Stockbridge — On the heels of a five-month approval process for the redevelopment of the former DeSisto School tract featuring an 1880s Gilded Age mansion, the Stockbridge Select Board is once again faced with the prospect of moving forward a proposal that would impact another historic site. On December 4, the group heard from a team of esteemed professionals touting an application to modify a 2014 special permit covering the Vanderbilt property known as Elm Court, including its Peabody & Stearns-designed 1886 Gilded Age mansion at 310 Old Stockbridge Road.
The amended permit submission can be found here.
Linda Law and Dr. Richard Peiser, former owners of the Blantyre Estate in Lenox, purchased the Elm Court site in December of 2022 as Vanderbilt Berkshires Estate LLC (VBE). The sale was made by hospitality company Amstar, also known as Travaasa, that had obtained the existing special permit to develop the property.
Originally commissioned by Emily Thorn Vanderbilt and William Douglas Sloane, the 55,000-square-foot manor house and its 103 rooms served as the base for talks to end World War I, the Treaty of Versailles, and the creation of the League of Nations, according to the amended permit submission. The structure is noted as the largest shingle-style residence in the United States, and its extensive grounds were designed by renowned landscape artist Frederick Law Olmsted. However, Elm Court’s history includes three failed attempts at restoring and developing the property after it had been abandoned and desecrated.
The amendment proposes a wellness resort, restaurant, and spa; freestanding single-family homes under a condominium regime; 218 parking spaces set within six different areas to minimize lighting, preserve views, and reduce the impact on traffic; public walking trails and restored landscape features; and a conservation area.
A copy of the development group’s slide presentation can be found here.
The proposal covering the 89-acre tract is slated to dedicate 35 acres, or 40 percent, to conservation and recreation while potentially developing 25 acres, or 28 percent, of the site. It also aims to preserve about 29 acres, or 32 percent of the site, as historic grounds.
Most of the property is located within the border of Stockbridge, with a small portion of the site situated in Lenox, with that town to carry the project’s water and sewer lines.
According to the developers’ attorney Jonathan Silverstein, who successfully represented the DeSisto project’s development team in their quest for a special permit, the Elm Court special permit amendment falls within the town’s Cottage Era Estates bylaw. That regulation allows for the development of historic grounds while preserving and restoring the site through a financially feasible investment.
In support of the modification, VBE CEO Steve Benson touted the betterment of the amended application over the approved 2014 special permit conditions. Whereas the approved project included 112 guest rooms, the proposed project will have 74 rooms, a decrease of 38 rooms. Instead, the pending project incorporates 38 resort residences where there were no such structures in the original approval. Both projects include a 60-seat restaurant and a similarly sized 15,000- or 16,000-square-foot spa.
Project architect Pamela Sandler spoke to the urgency of the project to preserve what was left of the decaying site. Traffic engineer Ken Cramm summarized the traffic study conducted during the summer and covering the project, with that report showing a slight increase in vehicular trips during weekday morning peak hours. However, the study reflected fewer vehicular trips during the weekday afternoons and Saturday peak hours, a benefit he said was due to the substantial decrease in the number of hotel rooms from the 2014 special permit.
The residential section of the project is aimed at attracting seasonal or part-time residents.
Peiser addressed the gains Stockbridge could make from approving the proposed amendment: adding $2.6 million to $3.7 million to the town’s tax base, 85 to 105 new jobs, $2.2 million to $2.3 million local spending uptick annually, and a $1.7 million contribution to the local affordable housing trust.
Silverstein told the dais that a modification is the correct mechanism for the project since it avoids issuing multiple permits for the same property and involves the same type of development approved in the 2014 special permit.
The matter is now scheduled to go before the Planning Board on December 16 at 6:30 p.m. after being posted on the agenda for group’s December 2 meeting that was canceled due to weather. Planning Board Chair Kate Fletcher advised that her dais will be able to make a recommendation to the Select Board after that session. “This is a huge project as the presenters have indicated, and details will be very important,” she said.
Former Select Board member Patrick White listed upcoming significant financial events affecting Stockbridge—the construction of a new high school and rollout of a joint fire/emergency medical services program with West Stockbridge—and supported the project as a way of maintaining the town’s affordability.
In a letter to the Select Board, Leslie Glenn Chesloff of William Pitt Sotheby’s International promoted the proposal as generating property tax revenue, increasing patronage in local businesses, and reducing the operational risk of maintaining the historic site.
Jeff Bendremer, tribal historic preservation officer for the Stockbridge-Munsee community, said he favored an archeological survey of the site to “identify archaeological, historical, cultural resources on the property before development occurs.”
However, some stakeholders argued the proposal should be vetted as a new development process rather than accepted as an amendment.
In his letter to the Select Board, Lenox resident Michael Lucia expressed doubts over the filing as the original special permit was for a resort and the amendment cites not only a residential component but a road encompassing it, “a fundamentally different land use” than what was originally contemplated. His correspondence also cast doubt on the validity of the traffic study.
Old Stockbridge Road resident Steven Greene voiced concerns about the propriety of the project proceeding as an amendment to the 2014 special permit as that approval was not acted on for 11 years. “I think actually a new application should be considered,” he said.
Mary Berle, who grew up in Stockbridge, argued that although both the prior approval and the new filing include a buildout tallying 112 units, trading 38 hotel rooms listed in the 2014 special permit for the VBE’s proposed 38 homes does not equal out the two projects and warrants a new permit process for the venture. “It’s not the kind of growth that’s going to be helpful for Stockbridge,” she said of the amendment. “It’s going to destroy a beautiful landscape. If they want to be developers, they should go through the permit process like everyone else. And the history of that particular special permit would never have supported this proposal, ever. It’s a completely new proposal.”
The Select Board hearing was continued to January 22 at 6:30 p.m.
