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Waubeeka Controversy Continues to Impact Williamstown Planning Board
By Stephen Dravis, iBerkshires Staff
01:34AM / Friday, June 17, 2016
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Chris Winter and Ann McCallum, seen in this file photo, were at odds on Tuesday over the Planning Board's seat on the Community Preservation Board.


WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The fallout from May's town election and annual town meeting continued to be felt at Tuesday's Planning Board meeting.

A New Ashford Road resident asked the board to help mitigate the potential damage to residents from a new overlay district at Waubeeka Golf Links, and the remaining member of the board who supported an ultimately failed version of that overlay bylaw appeared to be frozen out by her colleagues.

South Williamstown resident Gail Kapiloff, whose home is across Route 7 from the golf course, addressed the board about the ramifications of the town meeting vote to create a regulatory path for a 120-room hotel on the golf course property.

"I have no doubt that the value of our property has been diminished by the proposed project of Waubeeka and the potential of a three-story, 120-room hotel with a parking lot," Kapiloff said.

She told the board that last year, her home was on the market and potential buyer looked at it twice and was preparing to make an offer.

"That week, it came out in the paper what Waubeeka wanted," she said in a meeting telecast on the town's community access television station, WilliNet. "The next conversation between this buyer and our real estate agent was to say that they were not interested."

Kapiloff asked the board to consider asking town meeting to give her property the same commercial development prospects allowed across the street.

"I'm hoping with the ability to rezone it as a commercial piece of property, it will help counter the amount of value [lost] and possibly bring in more potential buyers," she said.

Planner Ann McCallum noted that creation of another overlay for Kapiloff's property would be the kind of "spot zoning" that is frowned upon by the state and which the Planning Board wanted to avoid at Waubeeka.

"Typically, this is not the kind of zoning change we make," McCallum said. "The only reason we did it for Waubeeka … is there is a town benefit to doing that large parcel.

"But if we wanted to go back to considering a Five Corners Historic District as a district … then that has a planning rationale we can get behind."

McCallum and colleague Chris Winters noted that while the Planning Board sought to address the Waubeeka request with a comprehensively drawn new district, the panel heard considerable feedback from South Williamstown residents who did not want new district lines drawn.

That said, the Planning Board expressed a willingness to work on a new zoning bylaw that would address more of the properties in the Five Corners area (at the junction of Routes 7 and 43), with an eye toward a possible vote at annual town meeting 2017. McCallum suggested to Kapiloff that she drum up support for such a plan among other property owners in her neighborhood.

Kapiloff is the mother of newly-elected Planning Board member Chris Kapiloff, who recused himself from the discussion.

The months-long controversy that led to the creation of the Waubeeka Overlay District rippled through the Planning Board on another front on Tuesday.

McCallum, who found herself on the opposite side of a number of votes than the only other two incumbents on the five-person board, was passed over for the board's chairmanship and then denied what appeared to be her second choice as an assignment.

When the board opened its discussion of its annual reorganization, Winters nominated Amy Jeschawitz to continue in the role of chair.

One of its two newly elected members asked if it had a custom of members rotating to the chair. McCallum replied that she supposed that would be her since she currently was serving as vice chair. But McCallum did not press the point.

"I'm surprised, but I'm fine with it," she said. "I'll make it less awkward. I'll second [Jeschawitz's nomination]."

Winters explained his rationale for suggesting Jeschawitz stay on in the position.

"I think there's benefit to consistency, and there are other committees in town who don't routinely change every year," Winters said. "Rather, it's every other year. I feel like with the leadership of this committee, you can't really learn it and do it effectively in one year."

After Winters, McCallum is the longest serving member of the board and served as its chairwoman in 2012.

When it became clear that she was not going to be elected chair again, McCallum volunteered that she wanted to take the Planning Board's seat on the town's Community Preservation Committee.

But when the board's discussion came to that post, Winters immediately expressed his desire to stay in that position, saying again that he valued consistency.

McCallum countered that she was part of the committee that led to the town's implementation of the Community Preservation Act and always thought she might want a seat on the committee at some point.

"I am going to propose Chris stay on it," Jeschawitz said.

"Why?" McCallum interjected. "I'm trying to be positive about this new [board] makeup, but I was passed over for the chair, and now I'm not allowed to do the CPA. I'm starting to get a little upset.

"This was a modest request. I seconded your thing about the chair. Why are you being so stubborn? We always share these jobs. You've done [CPA] for like five years."

Winter argued that his voice is unique on the CPA and, "there is value in the role I've played on the committee, and without it the committee loses something."

Winters and Jeschawitz suggested that since the CPA does not have another meeting until the fall, the Planning Board delay its appointment to the spot and resolve the issue at a later date.

"I'm staggered here," McCallum said. "I'm not sure how any time is going to change it. We can push it down the road, I guess. That's fine."

In other business on Tuesday, the Planning Board reviewed the development plan and received an update about Williams College's new Spring Street book store.

Williams Director of Real Estate and Legal Affairs Jamie Art told the board that construction will start next week with a planned completion in August 2017.

The three-story project at the corner of Spring Street and Walden Street complies with town ordinances, and the college did not come looking for any waivers or relief from regulation, Art said. But the board nevertheless approved the development plan on a 3-0 vote; Winters, the lone college employee on the board, and Kapiloff, who indicated he has a potential business relationship with the bookstore's builder, recused themselves.

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