Williamstown Planners Give Final OK for Habitat Subdivision
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The long road to getting a short road approved by the town came to a successful end for Northern Berkshire Habitat for Humanity on Tuesday night.
On a series of 4-0 votes with one member absent, the Planning Board granted a series of waivers from the town's subdivision bylaw and approved the plan for a four-home development off Summer Street on land the town's Affordable Housing Trust purchased in 2015.
Tuesday marked the second time the non-profit was before the Planning Board to discuss the project. The first time, it brought a preliminary and slightly different version of the subdivision with five building lots instead of the four that ultimately were approved.
In addition to the homes, which will be built by volunteers under the Habitat model over a series of years, the subdivision will include a 289-foot road and associated drainage to handle runoff from the currently undeveloped parcel.
Since the planners gave positive feedback to the preliminary plan back in April, the developer went through the Notice of Intent process with the town's Conservation Commission, whose determinations were appealed by abutters to the commonwealth's Department of Environmental Protection. Mass DEP ultimately issued a superseding order of conditions that largely was unchanged from the local Con Comm's decision.
On Tuesday, a few abutters from the neighborhood surrounding the proposed subdivision attended the Planning Board's public hearing, but no one spoke in opposition to the proposal.
"I think Habitat has done a great job of listening to community feedback and responding to it," Planning Board member Roger Lawrence said just before the vote to give Habitat the final regulatory approval it needs to proceed with the project.
The non-profit was represented at the hearing by its president and project manager Keith Davis and civil engineer Charlie LaBatt of Guntlow and Associates.
LaBatt walked the board through the project and focused on the six waivers sought to execute the plan as drafted.
Three of the waivers were directly related to drainage.
Habitat sought relief from the town code that requires a centerline elevation of 3 feet for roads that are adjacent to wetland and a requirement for curbing as well as permission to use an open drainage system rather than the closed drainage specified in the town code.
"Back when our regulations were written, the traditional method for catching runoff along a road was a curb and a gutter," LaBatt said. "The current push or idea coming at us all the way from [the Environmental Protection Agency] down through our DEP … is to provide a more open drainage system, a system where we have overland flow."
LaBatt explained that overland flow into catch basins allows water to be treated for total suspended solids before it is fed into the municipal system. The subdivision, dubbed the Meadowlands Subdivision, includes a rain garden to capture runoff on site and treat it before feeding into the town's system.
The other three waivers from the subdivision bylaw allow Northern Berkshire Habitat to create a subdivision that is in keeping with the character of the existing neighborhood: allowing overhead utility distribution (the bylaw requires underground utilities) and not requiring the streetlights or sidewalks specified in the town code.
Before granting the waivers, individual members of the Planning Board talked about how each made sense in the context of the development plan on the table.
Kenneth Kuttner asked what the rationale was for the 3-foot elevation of a road's centerline specified in the town code and whether there was any reason for the board to pause before granting a waiver.
"I couldn't opine on the board's intention from 1993," Town Planner Andrew Groff told the panel. "Presumably it was drainage related."
Don Dubendorf, a retired attorney and currently a Habitat for Humanity volunteer, spoke to the history of the requirement.
"I was here," Dubendorf said. "I don't remember any logic for it. I've made some efforts at subdivisions subsequent to that. None of the civil engineering I've engaged with subsequent to that has given me a thoughtful logic [for the requirement]. There may be a logic, but I don't know."
Lawrence agreed, suggesting that the requirements for a 3-foot elevation, curbing and closed drainage are "vestigial holdovers" and out of step with contemporary standards for handling runoff.
As for the waiver from installing sidewalks on both sides of the planned 289-foot road, a couple of the board members said that while they generally are proponents of sidewalks, it made sense to grant the exception.
"I'm prepared to back off my demand for sidewalks everywhere in this case because it's a small development with very low traffic," Kuttner said.
Lawrence brought up an issue related to vehicular traffic just before the final vote of the process.
While noting that there was nothing the Planning Board could enforce to require screening, he lamented the fact that the planned road will create the problem of car headlights shining into the windows of abutters who don't have that nuisance currently.
"It would be great if there was a provision [in the bylaw] somewhere for shielding," Lawrence said, suggesting that vegetative screening in the town right-of-way would mitigate the problem. "My guess is [the neighbor] will put in shielding themselves, but I question the fairness of putting that burden on a neighbor.
"Going forward, if that's something we can bear in mind … it's an issue that would bear being addressed."
As noted at a couple of points during Tuesday's meeting, the town has secured a grant from the commonwealth's Community One Stop for Growth program to fund a comprehensive review of the entire zoning bylaw with an eye toward updating it, and that process likely will include addressing issues like the drainage requirements in the subdivision bylaw.
Tags: habitat for humanity, Planning Board, subdivisions,
