546 Mahaiwe Street
Great Barrington’s Planning Board deserves praise for endeavoring over the last few years to update the town’s zoning bylaws to encourage housing construction. The Planning Board knows—we all know—that we will not turn the corner on housing availability by continuing to build single-family homes on one- and two-acre lots.
While blanket high-density development would be inconsistent with the town’s overall rural character, our reconsidered zoning bylaws provide for higher density, multi-family construction along a corridor on Routes 7 and 23 where town water and sewer are available. Targeting this infrastructure-rich corridor is intended to increase housing supply without changing the character of the rest of the community. What could go wrong?
Ask anyone near Mahaiwe Street, and they will tell you: 546 Main Street is Exhibit A of how things can go wrong. As someone who has long advocated for more housing and supported reduced parking requirements to encourage development, I find myself—uncomfortably—having to agree.
In theory, the zoning modifications make perfect sense. In practice, an unattractive 21-unit building squeezed onto a 0.6-acre lot requiring only one parking space for each dwelling unit serves as a reminder that good policies often fail in practice.
Mahaiwe Street is a mix of businesses and homes. With only one parking space per unit, property owners, understandably, worry about resident and guest vehicles spilling onto their street. To address those concerns, the developer arranged to lease 10 overflow spaces from the Quality Inn, a 10-minute walk away—a concession on paper, but not in practice. Manville and Pope Streets have every reason to share Mahaiwe Street’s parking concerns.
The Selectboard is scheduled to consider the project one final time at its August 11 meeting. As the proposal complies with the letter of the zoning bylaw, approval is expected. A denial would certainly trigger litigation—something town counsel has shown no aptitude for managing.
Hard as it may be for a certain Planning Board member to hear, a fixed bylaw requiring only one parking space per unit is aspirational at best. Within a decade, autonomous taxis and buses may significantly reduce the need for multi-vehicle households. Until then, the Planning Board should incorporate greater flexibility into the zoning code, allowing deviations from minimum requirements when the overall impact of housing construction on the surrounding neighborhood warrants it. It is too late for Mahaiwe, Manville, and Pope streets—but not too late to fix the bylaw.
Stockbridge: Hear No Evil
At the close of each Great Barrington Selectboard meeting, the agenda includes a “citizen speak time”—a three-minute window for town residents, property owners, and business owners to address the board on any topic. Selectboard members typically refrain from responding, both because the topics are not on the agenda and to keep the meeting from going off the rails. Still, for many, the opportunity is cathartic. Even if the board doesn’t always appear fully engaged, it remains a valuable moment for concerns to be voiced and heard.
Our dear neighbor to the north, Stockbridge, takes a different approach—let’s call it “hear no evil.” Stockbridge agendas don’t routinely include “citizen speak time.” Residents shall speak no evil—or, really, anything at all. Looking to air a grievance or redress a wrong? Not here, folks. Move along.
When widely admired Stockbridge Highway Superintendent Hugh Page resigned under pressure in early July, residents wanted the chance to voice their dismay. The Select Board, however, decided the better course was to stifle public comment. When residents then sought to speak out against that ill-advised decision, they were, unsurprisingly, silenced again.
Any two Stockbridge residents in conversation are bound to mention the town’s deep colonial roots and rich history. And rightly so—this is the town that gave us Norman Rockwell’s “Freedom of Speech,” a portrait of democracy itself, set at a town meeting. You would expect Stockbridge, of all places, to honor speech rather than muzzle it. But if citizens aren’t permitted to speak at public meetings, rest assured: They will make themselves heard loudly at the ballot box.
Town Counsel: Winning Isn’t Everything
Great Barrington town counsel’s losing streak just keeps growing. Most litigation falls into one of three buckets—with odds of success pegged at 25 percent, 50 percent, or 75 percent, since few cases are slam dunks. But much like flipping a coin and landing on tails every time, eventually the odds defy logic. So, in at least one respect, town counsel’s performance is truly remarkable.
You would be forgiven for losing track of town counsel’s latest defeat. The most recent came in early July when the town attempted to compel the Department of Public Utilities (DPU) to investigate Housatonic Water Works’ (HWW’s) 10-month delay in implementing its manganese filtration system. Back in January, HWW had informed the DPU that, due to litigation initiated by the town casting a financial cloud over its operations, its lenders had declined to finance the project until those legal uncertainties were resolved.
Great Barrington and West Stockbridge asked the DPU to suspend HWW’s rate increases until the manganese filtration system was underway. The DPU declined for several reasons, chief among them that the approved rate increase did not include any costs related to the filtration system. However, the DPU did advise the towns that resolving “the ongoing litigation processes outside the Department would be in the best interest of the Company’s customers.” In other words, the litigation is not helping the towns—or their residents.
Given town counsel’s well-established record—and the long odds of success—dismissing the pending appeal of the prior HWW loss makes the most sense. It would allow the company to finally move forward. The town can, of course, continue to explore acquiring HWW, but it should do so while letting the long-delayed work begin.
Then there is the Theory Wellness litigation, in which the cannabis retailer seeks the return of the Community Impact Fees paid to the town. At a mid-June hearing, the state’s Cannabis Control Commission moved to intervene to aid the court’s determination of the governing statute. Town counsel opposed. Town counsel lost, of course. While the court has yet to issue its order, the odds are not in the town’s favor—especially given the Cannabis Control Commission’s oral argument that the town is holding Theory Wellness’ funds “hostage.”
There is no plausible explanation for why the town has not considered replacing town counsel with one of the other 40,000 attorneys in Massachusetts. Anyone in the service industry should be so lucky to have a Tammy Wynette-style client willing to stand by them no matter what. It is a peculiar anomaly: A physician can only lose a patient once, but town counsel can keep losing, year after year after year.
Fairview Hospital Expansion
Darlene Rodowicz, head of Berkshire Health Systems (BHS), and Tony Scibelli, head of Fairview Hospital, recently held a community meeting at Berkshire South Community Center to share plans for Fairview’s upcoming renovations. BHS is gifting Great Barrington with 44,000 square feet of new construction to house, among other things, expanded surgical suites, advanced imaging—including an MRI!—and a larger emergency department. The presentation and plans were impressive. Fairview is already a gem, and we are fortunate that BHS is making a major investment to make it even more so.
Survey Monkey Question
Here is a link to the following Survey Monkey poll: “Should the Great Barrington Planning Board consider amending the zoning bylaws to permit deviations from minimum parking requirements based on neighborhood impact?”
Survey Monkey Results
Here is the result of the following recent survey question: “Should the town drop its effort to prevent the Cannabis Control Commission from intervening in the Theory Wellness litigation?”
As of publication, 90.91 percent of respondents said “yes.”
