Lenox Calls Special Town Meeting For Housing Project
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The Lenox Board of Selectmen reviewed the special town meeting warrant on Wednesday night. |
LENOX, Mass. — The Board of Selectmen have called a special town meeting to move the development of the Bartoni property along.
Town meeting must approve giving the Community Development Corporation of South Berkshires an option to buy the Bartoni land. The option gives the CDC the opportunity to buy it at the $600,000 price the town purchased it at.
"The main article will be the approval of town meeting for an option," Town Manager Christopher Ketchen said on Wednesday.
While providing the option may not put a shovel in the ground, it does signal that a long awaited affordable housing project is coming.
In 2011, voters approved the purchase of the land to build 50 affordable and market rate units. The project, dubbed Sawmill Brook, is proposed for the intersection of Route 7/20 and Housatonic.
"The town purchased the property back in 2011 using affordable housing funds from the community preservation act," said Ketchen.
The project is estimated to cost more than $20 million, according to the CDC of South Berkshires.
"This has been a long time coming," said Selectman Ken Fowler.
The special town meeting will be on June 24 at 7 p.m. in the town hall auditorium. The warrant is available below.
In other business, the town will once again host a hazardous waste pickup with the Center for EcoTechnology.
The town has been part of the hazardous materials cleanup for the last five years. Last year, 80 Lenox residents attended the pickups contributing 3,500 pounds of material.
"That's a pretty significant impact," said Jamie Cahilane, of CET, on Wednesday when he presented the schedule for this year's cleanups to the Board of Selectmen.
CET has nine pickups scheduled this year. The first one is in Great Barrington on June 19 from 4 p.m. until 6 p.m. That is one of seven dedicated to picking up paint and oil. Lenox hosts a paint and oil pickup on July 12 from 9 a.m. until 11 a.m. at the Department of Public Works.
"We're entering the fifth year of the program. Lenox has been a member since the inception," Cahilane said.
Lenox residents are restricted to just going to cleanups in their town. The cleanups are open to anyone all over the region. The town does receive a discount on their portion of the disposal for being a host town.
Also on Wednesday, the Selectmen accepted the bid from LB Corp to pave about a half dozen town roads. The bid was $944,296, which "is below what we anticipated," according to Selectman Ed Lane.
Lenox Special Town Meeting Warrant 2014
