Cars parked in the town-owned dirt lot on Water Street on Thursday morning.
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — A long-time de facto parking lot on Water Street will be closed to vehicles as of March 1, the town has announced.
The 1.27-acre dirt lot that was most recently the site of the town garage has been used to park cars for decades. But the town has never formally considered it a parking lot, and it is not paved, lined or regulated in any way.
The town manager Thursday said that concerns about liability at the site led to a decision to place barriers around the lot to block cars this winter and for the foreseeable future.
"Over the fall, we kept an eye on it, and what we were seeing was upward of 160 or 170 cars on any given day," Bob Menicocci said. "It got to the point where, because of its unregulated nature, the Police Department was getting calls for service saying, ‘I'm blocked in. Can you tow this car?' that kind of thing.
"It was becoming an untenable situation."
The town's observation of the lot found a high percentage of the cars belonged to people connected to Williams College, mainly students who used it for overnight parking. That conclusion is borne out by the way the lot tends to be a lot emptier during college breaks.
In the fall, the school's student newspaper ran an article describing the lot as, "a perfectly legal spot to stash a car, and thus, [where] it seems that College students have lucked into a free, convenient parking lot."
Given all that, the town reached out to Williams about turning the unregulated dirt lot into an actual parking lot.
"We talked to the college about it, said this is something your constituency is utilizing, and discussed the possibility of leasing it out so we could get into a better situation of liability and get it better regulated," Menicocci said. "They declined.
"So what we're going to do is cordon that off. Notices have gone out to the college community on that specifically."
The Williamstown Police Department Thursday led the town's effort for more general notification by posting an announcement of the closure on Facebook. Cars left in the lot on March 1 will be "towed at the owner's expense," according to the social media post.
"It's not set up for public use, so it's a liability to the town," Menicocci said. "We want to make sure something unfortunate doesn't happen."
It is hardly the first time the lot's utilization has made headlines.
Ten years ago, the town offered the site to developers as a location to build affordable housing.
One developer did submit a proposal that would have placed 25 affordable units at the Water Street site and an additional 60 on Cole Avenue; ultimately, the Select Board rejected that plan in favor of one that sought to put 46 units on Cole Avenue alone, a project that now is occupied as the 330 Cole Ave. development.
Since then, the Water Street lot frequently has been mentioned in town hall meetings as a potential site for development – either as residential, commercial or "mixed-use."
Menicocci Thursday morning said while there is an immediate need to address issues with how the site is being used, next month's closure also is one step in a process to determine the "highest and best use" for the lot.
"If it was to serve a useful purpose [as a parking lot], we would certainly entertain it," he said. "That was part of our effort to reach out to the college. They're the most logical user of it, whether for overflow for special events or staff/student parking."
But Menicocci wants a wider conversation that considers multiple possible uses of the lot, including, potentially, by private developers who could buy the property from the town. He mentioned that the town's recently completed comprehensive plan process talked specifically about addressing underutilized property in town.
"Water Street has great potential, and that's one of the key things we want to see from a planning perspective," Menicocci said. "Are there things we can do to enhance interest in development or redevelopment in that area?
"Creating a link to Spring Street as a retail/housing area – that [site] can be an asset to drive some interest and work in that area."
In the near term, Menicocci left the door open to temporary use of what's commonly referred to as the "Town Garage lot" for special occasions, like July 4, when the municipal lot on Spring Street loses some of its parking spaces for activity related to the town's annual parade.
"It remains an available resource," he said of the Water Street lot. "Our concerns around liability would remain, but if we need it, we can always open it up."
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'Nobody' Better Than the Mount Greylock Class of 2024
By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff
Class speaker Judge Martin offered apologies all around for the chaotic class of 2024. See more photos here.
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The class speaker for the 104 graduates of Mount Greylock Regional School apologized for the wild and crazy antics of the class of 2024.
"Our class was not that easy. We came into this brand-new school like a bull in a china shop. It was crazy," Judge Martin said. Students came into the middle school from surrounding towns, and "with that mix of kids, chaos happened."
They lost field trip privileges, the right to use the staircase and claimed credit for the burst pipe that flooded the new school and sent everyone home early just days before the entry into remote learning because of the pandemic.
"On behalf of my class, we apologize for the mess," Martin said. "But look at us now — we're no longer those middle schoolers everyone hates, no longer causing water damage in our school. And surprisingly, no longer the worst middle school class to come through Mount Greylock, which was really a hard title to take but somehow the grades below us found a way."
He was also sorry it took so long for the class to realize how amazing they are and apologized for taking them all for granted.
"We're sorry to this school and everything we put it through most importantly thank you for giving us the time to grow out of chaos and find our identity in the end," Martin said.
Martin gave a shout out to Superintendent Jason McCandless, who announced his departure at the end of the school year, calling him "our favorite superintendent" to loud applause.
The Pittsfield baseball team Saturday rallied for five runs in the top of the sixth inning to break a 5-5 tie and went on to a 12-5 win over Clinton in the quarter-finals of the Division 4 State Tournament. click for more
The class speaker for the 104 graduates of Mount Greylock Regional School apologized for the wild and crazy antics of the class of 2024. click for more
A Williamstown farm that has been on the market for several years was purchased this week, but the purchaser has declined to talk about its plans for the property.
click for more
Two students will be the speakers for Mount Greylock Regional School's 2024 graduation ceremonies on Saturday, June 8, at 11 a.m. in the school gymnasium. click for more
Williams College said goodbye Sunday to its graduating seniors. And a representative of the class of 2024 took the time to say goodbye to everyone in the community who made students' journey possible. click for more