Legal Costs Mounting in Williamstown Subdivision BattleBy Andy McKeever, iBerkshires Staff
06:21AM / Wednesday, November 24, 2010 | |
 A four-year dispute over a development on a Bee Hill Road is nearing a conclusion. |
Charles Fox purchased 65 acres on Bee Hill Road in 2006 to build eight homes.
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WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — As the Planning Board prepares to submit its most recent findings to Land Court, litigation fees over the contested Foxwoods Lane subdivision are adding up.
The town has spent $24,000 in litigation costs during the four-year battle. Town Manager Peter Fohlin confirmed the amount but did not itemize the spending on Tuesday.
The legal tussle began when residents on Bee Hill Road hired a lawyer and appealed the Planning Board's approval of a subdivision off the narrow country lane.
Town counsel is currently reviewing the most recent Planning Board decisions before it is submitted to the Land Court for a final ruling. The development will then be in the judge's hands and town officials are uncertain what will happen then.
"It's been a long process and we're ready to hand the ball off," Town Planner Andrew Groff said on Tuesday.
The subdivision to create eight lots for homes began in 2006 when Charles Fox purchased 65 acres atop Bee Hill Road. At the time, the Planning Board ruled in favor of the subdivision but Bee Hill residents appealed the decision alleging the board did not follow subdivision regulations, particularly regarding road quality.
The Planning Board went to a jury-waived trial and Judge Keith C. Long dismissed the allegations but found five areas that Fox had not met regulations and the board had failed to explicitly waive. Those concerns were the quality of the road from the development to Route 7, when road construction on the other section would be complete and three different issues regarding drainage and water run-off, and were remanded to the Planning Board.
"The Planning Board took that up in September and we've reached a decision and now it gets sent back to the land court judge," Groff said. "We're waiting for town counsel to approve it. We want to make sure we've crossed our T's and dotted our I's."
| What's the Hold Up? |
The Planning Board was told by Land Court to review five issues:
• If Bee Hill Road south from the site was dangerous
•If Bee Hill north had to be improved prior to subdivision construction
•Three drainage and water issues.
The board found on Nov. 10 that the road access south was inadequate and northward had to be improved first. Fox supplied engineering solutions for the water issues.
All five issues were returned to the court.
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Addressing those issues, the Planning Board ruled two weeks ago that the road was inadequate from the development to Route 7 and denied Fox a waiver, which Fox alleges he had with the previous Planning Board. Fox said the board waived it and the vote was in the record but it left some ambiguity and the judge did not accept it. The plan passed the qualifications from the development to the Taconic Trail creating the one access zoning bylaws required, he said.
"I only needed to show adequate access in one direction," Fox said on Tuesday. "Everything focused on that road."
Long, however, ruled that "there was credible testimony to suggest that some traffic to or from the proposed Foxwood subdivision will use the section of Bee Hill Road going towards Cold Spring Road." That section is not adequate for the subdivision, the Planning Board ruled.
The Planning Board also denied waivers for the three water issues and Fox will instead provide engineering solutions, Groff said. The needed road repairs from the development to the Taconic Trail will be completed before construction.
Now, all parties need to wait for a judge's ruling; a date has not been set to determine what is next.
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