Pittsfield to Poll More Businesses for Food Truck Rules

By Joe DurwinPittsfield Correspondent
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PITTSFIELD, Mass. — City officials have begun shaping an ordinance regulating the city's newly emerging food truck businesses.
 
They say they will look for more input from downtown merchants as city councilors continue to consider the ramifications of a new permitting scheme to emcompass modern mobile eateries.
 
"This is not a particular rush, I'd rather take our time on this and make sure we make time for public comment so that we can get all the feedback and the input that we need," said Councilor Jonathan Lothrop, at a meeting of the council's Committee on Ordinance & Rules on Monday.
 
The proposed change would amend the city code regulating hawkers, peddlers and transient vendors to establish permitting and fees for use of city parking spaces for food vending as well as limiting the zones they may operate in within the downtown area.
 
City Planner C.J. Hoss presented the committee with an initial boilerplate draft of an ordinance based on input from interested parties at a previous committee meeting, including a proposed monthly parking fee of $35 per space. 
 
Regular use of spaces in the city's designated Downtown Arts Overlay District would also be limited to select locations, removed some distance from some of the densest concentrations of retail and restaurants.  South Street between Park Square and West Housatonic Street, North Street between Maplewood and Wahconah streets, as well as the east side of North in the vicinity of St. Joseph's Church, would all be considered food truck-friendly areas.  City parking lots would also be fair game with the purchase of the regular parking permits for those spaces.
 
There will be no limit to the number of food trucks that can operate, however, and vendors may apply for other locations to be considered, pending a hearing before the Community Development Board to which businesses within a 200-foot radius will be invited. 
 
Councilor Christopher Connell said businesses within the vicinity of the currently proposed downtown zones should likewise be contacted and invited to offer input to the committee as they continue to develop the ordinance. 
 
Downtown Pittsfield Inc. Executive Director Pamela Tobin, who requested the regulation, expressed concerns about the impact that nearby food trucks might have on the decision of future potential businesses on a site, and also that the parking fee might not be high enough.
 
"They're an amenity to downtown, I'm not disputing that, I think it's great," said Tobin. "I think there's just a couple of things we need to really look at, for the betterment of all downtown businesses."
 
Kathy Lloyd, proprietor of the well-known How We Roll food truck, said the presence of food trucks will only add vitality to this central commercial district.
 
"One of the things that the studies are showing now is that food trucks really enhance downtowns, they bring people down and really add to the foot traffic," said Lloyd, "which is what our downtown desperately needs."
 
"We can use all the energy we can get in downtown Pittsfield, so having food trucks in our downtown I think is a very positive thing," agreed Councilor John Krol
 
Hoss suggested that deliberations with downtown businesses at future meetings avoid becoming a discussion of "do we want food trucks or don't we," as the committee works to fine tune the proposed rules for permitting them.
 
The committee will continue to hear input and amend the draft ordinance at its November 4, 2013 meeting.
 

AN ORDINANCE AMENDING THE CODE OF THE CITY OF PITTSFIELD CHAPTER 9, “HAWKERS, PEDDLERS AND TRANSIENT VENDOR... by Joe Durwin


Tags: downtown,   food truck,   

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EPA Lays Out Draft Plan for PCB Remediation in Pittsfield

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff

Ward 4 Councilor James Conant requested the meeting be held at Herberg Middle School as his ward will be most affected. 

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — U.S. The Environmental Protection Agency and General Electric have a preliminary plan to remediate polychlorinated biphenyls from the city's Rest of River stretch by 2032.

"We're going to implement the remedy, move on, and in five years we can be done with the majority of the issues in Pittsfield," Project Manager Dean Tagliaferro said during a hearing on Wednesday.

"The goal is to restore the (Housatonic) river, make the river an asset. Right now, it's a liability."

The PCB-polluted "Rest of River" stretches nearly 125 miles from the confluence of the East and West Branches of the river in Pittsfield to the end of Reach 16 just before Long Island Sound in Connecticut.  The city's five-mile reach, 5A, goes from the confluence to the wastewater treatment plant and includes river channels, banks, backwaters, and 325 acres of floodplains.

The event was held at Herberg Middle School, as Ward 4 Councilor James Conant wanted to ensure that the residents who will be most affected by the cleanup didn't have to travel far.

Conant emphasized that "nothing is set in actual stone" and it will not be solidified for many months.

In February 2020, the Rest of River settlement agreement that outlines the continued cleanup was signed by the U.S. EPA, GE, the state, the city of Pittsfield, the towns of Lenox, Lee, Stockbridge, Great Barrington, and Sheffield, and other interested parties.

Remediation has been in progress since the 1970s, including 27 cleanups. The remedy settled in 2020 includes the removal of one million cubic yards of contaminated sediment and floodplain soils, an 89 percent reduction of downstream transport of PCBs, an upland disposal facility located near Woods Pond (which has been contested by Southern Berkshire residents) as well as offsite disposal, and the removal of two dams.

The estimated cost is about $576 million and will take about 13 years to complete once construction begins.

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