Cable Mills plan hits the floor

By Linda Carman12:00AM / Thursday, August 19, 2004Print Story | Email Story

WILLIAMSTOWN â€” The proposed conversion of the General Cable Mills, a 19th-century brick mill on a longtime industrial site that produced twine, cloth and wire over the years, will come before the Zoning Board of Appeals on Aug. 26 at 7 p.m. at the Harper Center to launch its redevelopment into housing and offices. The project, a joint venture between Berkshire Housing Development Corp. of Pittsfield and Keen Development Co. of Boston, is slated to create 90 new dwellings with a minimum of 25 percent, or 23 of them, considered â€œaffordable â€œto moderate-income first-time buyers who earn less than 80 percent of the areaâ€™s median income. According to the application, preference for the affordable units would be given to Williamstown residents, children of residents and people who work in town. Developers are seeking a comprehensive permit, meaning that the Zoning Board will decide on all development issues, simplifying the permitting process for the developer by eliminating the need to go before several boards. General Cable Mills is a mixed-use complex, which will reuse the significant portions of the historic mill for housing and build new townhouses and a new office building, according to the application filed with the townâ€™s inspection department. The new office building will anchor the southern end of the development and be designed in keeping with the larger mill buildings. The development is designed to complement the existing residential and commercial character of Water Street, and is in keeping with the townâ€™s master plan, which identifies the site specifically for mixed-use development as key to revitalization of the Water Street corridor. Development will include opening public access to the Green River, with a walking trail to be built along the riverâ€™s west bank. The two-phase development would first demolish smaller outbuildings in order to open views and access to the site and the Green River. Post-and-beam materials will be reused where feasible. The main structure will be renovated and converted into 58 loft-style condominium dwellings, of which 19 will be reserved for affordable occupancy. Of the remaining buildings, three will be restored and converted to 13 townhouse-style dwellings, with four of them reserved for affordable occupancy. In addition, a new 12,000-square-foot building is planned for the south end of the site to house the millâ€™s current office tenants. In the second phase, five new townhouses would be built just behind the main building and 14 new duplexes along the riverâ€™s edge, all at market rate. The project aims to address â€œthe critical shortage of moderately-priced homeownership opportunities in Williamstown.â€ The application outlines the need for lower-cost housing, specifying that only 4.37 percent of the townâ€™s housing stock is designated affordable, according to the definition of the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development. The town has two government-subsidized complexes for the elderly and a smaller complex for families. The General Cable Mills development will increase the townâ€™s affordable housing stock to 5.16 percent, helping to deal with the current shortage, according to the application. Affordable dwellings are allocated as follows: six one-bedroom apartments, 13 two-bedroom apartments and four two-bedroom townhouses priced from $90,000 to $174,000. Market-rate dwellings range in price from $180,000 to $473,000, and include six studios, seven one-bedroom apartments, 26 two-bedroom apartments, 14 two-bedroom townhouses, eight two-bedroom duplexes and six three-bedroom duplexes. The site, with universal accessibility for the handicapped, is designed with a minimal amount of new impervious coverage (pavement), all new utilities and a sound regard for environmental protection, according to the application. The application also refers to the project as preserving a historically significant building as â€œpreservation of a local historic treasureâ€ and cites the benefit of expanding the townâ€™s tax base. Masonry buildings will be cleaned and repointed as needed in renovation. Facades that have been covered will be restored to their documented earlier condition, and windows and doors that were blocked up will be reopened. Where facades are missing, compatible elevations will be created. New brick and masonry openings will match adjacent elements, and several masonry walls will be retained as landscape elements to help define courtyards, circulation and entries. Windows will retain their historic character. New construction will be in the â€œstickâ€ style, in an interpretation of the vernacular carpenter gothic style for residential scale. These will have clapboard siding, wood trim and porches. The new brick office building, designed to look like a small mill, will include salvaged timbers from demolished buildings on the site, when feasible. The developers want a comprehensive permit under state Chapter 40B for the following: to alter a non-conforming structure, change a non-conforming use, for access, to alter existing non-conforming impervious coverage in the Wellhead Protection District and to extend and alter non-conforming parking. The developers also want special permits and development plan review for the commercial office building for the following: to build a by-right use in the Village Business District with floor area exceeding 10,000 square feet, extending and altering non-conforming parking and paving and relief from certain development standards. The application cites statistics showing that although 37 percent of the townâ€™s residents are low or moderate income, only 4.37 percent of the townâ€™s housing stock is categorized as affordable. A family earning median income could afford a house in the $155,000 to $165,000 range, well below the $186,000 average value, according to the statistics. In 2001, only one of the 12 building permits issued was for a house valued under $160,000, the statistics show. The project, according to the application, meets the threshold test because the townâ€™s inventory of qualifying housing units is only 4.3 percent, short of the 10 percent standard, thus creating the presumption that the bylaw is inconsistent with local affordable housing needs. It also meets the balancing test because not granting the permits could be considered unreasonable in view of the need for low- and moderate-income housing. In addition to fitting into the threshold test and balancing tests, the applicant is a â€œlimited divendent organizationâ€ and expects to be in possession of an eligibility letter from the federal Department of Housing and Community Development. Developers seek exception from various zoning requirements, including traffic increase, which is expected to be .2 percent above the 4,000 trip baseline; tree preservation, because up to six trees larger than 24 inches in diameter will be removed from the interior of the site; street planting, because the building is too close to the street, and parking-area interior plantings in order to maximize parking spaces. Relief is also sought from parking requirements, which specify 147 spaces for the residential portion of the development. The developers propose creating 106 spaces, saying the lesser number increases the number of dwellings that can be built and preserve natural areas such as the vegetative buffer along the Green River. The current number of curb cuts, four, will be maintained, but reconfigured. The applicant plans to plant a minimum of seven red maples, three sugar maples, two white spruces, 12 Canadian hemlocks and five greenspire littleleaf lindens for screening. The applicant maintains that the proposed development will have less traffic impact than the current industrial and office use. Its proximity to the commercial village center will enable tenants to walk to stores and services on Spring and Water streets.

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Lanesborough Fifth-Graders Win Snowplow Name Contest

02:13PM / Tuesday, December 23, 2025

LANESBOROUGH, Mass. — One of the snowplows for Highway District 1 has a new name: "The Blizzard Boss."

The name comes from teacher Gina Wagner's fifth-grade class at Lanesborough Elementary School.

The state Department of Transportation announced the winners of the fourth annual "Name A Snowplow" contest on Monday.

The department received entries from public elementary and middle school classrooms across the commonwealth to name the 12 MassDOT snowplows that will be in service during the 2025/2026 winter season.

The purpose of the contest is to celebrate the snow and ice season and to recognize the hard work and dedication shown by public works employees and contractors during winter operations.

"Thank you to all of the students who participated. Your creativity allows us to highlight to all, the importance of the work performed by our workforce," said interim MassDOT Secretary Phil Eng.

"Our workforce takes pride as they clear snow and ice, keeping our roads safe during adverse weather events for all that need to travel. ?To our contest winners and participants, know that you have added some fun to the serious take of operating plows. ?I'm proud of the skill and dedication from our crews and thank the public of the shared responsibility to slow down, give plows space and put safety first every time there is a winter weather event."

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