Attorney Don Dubendorf points out a feature of the planned 'modern mill' building at Cable Mills.
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Zoning Board of Appeals last week approved special permits that will keep the Cable Mills housing project on track to add 14 more housing units.
Phase 1 of the Water Street project — the renovation of the existing mill building — was completed in the spring and is nearly fully occupied, the developer told the ZBA at its Thursday meeting.
Phase 2 involves new construction: seven duplexes and six condos in what the developer is calling the "modern mill" on the east side of the property.
Unlike in Phase 1, where a historic preservation restriction requires that all units in the historic mill be rentals for a minimum of five years, 180 Water LLC will be able to sell the Phase 2 units as soon as they are built.
Developer David Traggorth said that as of Thursday, the 61 units in Phase 1 were "well over 80 percent" occupied.
"It's a real mix of people," Traggorth said. "We have families with kids, we have retired folks, we have young professionals — folks in their 40s in the middle of their careers. It was a surprise in that way. I thought it might be a little more predictable in who we would find."
Much of the discussion with the ZBA concerned parking. The developer asked the town to allow an increase in the minimum parking associated with Phase 2 of the project. The board approved it with the assurance that the additional spaces will not add to the overall impervious surfaces on the site.
"In each [duplex], three of the parking spaces are covered by the roof of the occupied building," Traggorth's attorney, Donald Dubendorf, told the ZBA. "So only one space per duplex adds impervious surface."
And in the modern mill building, Dubendorf said plans call for four or five parking spaces to be covered by the footprint of the building.
Overall, the revised plans call for less impervious coverage area than previously approved, the developer told the board.
Traggorth and Dubendorf also asked the ZBA to approve a minor modification to the Cable Mills river walk, a feature that was key to the town's $1.5 million contribution of Community Preservation Act funding toward the project.
"The interesting thing about the river is that it moves," Dubendorf told the board. "It doesn't want to seem to want to stay in one place. So we're going to realign the river walk from its as-built location."
The toughest questions for the developer came not from the board but from the floor of the meeting, where abuttor Elaine Hantman used the meeting to air concerns she had about the execution of Phase 1 of the project.
Hantman identified herself as the owner of neighboring rental properties, and she told the ZBA she did not feel the Cable Mills developer had honored agreements it made during the renovation.
Hantman complained that vegetative screening she discussed with Traggorth has never been planted, creating a situation in which her tenants' windows look directly into the Cable Mills apartments and vice versa. She also raised concerns about the developer's failure to remove a dead tree as promised and the condition of a curb cut.
Traggorth apologized, explained the reason for the delay in removing the tree and committed to finding a screening solution that works.
"I don't think it's apologizing for promises made," he said. "I think it's been delays, and I apologize for that. We're going to make good on our promises.
"We've made good on the biggest promise to you as an abuttor and the town in the sense of getting the project running."
Traggorth told the board that he would be OK adding the three concerns raised by Hantman as conditions on the special permit he sought on Thursday. The board approved the special permits with those conditions by a vote of 5-0.
The Cable Mills developer will be back at Town Hall this Thursday for a hearing before the Conservation Commission on an amended order of conditions for Phase 2 of the project.
In other business on Thursday, the ZBA approved the modification of a special permit for the Greylock Canine Club on New Ashford Road (Route 7).
Charlene Lambert, who operates the dog boarding facility in South Williamstown, wants to add a 1,200-square foot building that will allow her to double the operation from a capacity of 10 dogs to a capacity of 20.
The board, which previously had granted a special permit for her to operate the business at that site, approved the expansion without any objection from neighbors to the property.
If you would like to contribute information on this article, contact us at info@iberkshires.com.
Your Comments
iBerkshires.com welcomes critical, respectful dialogue. Name-calling, personal attacks, libel, slander or foul language is not allowed. All comments are reviewed before posting and will be deleted or edited as necessary.
No Comments
Final Phase of Williamstown's Cable Mills Set to Break Ground
By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Three years after it received the final permitting, the third and final phase of the Cable Mills housing complex is on track to break ground later this year.
"The construction fence just went up and we are scheduled to start before the end of the year," developer David Traggorth of Causeway Development said last week.
When completed, the planned four-story, 54-unit apartment complex will bring to an end a multi-year project that began at the turn of the 21st century and started with the renovation of a 19th-century factory.
The renovation of the historic mill building to create 61 apartments was Phase 1 of the project. Phase 2 involved building townhouses along the Green River.
Phase 3 also involves new construction but, unlike the first two phases, the plan is to keep the remaining 54 units full-time rentals instead of marketing them as condos.
And, unlike Phase 1, where 13 of the 61 units are designated as income-restricted affordable housing, no fewer than half of the units in Phase 3 will be affordable.
No fewer than eight of the units in Phase 3 will be affordable to residents making up to 30 percent of the area median income. At least 19 will be designated affordable to residents making up to 60 percent of the AMI.
Three years after it received the final permitting, the third and final phase of the Cable Mills housing complex is on track to break ground later this year. click for more
His draft bylaw only would apply in the town's residential districts, meaning that in commercial districts, any home could be on the market for services like Airbnb or Vrbo 365 days a year. click for more
The median property tax bill for fiscal year 2025 is expected to see its lowest year-to-year increase since 2019, the Select Board learned on Monday night. click for more
Golfers will light up the night sky and support a charity that helps underserved communities around the world at Waubeeka Golf Links this week. click for more
Williams College will be back before the Zoning Board of Appeals on Thursday for a development plan review for the school's planned art museum at the Field Park rotary.
click for more