Community Development

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

Building

Work continues to be on schedule at the North Science Center. The Department expects the project to begin hitting several major completion milestones within the next month or so.

Ft. Bradshaw project has begun framing and is continuing without major issue however it is proceeding a pace slower than one would expect for an average project of its size. This is due to the added complexity of participating in the Living Building Challenge https://living-future.org/lbc/ This is part of Williams' sustainability efforts.

The Department has also been working on closing out older building permits and has sent a friendly reminder to homeowners and contractors with older open permits to ensure they get final inspections.

Health

The Health Inspector will be testing a new, cloud based software for food establishment inspections. The Food Code Pro software incorporates the Massachusetts State/2013 FDA Food Code into a program that is ipad and computer compatible. It will allow the inspector to inspect an establishment, accurately, cite applicable code violations and send a pdf inspection report to the establishment prior to leaving the inspection.

The Health Inspector has been focused on food establishment inspections; corrective orders and other enforcement actions as a result of those inspections have been issued.

Rental housing inspections continue.

The Health Inspector is still awaiting results, engineering reports, and corrective actions following the closure of MGRHS for sewage odors in the new 3-floor wing of the school.

Land Use

The Planning Board has formally submitted three zoning articles to the Board of Selectmen. A public hearing for the articles will be held on March 10. The proposals will reform rules on non conforming 1 & 2 family homes to bring them in line with current case law, create regulations for driveways, bring out marijuana regulations in line with State regulations and ban the outdoor cultivation of marijuana.

Zoning Board met last week and approved two non conforming home additions and approved the locating of Pinnacle Lightning Protection at 28 Water Street. This local Williamstown grown and based business engineers and does some production work for lightning protection systems on wind turbines and commercial airliners.

Conservation Commission meets this week for what looks to be a marathon length agenda with 9 applications. Major highlights include the long awaited Notice of Intent for the Mohawk Bike Path and an RDA for sculpture installations at the Clark.

Ultimate Abatement of Plainfield MA continues work at Photech through the EPA Brownfields Grant Program. They are now 90% complete on abatement work.