Lenox — After an over two-hour public hearing on Wednesday, February 8, a public hearing on potential new car dealerships in town has been continued to Wednesday, March 15 at 7 p.m. The public hearing will be held at Town Hall and virtually via Zoom.
Back in early December, the McGee Automotive Family submitted a special permit application to the town to open a dealership on several parcels on 374, 384, and 388 Pittsfield Road, and 11 New Lenox Road. According to the permit application, on the northern part of the parcel, the company intends to build a 24,000-square-foot building that will be an Audi and Volkswagen dealership. On the southern part of the parcel, the company intends to build a 17,500-square-foot building, which will be a BMW dealership that will include offices, showroom facilities, along with service facilities.
At the February 8 public hearing, attorney Jeffrey Lynch from Lenox law firm Lynch Scrimo Attorneys, did most of the speaking as he presented plans for the proposed dealership. He explained that the company is requesting site plan approval under section 3.5 of the town’s zoning codes, “site plan approval in the C-1A and C-3A zones.” Lynch said that the parcels are all part of the town’s C-1A zones, which is designated as a commercial zone according to the town’s regulations. He said that the zone has some residential-style units that were in the area pre-existing to the zoning designation.
Additionally, the company is requesting a special permit pursuant to zoning code section 5.2 table of uses, along with special permit waivers regarding various parking requirements pursuant to section 7.7.1, a special permit pursuant to section 5.3.2 for the expansion of a pre-existing non-conforming parking facility, and special permits under sections 5.3.3 and 5.3.7 to demolish and reconstruct non-conforming buildings on the parcels, along with variances for the proposed new buildings.
Lynch told the board that, parallel to the Zoning Board of Appeals approval process, the company is also going through an approval process with the town’s Conservation Commission. While Lynch said that the company is scheduled to meet with the Commission, as of press time, the town’s website does not list any meetings for the Conservation Commission that are scheduled for this month. “The Conservation Commission, after hearing the initial proposal, hired a peer review,” Lynch told the Board. “The peer review has issued her report. We are now working on a response to that report and her suggestions on how to either address the concerns that she has or suggestions on how to better the development plan in light of the conservation concerns that are there on them. As everybody knows, the Yokun Brook is adjacent to these properties. And so we’re trying to be as sensitive to that area, while at the same time doing substantial work to help that area survive and thrive.”
Lynch said that, since Pittsfield Road is a state highway, the company has consulted with the state’s Department of Transportation to get approvals for changing curb cuts and curb cut access to the road. “Whenever a zoning application comes in front of the town, one of the primary points of reference is the town’s master plan which was adopted in June 2021,” Lynch said. “The idea of a master plan is to set forth the goals that the town has relative to zoning and future development. In my application, I highlighted some of the goals of the master plan and how [the application] meets those goals.”
Lynch said that the application meets the master plan goals by having the proposed dealership within the C-1A commercial district, and by its proposed adaptive reuse of existing properties. “That goal is achieved or tries to be achieved by looking to reduce lot sizes, reduce setback requirements, reduce parking requirements, and reducing maximum lot coverage,” he said. “All of this is with the idea that taking what has already been disturbed, being able to reuse it, adapt it, and not zone out development, especially in areas that have already been disturbed. We don’t want to be going into October Mountain or the edges of October Mountain with commercial development when we have lots in town that, when vacant, or when people can see the opportunity to change the use, can do so. The goal in zoning is not to make zoning sort of ‘wag the dog’ on how the adaptive reuse is undertaken.”
Lynch said that the company plans to have 35 full-time employees. Currently, the company owns Berkshire BMW, Volkswagen Pittsfield, and Audi Pittsfield, which are all located in Pittsfield. When asked by Board Chairman Robert Fuster, a company representative said that the Lenox location would be replacing the Pittsfield locations, if opened.
Due to a lack of board quorum, the February 8 public hearing started approximately 15 minutes late until associate member Judith Turtz arrived via Zoom.
Towards the end of the hearing, Fuster opened public comment only for members of the public who would not be able to attend the March 15 hearing. During public comments, Pittsfield-based attorney Elisabeth Goodman spoke on behalf of the Board of Trustees for Rolling Hills Condominiums, located at 10-1 Rolling Hills Rd., and is approximately one mile from the proposed car dealership locations.
Goodman emphasized that she represented the Board of Trustees for the condominiums, not for all of the condominium owners, and said that her client hired a traffic consultant who previously filed written comments with the town. She said that the trustees are concerned with access to New Lenox Road if the dealerships are opened.
According to Google Maps, New Lenox Road is the main point of access from Rolling Hills Rd. onto Meadow Lane.
She said that any reconfiguration of traffic, including the reconfiguration of signals, “even hypothetically, it’s going to be expensive and it’s going to be mitigation that the applicant would have to do.” Goodman said, “We still don’t have a site plan showing how traffic will be configured, traveling around through the site and going in and out of New Lenox Road. I think the board should consider your own independent peer review traffic consultant [at the company’s expense].”
“I will ask you to address the issue with Attorney Lynch and talk about it between now and the next meeting,” Fuster said. “Just to make it clear, we have no authority over MassDOT.” Fuster later added that “we’re all concerned about the traffic issue” and that the Board would like to have more information from MassDOT. “Also, we’ve gotten a lot of letters that draw concerns about how this might impact property values,” Fuster said. “I would like to hear from somebody about what impact this might have on residential properties.”
After the meeting, at the request of The Berkshire Edge, the town sent 88 pages of public comments concerning the special permit application.
Click here to see public comments on the special permit application.
Click here to see the full special permit application.
