West Stockbridge — Over the course of four meetings over the past several weeks, the West Stockbridge Planning and Zoning Board has held public hearings over a special permit application by The Foundry.
During the series of public hearings, which have lasted altogether a total of more than 11 hours, the board has heard from Foundry owner Amy Brentano, who is trying to obtain a special permit that will allow her to continue operating the performance arts facility at 2 Harris Street. The board has also heard from Truc Nguyen, co-owner of the neighboring restaurant, Truc’s Orient Express, at 3 Harris Street, whose family owns their residence nearby at 1 Harris Street.
Abutters to the property, along with people outside of the community, have all spoken during the series of hearings, with some giving emotional testimony supporting either Brentano or Nguyen.
By the time the fourth in the series of public hearings ended around 10 p.m. on Monday, November 28, the board had not made a decision on the special permit, and the hearing was continued, yet again, to Monday, Dec. 5 at 7:15 p.m.
At the beginning of the public hearing, Chairperson Dana Bixby temporarily closed off hearings from the public and would only hear comments from Brentano; Nguyen; Pittsfield Attorney Mitch Greenwald, who represents Nguyen; and Lenox attorney Jeffrey Scrimo, who represents Brentano. “It’s very clear, it seems to me from the evidence we’ve received that [there] is a genuine and real need and concern to address the concern of the abutter,” Bixby said towards the beginning of the hearing. “It seems to me that the conditions of the location are unique, and the proximity [of the locations of the properties] are very close. It’s a mixing of uses in a proximate adjacency.”
Chairperson Bixby said that despite other board members believing otherwise, the sound measurement study presented by professional sound engineer Ian Stewart on behalf of Brentano at the November 21 meeting was useful. Based on the study and various testimony during the past hearings, Chairperson Bixby presented a draft proposal to approve the special permit.
As part of the draft approval, Bixby wrote that one of the conditions would be that the C-weighted sounds at the property line would not exceed 63 dbC.
However, board member Susan Coxon said she preferred the level would be 60 dbC and not 63 dbC, which other board members agreed to. As stated by Stewart at the previous hearing, C-weighted sound measurement factors in bass sound frequencies much more than A-weighted sound measurements.
Part of the conditions of draft approval submitted by Bixby states that The Foundry shall develop a system to measure sound both inside the building and at its property line and that the data would be submitted to a zoning enforcement officer in order to demonstrate compliance. “I’ve seen letters from folks saying we should deny the permit,” Bixby said to the audience of 50 people gathered at the meeting. “I just need to reiterate that there’s been a good amount of support from abutters in favor of this application because it’s good for the business of the village center. I’m looking for the right solution and this board is looking for the right solution that we can genuinely make. So that down the road we can say that there’s no detriment to adjacent uses.”
Bixby added that originally Brentano wanted to have performances at The Foundry with a sound level of up to 73 dbC. “If The Foundry wants to do those kinds of performances [that might exceed the sound limits], they have to manage their acts, or they have to manage it within the soundboard,” Bixby said. “Sound can be managed within the soundboard to some degree, but they have to do more mitigation on the building.”
The board discussed whether or not it would be up to the town’s zoning enforcement officers to monitor the sound levels from the building. Via Zoom, Town Building Inspector and Zoning Enforcement Officer Brian Duval said it would be up to the town’s Police Department for enforcement. “The Police Department has the training and the tools, and they’re the ones who will end up monitoring the sound,” Duval said. “The fact is, these events are happening late at night when I’m not there. If it does become a violation of the zoning ordinances, they are to notify me of this and I follow through with action after that.”
According to the town’s bylaws, any violators of sound laws may be fined $50 for the first offense, $100 for the second offense within one year, and $300 for each subsequent offense. During the course of the public hearing, various members of the board stated that the fines were “too low” as stated in the town’s bylaws.
When asked whether or not the draft conditions set out by Bixby would be workable for The Foundry, Brentano said that they would be, except she objected to one proposed condition that would limit the number of outdoor performances to four from April through October on the green of The Foundry’s property . Brentano said that TurnPark, located at 2 Moscow Rd., has approximately 10 to 15 outdoor performances a year.
“We’re not regulating TurnPark here,” Bixby said. “We are paying attention to the particular context of where your venue is located, along with the distance and proximity [to abutting properties].”
While Brentano said she would go along with the conditions set forth by the Planning Board in the draft special permit approval, both Greenwald and Nguyen strongly objected to them. “I think it’s fair to say that this proposal is highly unsatisfactory to us,” Greenwald said. “The draft [approval] completely ignores the detriment [to Nguyen]. Are people really in favor of this? Are they saying there really is no detriment? Or are they saying ‘yea, it’s a problem, but she should suck it up’?”
Greenwald added, “I don’t believe that it’s appropriate to issue a permit that calls for the measurement of ambient sound. This is not something that experts are going to agree is exactly the same [when it comes to measuring sound] … This town is not set up to enforce sound regulations, and this town is barely set up to enforce zoning. We don’t have trained people [who work for the town]. We don’t have people that we’re committed to hiring to do this work. The ZBA [Zoning Board of Appeals] found essentially that we just didn’t have the equipment or the personnel to be able to say whether the sound rules have been violated or not. So saying that we have town enforcement as a backup to The Foundry’s own self-reported enforcement is a joke. It’s absolutely a joke. Maybe someday it’ll be different. But it’s not different today, or tomorrow or next week.”
Nguyen brought a Bluetooth speaker up with her to the podium and proceeded to play sounds that she said she recorded during various Foundry performances last year in an effort to back up the previous statements that she could hear loud music from inside the restaurant and her residence emitting from The Foundry property.
Later on during the hearing, Brentano told the board that The Foundry’s liquor license is due to be renewed with the town on Dec. 5, but that laws state that she cannot apply for a liquor license if the business is closed.
While Chairperson Bixby said several times that she wanted to have the board vote on the special permit application during the Nov. 28 meeting, by the time the meeting ended around 10 p.m., Bixby said that the language set forth in the draft approval needed to be reviewed and refined.
Brentano said towards the end of the meeting that she had been informed by Town Administrator Marie Ryan that it might be possible for the town to extend the liquor license deadline.
These documents were presented at the West Stockbridge Planning Board meeting on Monday, Nov. 28.
