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Williamstown Selectmen Side With Waubeeka Petitioner, Against Planners
By Stephen Dravis, iBerkshires Staff
11:45PM / Monday, May 09, 2016
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Board of Selectmen Chairwoman Jane Patton recognizes Ronald Turbin in his last meeting on the board. One of two would-be newcomers will occupy his seat after Tuesday's town election.

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Board of Selectmen on Monday voted 4-1 to recommend next week's annual town meeting approve the "acreage-controlled" Waubeeka Overlay District bylaw amendment that is favored by the petitioner, the attorney for Waubeeka Golf Links owner Michael Deep.

At its last meeting before town meeting, the board considered its advisory vote on the last warrant article on the 35-article warrant. Earlier this winter, the board tabled its recommendation on that article in anticipation that compromise language could be reached in ongoing discussions of the Planning Board.

Last week, those discussions broke down in a 3-2 Planning Board vote for an amendment that differs from petitioner's latest draft in two significant respects: It limits the square footage of all buildings on the property to an aggregate of 50,000 square feet; and it includes a provision to add an additional 10,000 square feet of building space if the property owner puts an additional 40 acres of property into a conservation restriction.

Both the Planning Board-favored amendment, referred to as the "Gardner Amendment" and the amendment favored by Deep and his attorney, include a baseline conservation restriction on 67 acres of the Waubeeka property.

The "acreage-controlled" amendment would cap land in development at 10 acres and the number of units in the proposed hotel at 120.

On Monday, Selectman Andrew Hogeland argued unsuccessfully that the bylaw be sent back to the Planning Board for one more attempt at a compromise that would satisfy both sides of the dispute.

"The political reality is there are two provisions in the Planning Board amendment that need to be modified," Hogeland said. "One is the square footage and one is the additional conservation restriction acreage.

"The best way is to recommend two changes … to recommend the Planning Board reconsider and increase the gross square footage of the allowed. The majority of the Planning Board made it clear they're willing to do that.

"Second, we should suggest they reduce or eliminate the provision for additional land in conservation restriction."

Hogeland ended up in the minority of a 4-1 vote after his colleagues decided that the Planning Board likely could not reach such a middle ground and two of its members said they did not think their board could reach a compromise.

Both Chairwoman Jane Patton and Selectman Hugh Daley argued against Hogeland's suggestion that it was possible to get the Planning Board to endorse a different amendment.

"I guess I'm at a stage where there have been more than enough opportunities for this to come together," Patton said.

Daley, meanwhile, demanded that Hogeland name which members of the Planning Board he thought might change their minds, a demand that came up in a tense exchange that led Daley to subsequently apologize for his actions.

Hogeland reiterated the argument frequently used by members of the Planning Board to explain their attempts to build additional protections on open space into the Waubeeka Overlay District: the proposed bylaw has to be palatable to two-thirds of the voters at the annual town meeting.

"I think the quickest way to success is to avoid … a floor fight at town meeting," Hogeland said. "I don't want this long process to end in nothing."

Daley disagreed.

"It's important to me that we put something before the town that actually will get built," Daley said. "We put forward a plan that works and let the town decide if they want a hotel down there. The goal is not to pass at town meeting, the goal is to change what's going on at Waubeeka.

"I think the Planning Board has put forward the plan they wanted. The idea that three days later they had a change of heart is incredible to me."

Selectwoman Anne O'Connor and Selectman Ronald Turbin joined Patton and Daley in voting for the acreage-controlled amendment.

"As an environmentalist, I'm not also anti-business," O'Connor said. "So what I'm about to say will probably disappoint a lot of people who asked me to support the Planning Board amendment as passed last week.

"In this draft, it's not the acreage that bothers me at all," she said, referring to the acreage-controlled amendment. "As a citizen of the town, I don't have a problem looking at 10 acres and letting the developer figure out what makes sense financially in that 10 acres. Whatever that is will come to the Zoning Board, right?"

Under any iteration of the bylaw, the Zoning Board of Appeals would need to approve a special permit to build on the site.

O'Connor did raise concerns about the bylaw amendment's provision for the conservation restriction on the 67-acre woodlot on Waubeeka's south side. Specifically, she questioned whether "forestry or tree farming" or "ground-mounted photovoltaic infrastructure," both of which would be allowed under the bylaw, were appropriate on conserved land.

"I can understand you might have to cut down a tree if it is dead, but tree farming sounds like more than that," O'Connor said.

While Hogeland, echoing the majority on the Planning Board, argued that square footage is a more easily understood metric for voters at town meeting, Turbin said he thought 10 acres were a reasonable building envelope.

"I'm not a planner, but I don't think we should put in a square footage restriction because we really don't know what's enough," Turbin said. "On the surface, [70,000 square feet] may be enough, but you're going to have a swimming pool, maybe a spa. …. I don't think it's fair to restrict the ultimate developer with square footage … unless we make it 200,000 square feet, and that's ridiculous.

"We could have an ugly 50,000 square foot hotel. But we'll have the ZBA exercising controls over this. And it will take a four-fifths vote. You'll have the public invited to make arguments at the ZBA.

"The other thing is … if we don't have a hotel, I think there's a reasonably good chance we're going to have houses there."

Deep's attorney, Parese, foreshadowed that point in his opening statement on Monday.

"Jim Goff, before he sold Waubeeka to Mike, had done an [approval not required] plan … that's when you carve a property into building lots," Parese said. "There is in our possession an ANR plan. We were this close to losing this place."

Turbin said there would be consequences to losing the 50-year-old, cash-strapped golf course that went beyond the 30 jobs and recreational opportunities it provides.

"If the golf course folds, you'll have many more acres built up, many more impervious surfaces," Turbin said. "We'll lose that meadow [currently mowed for the golf course]. There will be new growth trees growing up. I think the viewshed will get pretty ugly without the golf course."

Following Monday's vote, the town's voters will have a clear choice on May 17 between two different approaches to the creation of an overlay district: that favored by a majority of the Planning Board and that favored by a majority of the Board of Selectmen.

In other business on Monday night, the Board of Selectmen heard from the chairman of the Williamstown Elementary School Committee about a proposal his committee will consider on Wednesday to adjust its budget request to the town in order to open a third half-day section of the Side-by-Side preschool program.

The board also voted to appoint Keith Davis to the ZBA and Lindsay Errichetto as an alternate to the ZBA. Patton recognized Turbin on the occasion of his final board meeting after three three-year terms on the body. And Town Manager Jason Hoch informed the board that the town had received an Open Meeting Law violation complaint against members of the Planning Board related to last week's Waubeeka decision; the Planning Board likely will address the allegation at its May 16 meeting.

Waubeeka: Gardner Amendment by iBerkshires.com

Waubeeka: Acreage Proposal by iBerkshires.com

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