The Community Development Board gave the OK to Darlene Berryman to expand the office building she owns.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — A shared therapist office building on Gordon Street was given the Community Development Board's approval to expand.

 

Darlene Berryman, who owns the property at 20-22 Gordon St., was given approval to add offices without expanding the number of parking spaces. She now needs approval from the Zoning Board of Appeals to amend the special permit previously granted to her.

 

"There is no more than two therapists there on any given day. We are asking for four on any given day," Berryman told the board.

 

The offices are shared by at least six doctors but not all of them use it at the same time. Because of that, she had an exemption from the commercial parking requirements. Since then, a 2 1/2 car garage was demolished, expanding number of spaces.

 

"We doubled our parking since we came to you a year ago," she said.

 

The board questioned snow removal, in which she said there is enough grassy area to pile the snow up. The board also rejected a series of conditions they could have put on the permit — including the need to require a spot for an upstairs apartment and requiring where the doctors park.

 

"We don't need to step in and say designate it because we can't enforce it," said member David Hathaway. "I think the project is well thought out to handle these issues. ... There should be ample spaces available when a client shows up." 

 

The board did say it wanted to restrict the exemption to Berryman's ownership in case the property is sold to someone else for different usage.

 

"We know what you are doing there," said Chairwoman Sheila Irvin, referring to the number of doctors using the building at the same time. "If we give you the parking waiver, we understand what it means. In the future, we wouldn't."

 

Board members also agreed that their subdivision approval was not needed for a proposal to change the boundaries on Paul and Kathleen Murphy's Garland Avenue property. 

 

Those two were the only proposals fielded by the board Tuesday because Cafua Management had withdrawn its application to construct a drive-through Dunkin' Donuts on the St. Mary the Morning Star property on Tyler Street. As a formality, the board accepted the withdrawal.