Environmental concerns about the Silverleaf Resorts proposed expansion at Oak n’ Spruce in South Lee dominated the conversation at a Monday night ‘s Lee Conservation Commission meeting to which planning board members were also invited.
Silverleaf Representatives included SK Design, Walter Cudnohufsky, and Pedro Cruz, Jr. and Jacob Masenior from Baystate Environmental Consultants of East Longmeadow.
Citizens for Preserving South Lee were in the audience, with their environmental consultant Raymond Levesque who asked pointed questions. In particular, a few sparks flew around what Levesque and others perceived was the hired wildlife specialists’ misinformation about the Wetlands Protection Act.
Don Hunter, local attorney for Silverleaf, began the meeting by presenting the company’s revised plans for Phases 2C and 4. In summary, Phase 4 is 240 timeshare units on the side of Meadow Street where most of the current resort buildings are currently located. Phase 2C, recently scaled back, now includes “improvements in the front:†a meeting/ gathering building which Hunter said will be built with the purpose of putting the large wall of buildings behind it into a more appropriate scale. The 32 timeshare units formerly planned for this part of the resort have been erased from the plans, with work behind the current buildings where those units would have been built now limited to parking areas and a detention basin.
Phase 4, with 240 units going up the hill at the edge of the developed part of the resort property was presented next. Hunter said the Conservation Commission and planning board have made requests which in some cases are in opposition. The classic case in point being the road which the planning board likes to see wider for safety, while the Conservation Commission advocates for smaller widths due to infringements on the river’s riparian zone and other critical environmental areas.
The company has moved the buildings out of the riverfront buffer zone, said Hunter, keeping the same number of total units and the same road system. Drainage changes were significant, he said, pointing to the domino effect of moving buildings. Bob Fournier of SK Design said the most significant change was the move of the four buildings out of the riparian zone. They also moved two parking areas and added retaining walls.
Overall the riparian impacts were reduced by 167,000 square feet, he said.
Wildlife habitat analysis was conducted on May 15 by Bay State Environmental and they presented their report. After the two Bay State representatives read their list of credentials.They talked about what seemed to be a small bank area. They said the area is already disturbed and they didn’t see that the planned construction would do further damage to the wildlife habitat.
They also said that the construction road within 80 feet of the vernal pool would not have a “permanent impact†on this protected resource. When they talked about the certified vernal pool on the site the environmental expertise and interest in the audience became apparent.
Bay State’s knowledge and assertions were challenged by Levesque, as well as Shep Evans of Stockbridge and the Citizen’s group’s former attorney, who said they were misreading the Wetlands Protection Act. They asserted that a 100 foot buffer zone for the vernal pool is required by law. When Bay State disagreed, the town’s environmental consultant, Robert Hoogs, said there is indeed some protection within the 100 feet as in the vernal pool itself, and the first task is to define the resource area. “There seems to be some misunderstanding of where the resource area begins and ends,†he said.
Near the end of the meeting planning consultant Walter Cudnohufsky expressed dissatisfaction with the current plan, which he said is a compromise that’s made a good plan into a “destructive†one. Saying “It’s painful to see it happen†Cudnohufsky said the new plan is “less successful†in terms of the feel of the development itself and the natural disturbances.
Cornelia Kalischer of the Citizen’s group submitted two letters from their attorney and environmental consultant, which she said raised questions about why they were not allowed to attend a recent site visit.
The meeting was continued to July 16.
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Snow, 'Freezing Drizzle' Forecast for Berkshires
Staff Reports
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The day before the day before Christmas is shaping up to be a messy mix of rain and snow.
A winter weather advisory has been issued by the National Weather Service office in Albany, N.Y., through 7 a.m. on Wednesday for Berkshire County, and eastern Rensselaer County in New York.
Patchy snowfall was expected to begin Tuesday morning over the region and through the afternoon, before turning to freezing drizzle in the evening. The region could see total accumulations of 2 to 5 inches of snow and a glaze of ice.
WTEN Channel 10 in Albany has North County and Southern Vermont getting up to 6 inches.
Heavier snow is forecast beginning after midnight along with gusty northwesterly winds. According to NWS, "The combination of gusty winds and falling snow will likely reduce visibility and lead to difficult travel."
Christmas Eve will be cold and breezy and Christmas Day cloudy with highs in the upper 30s, but turning frostier in the evening. Friday will be in the 20s with a chance of snow.
Most schools are either already out this week for the holiday vacation or have half-days Tuesday or Wednesday.
The city has lifted a boil water order — with several exceptions — that was issued late Monday morning following several water line breaks over the weekend. click for more
The bridge had been closed to all vehicle traffic since March 2023 after being deemed structurally deficient by the state Department of Transportation. click for more
