Great Barrington — The Planning Board last week (January 22) voted unanimously to send a strong recommendation to the Zoning Board of Appeals to uphold a town code that protects a vital reservoir, and to support Building Inspector Edwin May’s most recent order on that basis to stop a Long Pond Road property owner from cutting trees close to what is the water source for the Village of Housatonic.
A ZBA public hearing on the legality of Lynn Hutchinson’s new, state-sanctioned Forest Cutting Plan is scheduled for February 10. Hutchinson appealed May’s order to stop clear-cutting within the town’s Water Quality Protection Overlay District Zone A, an area within about 500 feet of the Pond at 263 Long Pond Road, an “extremely fragile” water supply, according to Conservation Commission Chairman Andrew Mankin.
The land in question also falls under Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) regulations that prohibit working land within 100-feet of a reservoir and wetlands, and the town’s rules that put a 500 foot buffer between a reservoir and any permitted activity.
Swimming, boating and fishing are prohibited on Long Pond, as well.
Hutchinson, who is married to real estate speculator Brian Schwab, has been served with three separate cease and desist orders since purchasing the 35-acre property in July 2013 for $700,000, and commencing to cut a large swath of trees all the way to the Pond — ostensibly to clear a view.
The property was briefly for sale last fall for $1,290,000.
It is more than a town zoning and environmental issue, as well, since trees were cut on properties owned and maintained by the Housatonic Water Works, and the other neighbor, the Pfeiffer Arboretum, a nature and wildlife preserve with trails owned by the Great Barrington Land Conservancy.
Hutchinson admitted to violating wetlands protection regulations, and the Conservation Commission approved a restoration plan to the area. That plan was accepted by Building Inspector May. According to Mankin, Hutchinson and Schwab undertook the plan and planted everything they were told to, but the Commission will still have to closely monitor the area. “The key is to make sure that what they planted grows,” Mankin said. “That it doesn’t die or get taken over by invasive species…”
Still, Hutchinson appealed last summer’s ZBA ruling that she could not do forestry work on that part of the property. Hutchinson has an appeal with the state on that finding, and it is not yet settled.
This most recent installment involves the third cease and desist order; it appears Hutchinson and Schwab have now attempted another route to cutting by hiring a licensed forester to prepare a “Forest Cutting Plan” for a 9- to 10-acre area on the property, which, explained Town Planner Christopher Rembold, “primarily allows those forestry practices to take place without having to go through the Conservation Commission process.” The Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (MassDCR) and Mass DEP have “a kind of interagency agreement” that allows this when wetlands are involved, if the forester follows “best forest practices,” he added.
The plan was filed with the MassDCR and approved by the agency, and included invasive plant removal and some cordwood cutting, Rembold said.
But that interagency agreement deals only with wetlands, and not zoning, Rembold noted, and the section of property in question sits in a highly regulated zone. A zone, according to Mankin, that would still require Conservation Commission permitting for a Forest Cutting Plan.
Building Inspector May said the Forest Cutting Plan would violate the zoning rules of the water quality protection district, and violate the ZBA’s last ruling, where Hutchinson argued that the area was “historically cleared,” and that the sellers of the property had never told her that Long Pond was a public water supply, according to ZBA minutes.
Planning Board Chairman Jonathan Hankin said the swath was first cut by previous owner Andrew Humes in the mid-1990s, and the area near the Pond was “in the process of growing in,” when Hutchinson began to cut. Indeed, aerial views of the property show that many trees have been felled since 2013.
“Only uses related to the operation and maintenance of the public water supply are permitted,” says the code, and, reading it again, board member Malcolm Fick said it was “pretty clear…”
Rembold agreed. “The Zoning Board said as much in their order last summer.”
The Forest Cutting Plan, said board member Brandee Nelson, “was put together to, in my opinion, look for an opportunity for an end-around.” Nelson noted that member Suzie Fowle had written an email to the board expressing “concerns about the impacts to animal species that use these buffer zones.”
And Fick noted that Mass DEP is relying on the town’s zoning to protect the water resource.
“Our code speaks for itself,” Nelson said.
Planning board members Suzanne Fowle and Jack Musgrove were absent. New associate member, Jeremy Higa, was present.
