Great Barrington — The Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) Monday (August 15) voted 4-1 to grant Community Development Corporation of South Berkshire (CDC) a comprehensive permit to build 45 units of affordable housing on 2.2 acres of a hazardous waste site on Bridge Street, and voted down a suggestion by board member Michael Wise that the entire 8-acre site be cleaned up before anyone is allowed to live there.
Wise voted against issuing the permit, which has 42 conditions attached to it.
Board member Madonna Meagher was not present.
The meeting was at moments tempestuous, with tension permeating the room throughout. At one point a shouting match ensued between board chair Ron Majdalany and the Green Tea Party’s (GTP) Bobby Houston, who complained that a public hearing should continue from the last meeting since Monday’s agenda listed one, though board members had, at that previous meeting, voted to close it.
“You would earn some goodwill if you opened it,” Houston said, adding that the hearing had been precipitously closed.
Majdalany, however, threatened to kick Houston out if there were any more outbursts, and asked the “public to refrain from comments,” that this was a matter for ZBA review only.
Monday’s deliberations came after months of controversy and hand-wringing ever since CDC split–for permitting and financial reasons–the affordable housing from what was originally planned as a $40 million development that would also include retail, market-rate housing and open space for community use.
The permit split raised concerns that the 45 units — intended for people with an income range of between $36,000 for a single person and $46,000 for a family of four— would sit alone up against the wastewater treatment plant, with 6 acres of toxic soil either left there or remediated in phases.
Residents and town officials have raised concerns and the Green Tea Party, for instance, handed ZBA secretary Bernard Drew a stack of petitions, with 46 signatures so far, against the project. Around 20 more signatures had come that day and around 100 total were expected, according to GTP’s Ron Blumenthal.
The site is under Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) oversight, as it is contaminated with carcinogenic dioxins and PCP (pentachlorophenol) which New England Log Homes Company used as a preservative for logs. A 2014 attempt to bioremediate the site was met by a host of problems that resulted in MassDEP shutting it down and agreeing to a soil containment method known as capping.
A remediation plan at the site must still be approved by MassDEP, and it is unclear whether the agency will allow a phased clean-up.
Board member Michael Wise expressed concerns about this from the beginning, and asked to keep the original language in the ZBA’s conditions that an occupancy permit not be granted until the entire 8 acres were remediated. New language, written by town lawyer David Doneski, said CDC would have to follow MassDEP’s plan, even if that meant a phased clean-up while people were living there.
Wise disagreed and said all precautions should be taken.
“That is the best way to avoid the worst outcome,” Wise said. He added it would be best for the health of residents living there, and it would “give the developer an incentive to get the entire property [developed] rather than leave these three buildings as orphans.”
Geller appeared frustrated by this idea. And Majdalany said the board should just leave the remediation issue to MassDEP. He also said the board “can’t impose things that make [the project] uneconomic,” referring here to the state’s requirement that towns meet an affordable housing level of 10 percent of all housing. The town is at about 7 percent. If boards impose conditions that make such a project “uneconomic,” the state could overturn it upon appeal.
Indeed, CDC attorney and board member Peter Puciloski said a condition such as Wise’s would prompt the CDC to appeal it.
But board member John Katz asked Geller what would happen if MassDEP forced CDC to remediate the entire site at once.
“Then we’ll have to do it,” Geller said.
“Then we’re stuck,” Puciloski added.
Majdalany appeared nervous about the prospect of appeals and potential lawsuits. “If we go down Michael’s path, we’re going down the path of trouble,” he said.
Wise appeared frustrated and mentioned the “health and safety of kids.”
Majdalany said there were already children in the surrounding neighborhood, so what was the difference? A few moans and mutterings came from the audience over this.
And while Wise countered that another 45 families might be exposed, the board voted 3-2 against his suggestion to remediate the whole site first.
In an attempt to fix the problem of the units being squeezed into such a small area that so little open space was available for children, the CDC now proposes a 50-foot buffer zone between the housing and a fence that will go up between it and the remaining 6 acres. CDC is planning, however, to remediate the riverbank area early on as another option for open space.
Wise also wanted 38 units instead of 45. That was shot down, too, since there was no second to his motion.
Another sticking point for Wise was CDC’s requested waivers for the building permit fee and sewer hookup. Wise referred to an earlier suggestion by CDC that, if the town waived these fees, CDC would redo a nearby sewer main in the course of construction. Vice Chair Carolyn Ivory said she was under the impression that it was “like a gift to our town.”
Geller said that had indeed been the plan, but when the board decided not to waive the fees, “we decided not to do the sewer thing.” Geller went on to say how important this project is for the town.
In the end, the $27,000 sewer fee was waived on the condition that CDC would indeed rehab the sewer line.
The conditions attached to the permit include such things as appropriately warm LED lighting, water-saving devices in all three buildings, environmentally friendly landscaping products and fertilizers, and that all other necessary permits be in place.
The Edge will publish the final version of conditions when they are available from the Town Planner’s office.
