joe Bozza. “He treats his people very well. When the cease-and-desist came, Brian got the whole crew to comply as best he could to get vehicles off the property. His proposal addresses all the issues the neighbors are concerned about.”
Egan added that the proposal “allows the applicant to keep a successful construction business in Great Barrington, thereby providing jobs and increasing value of the property. The end product would be consistent with the residential nature of mixed use. It also allows his family to live on the property.”
But Michelle Loubert, a member of the town Finance Committee, countered that: “This project may open a can of worms. Great Barrington does not have the greatest history of enforcing its permits.”
Interestingly, one of the conditions Hazelton’s team suggested was that the special permits be only for Hazelton himself and his limited liability corporation, 17 Mahaiwe Group.
“This special permit, if granted, would not run with the land,” Egan explained. “It would be specific to 17 Mahaiwe Group, LLC, and specific to the exact use. Any future owner that wanted to extend that use, the owner would have to come back before this board.”
The property in question lies in the mixed-use transitional zone (MXD), which was created in 2016, according to the town zoning bylaw, to “preserve and enhance the mix of residential and retail uses, to maintain the existing character of the area, and to bring existing uses and structures more into compliance with the Zoning Bylaw, thereby facilitating a variety of business and housing opportunities within walking distance of the Town’s downtown core.”
Neighboring Manville Place lies in the same zone and was the site of a controversy involving a proposal for an apartment building and small coffee shop in 2018. Critics had argued the developers were exploiting a loophole in the town’s zoning bylaws that allows larger-scale residential development in that area of town only if there is a retail component. After granting a special permit, the selectboard later lost a lawsuit filed by some abutters over procedural matters. The proposal is now dead.
Barbara Matz, of 22 Mahaiwe Street, took issue with the selectboard’s draft findings on Hazelton’s permit, characterizing them as full of “ambiguities, misrepresentations, and questionable assertions.” Matz suggested the board had already made up its mind, an implication that caused board chair Steve Bannon to bristle.
In the end, the board voted to approve the special permit with the bulleted conditions below. As required by the zoning bylaw, approving a special permit requires a determination by the board granting the permit “that the adverse effects of the proposed use will not outweigh its beneficial impacts to the town or the neighborhood.”
That determination requires the board consider such factors as social, economic or community needs, traffic flow, parking, access to utilities, neighborhood character, environmental impact, employment, and potential fiscal impact on town services and the tax base.
The board found that the benefits outweigh the drawbacks, but “only if certain conditions are imposed to secure the benefits and mitigate the potential negative impacts. The conditions cannot be modified except by the selectboard through a new special permit:
The contractor’s yard will be permitted only for the activities of Wood to Stone and only as long as Brian Hazelton is both the sole proprietor of the business and a resident of the home on premises.
- The contractor’s yard activities must be limited to storage and client meetings. Storage of wheeled equipment limited elsewhere, shall be confined to the barn, new shed, and parking area of the property
- No heavy machinery shall be stored on site
- No fabrication of stone or carpentry projects shall occur on site
- The barn and proposed shed shall be used as an office and dry storage only
- No major construction vehicles shall be stored on site; the only business-related vehicles that may be continually on site are domestic-sized vehicles including a pick-up truck or minivan
- No trailers, enclosed or otherwise, larger than 6-feet-by-8 feet shall be stored on site
- Employees, other than the resident owner of the contractor’s yard, shall not arrive on site earlier than 8:30 a.m. No contractor’s yard vehicles or equipment may be moved earlier than 8:30 a.m. or later than 5:30 p.m., or on weekends
