Great Barrington — At its regular meeting on Monday, June 23, during a public hearing the Selectboard heard concerns from residents about a planned apartment building at 546 Main Street.
On January 17, AM MGMT 2 LLC of Pittsfield applied for special permits from the town to complete the project under Section 8.2 Accessory Dwelling Unit, Section 9.2 Water Quality Protection Overlay District, and 10.4 Special Permits.
The building is planned for a vacant lot at the corner of Main Street and Mahaiwe Street.
As originally submitted, the project included the construction of a 20-unit apartment building with one office space, approximately 6,650 square feet in size, and two floors, along with a parking area accommodating 24 spaces.
However, in a letter to the Selectboard submitted on May 30, SK Design Group President Jim Scalise wrote that, due to various concerns from the town’s Planning Board, the company revised its plans.
The company now plans to build a 21-unit apartment building 7,800 square feet in size and 33 feet in height.
The new plans call for a reduction of parking spaces from 24 to 22 spaces.
Scalise wrote in his letter that, as per the Planning Board’s request, additional trees will be planted along Route 7 and Mahaiwe Street, and other elements of the site including sidewalks, landscaping, and mailboxes, have all been rearranged.
At the June 23 public hearing, residents spoke out against the planned development, including Mahawie Street resident Alan Bogdonoff, who said he is concerned about potential parking issues.
“One can argue that walkability or demographics may result in lower parking demand, but there’s no meaningful support for that statement,” Bogdonoff said. “It’s expensive to live in Great Barrington, and if you want to move here and if you want to live in an apartment at a market rate of $3,000 to $4,000 a month, you’re going to have cars and they are not going to fit on this property.”
Bogdonoff said there are issues that the company has not addressed in its plans.
“[The developer’s plans] don’t even begin to address visitor parking or maintenance parking,” he said. “A moving van isn’t going to be able to pull into that development. The van will be parked on Mahaiwe Street, blocking the entire street. There is simply no way for it to pull into the driveway and not block the other parked cars.”
Bogdonoff added that “Mahaiwe Street is simply too narrow” to take additional street parking.
Shannon Vorce, owner of The Pilates Space on 15 Mahaiwe Street, said her property directly abuts the planned development.
“Their driveway [for their property] is touching ours in the plans,” Vorce said. “I’ve reached out [to the company] trying to see how we can get a setback, but we need a setback. If you look at the plans closely it looks like it goes over our driveway at one piece of it. We’re a business and we’re in this neighborhood, and we need space from that driveway.”
Mahaiwe Street resident Barbara Matz told the Selectboard asked if the developer conducted any studies on how the development would increase traffic and parking.
“A lot of the arguments [by the developer] are based on speculation,” Matz said. “[The developer asserts that] the placement of the driveway entrance and exit on the Mahaiwe side of the property would have no impact on the neighborhood. To me, this is another assertion that disregards and is dismissive of the reality of the ground. It seems to me that much of the contractors’ blueprint has been drawn up in a vacuum. It sounds lovely and convincing on paper, but to many of us familiar with the reality of the neighborhood, it appears to be totally out of touch.”
Eventually, the Selectboard continued the hearing to Monday, July 21.
The Planning Board is scheduled to continue to review plans for the development at its regular meeting on Thursday, June 26 at 6 p.m.
Click here for documents presented at the June 23 public hearing.
