Community Development

Post date: May 23, 2016 12:48:13 PM

BUILDING

Progress has slowed on the two hotel projects, Goodrich, and CDE, due to the arctic temperatures. Jobs that are primarily indoors (science center & high school) have not been impacted. Sarah has begun a long term project to data entry all of the Building Departments historical indexes of building and trade permits. Upon completion these records will be uploaded into the Town's building permit system, Viewpoint Cloud, to allow any resident or prospective homeowner to view their property history remotely.

HEALTH

Jeff has responded to several rental unit issues in the past few days and is continuing to provide valuable assistance to Great Barrington.

LAND USE

The Planning Board is meeting Tuesday to continue deliberation on major changes to the town's housing policy within zoning. These proposed changes are in response to community outreach done last winter regarding the creation of middle scale housing options and better aligning the Town's zoning with it's historical built environment.

The Town has awarded a contract for QEP Services for the $200,000 EPA Clean Up Grant for 330 Cole Avenue to Fuss & O'Neil. Final contracting will be complete by the MLK holiday. The Town will commence work on a new FEMA Hazard Mitigation Plan with assistance from BRPC on January 23 by convening a group of stakeholders. The approval of this plan by FEMA is essential for the Town to retain it's ability to apply for FEMA grant funding such as the Hazard Mitigation Grant that funded the Spruces closure. Matching funds for the grant are being provided by the Commonwealth's Municipal Climate Vulnerability program. This will require the plan to incorporate possible impacts of climate change and extreme future weather on Williamstown. Conservation Commission is unlikely to meet for most of winter as projects have been delayed to spring due to recent arctic weather. Zoning Board will be continuing the Verizon cell tower to February due to a conflict with the developer's schedule.