Community Development

Post date: May 03, 2019 6:32:34 PM

BUILDING

The Building Department approved the modifications to the Korea Garden at Colonial Plaza this past week. They are now open for business having passed Board of Health approval as well. We wish them luck in their new location!

The Building Dept is also gearing up for seasonal liquor license inspections and is starting to see tent permit applications roll in, in anticipation of warmer weather. We continue to see a very low volume of permit applications compared to 2020. Over the previous 30 days we have issued 34 permits, this is down 67% from 2020. We anticipate the next reporting period to show dramatically different numbers as we will be comparing to the first shutdown period of 2020. We also anticipate permit volume to begin to dramatically increase as many folks have been in contact with the department planning summer projects. This includes potential applications for a number of new single family homes.

HEALTH

Jeff continues to work with his county colleagues on vaccination access. There is information on the county vaccine clinics elsewhere in the Town Manager's report.

LAND USE

Planning Board meets on Tuesday to finalize the potential Town Meeting articles for 2021. This includes the cannabis bylaw. They are also going to be reviewing a site plan approval for a new single family home near Mt. Hope on Elm Tree Loop. Single family homes rarely trigger a site plan review but this is a large project with significant earth removal and therefore requires the Planning Board's input. Andrew and Planning Board chair Stephanie Boyd have also begun preliminary discussions on charting a path forward for the Town on a new master plan. The Town's current master plan will be 20 years old in 2022 and historically the Town has done such a plan every 20 years. Previous plans were completed in 1963, 1983, and 2002.

The Historical Commission is meeting at 3 PM on Monday to take the first steps in permitting the new Davis Center project at Williams College. The College is requesting pre determination for demolition delay on Chandler and Hardy Houses. These need to be removed to make way for the new Davis Center.

Zoning Board of Appeals will meet on Thursday the 18th to begin review of a new cell tower for AT&T on Oblong Road.

An RFP was just released by the Community Development Dept. for forestry services on all town owned wood lots. The RFP will be funded by money from the Mohawk Woodlands Partnership and the goal of the project is to have forest inventory and management plans developed for each parcel with an eye towards managing these lands for carbon sequestration. This could potentially prepare the town to sell carbon off set credits for these lands in the future.