Springfield Museums presents “Here Be Dragons,” a one-of-a-kind immersive exhibition that brings visitors face-to-face with live reptiles, touchable models, and paleontological discoveries that blur the lines between fantasy and reality.
Several who spoke against it were members of the Lake Mansfield Improvement Task Force, which spent more than 10 years working on a comprehensive plan for restoring and maintaining the lake that included a plan to close the road to vehicular traffic.
Brandee Nelson said the task force is "confused" about what the selectboard's "goal is going forward" and "how confusing it might be to drivers" in transitioning the road to one-way and then going "to a closure scenario."
Retailers and other business owners often complain about is the thin labor pool that makes staffing difficult in southern Berkshire County. The problem is caused in no small measure by the lack of affordable housing
Suffolk needs a change in state law to permit it to hold races in Great Barrington while at the same time allowing it to maintain its simulcasting and betting operations back in East Boston. Racing at the fairgrounds would also require permits from the town.
New zoning bylaws would prevent some cannabis retailers from opening merely by restricting the number of available locations. On the other hand, a policy from the selectboard placing a numerical limit would clearly prevent more retailers from opening.
In a letter to the editor, Holly Hamer writes: "TOPA Enterprises plans to build an apartment complex there with a driveway and parking area that will kill the tree, which has a drip line showing a root system that stretches 50 feet or more into the privately owned lot."
The reality is that several businesses on that strip have closed in recent months, leading to the question of what replaces those businesses that have left and whether the current zoning is too restrictive to allow for a full range of replacements, including residential or mixed-use combinations.
The primary order of business for Conner and Nappo was to get the selectboard to write a letter of endorsement for Grayhouse's application for $75,000 on an emergency basis from the Massachusetts Historical Commission's Preservation Projects Fund.
Now that the planning board has made a positive declaration, the selectboard, which is the special permit-granting authority, is expected to formally grant the new permit for Tractor Supply at its meeting Monday, Sept. 24.
When Framework Properties first proposed the 47 Railroad Street project in Great Barrington, which included only 13 market-rate apartments, they learned that it was the first building permit taken out in the town for a structure containing four apartments or more since 1990.
After the planning board crafted a set of zoning regulations to deal with pot earlier this year, the selectboard reviewed them and most thought the regulations were a bit too lax since they would allow cultivation by-right in too many zones.
Brian Vincent and Andy Vincent of Commonwealth Cultivation are looking to establish a retail marijuana outlet at 82 Railroad St., a property that overlooks the Taconic parking lot where 14 years ago State Police under District Attorney David Capeless conducted a sting operation that resulted in the arrest of more than a dozen teenagers for possessing pot.
In her letter to the editor, Brandee Nelson writes: “The Selectboard’s proposed zoning amendment inappropriately takes siting control from the Planning Board. This is unnecessary because the Selectboard will already have primary local control for marijuana establishments.”
The challenge for the state's 351 cities and towns is to revamp their zoning regulations so that they're not caught flat-footed by applications from cannabis retailers and manufacturers.
