Williamstown Asked to Expand Village Business District
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — For the second time in three years, Williams College is asking the town to expand the Village Business District, but this time it is not to allow a new development.
The college's Jamie Art was in front of the Board of Selectmen on Monday to ask it to pass along a formal request to the Planning Board to develop a warrant article for May's annual town meeting that will expand the commercial district to include the Taconic Clubhouse.
Art explained that the board of the golf course, a private entity that leases land from college, wants to raise the profile of the clubhouse's restaurant.
But the dining establishment actually sits in a residential district and is allowed to operate as an accessory use to the course, Art said. It is a pre-existing, non-conforming use that has been around since the 1950s and predates the town's zoning bylaws.
The course's board of directors wants to the town to expand the adjacent business district by about 300 feet off Meacham Street to formally recognize the current use, Art explained.
"The bylaw wouldn't change the intended use of the clubhouse, but it would allow the club to let the public know that they're welcome," Art said in a meeting telecast on the town's public access television station, Willinet. "This is a great place to have a refreshment and watch the sun set over the mountain, and everyone should feel free to come in and have a meal. There's no better place to enjoy a bite to eat and watch the sunset in Williamstown, and people should know about it."
Last May, town meeting OK'd a different southerly expansion of the Village Business District to allow Williams to develop a new Williams Inn on its property. That process started in 2015.
This change could come a lot more quickly. The board took no formal action other than to refer the request to the Planning Board, which likely will have a hearing later this month before proposing a warrant article for May.
Although the Selectmen will have a chance to consider such an article for a formal recommendation next month, Selectwoman Ann O'Connor used Monday's meeting as an opportunity to press Art about the need for a zoning change if the pre-existing use is perfectly legal.
"This is an effort borne out of the desire on the club's part and the college's part to have a really clean nose — to do what is appropriate and what is, to the letter of the law, allowed under the current zoning," said Art, the college's director of real estate and legal affairs. "Things could go on as they are with the restaurant as an accessory use to the course.
"But there's a line out there somewhere, and if you start advertising to the general public that even if you're not playing golf, please come and enjoy the atmosphere and have a refreshment or a bite to eat … to the credit of the club and the college, they want to be an asset to the community and they don't want to step over that line."
Both North County colleges were represented at Monday's meeting.
Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts President James Birge was in the Meeting Room to introduce himself to the panel and talk about the town-gown relationship he hopes to foster with regional municipalities.
Birge talked about MCLA's history and its current profile and pointed out that the school contributes $15 million directly to the regional economy: $10 million in employee income, $3 million from student spending and about $2 million from visitors.
"When you think of the multiplier effect, that number grows to $60 million," said Birge,
The Lee native said he has enjoyed his return to the Berkshires but has been struck by the region's population decline.
"I was flummoxed by that," he said. "I thought, 'How could people not want to live here.' And I realize it's more complicated than that with the jobs and the big employers leaving. But this was a place where everyone wanted to be. To see that population loss was a little disheartening to me. I felt badly about that and hope other people will follow me back to the Berkshires."
MCLA already helps buck that trend in a small way through its graduates.
"We draw about 25 percent of our students from Berkshire County, and about 35 percent of our graduates stay here," he said.
But there is more to do, and earlier Monday, Birge met with the Berkshire Economic Development Corp. to talk about its Berkshire Blueprint, he said. Likewise, the college's own long-term planning process recognizes the importance of economic development.
"One thing that will be a pillar of our strategic planning process is attracting talent," Birge said. "We feel we have a role in attracting residents. Last year, we brought in 11 new faculty members.
"The more people we can bring to the Northern Berkshires so they can buy homes and raise families, the better."
In other business on Monday, the Board of Selectmen appointed Alexander Davis of 58 Orchard Lane to the Sign Commission and Vincent Pesce of 1124 Simonds Road as an alternate to the Zoning Board of Appeals.
Town Manager Jason Hoch also informed the board about an initiative prompted by Williams to assess residents' interest in making improvements to Route 43 to improve safety for bicyclists and joggers who use the road.
"Part of it is a maintenance issue and part of it is a long-term design issue," Hoch said, referring to the deteriorating shoulder on the state-maintained road.
Hoch said the town and college hope to use the data collected in an online survey to have a conversation with the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, which has jurisdiction over the road.
The four members of the Board of Selectmen at Monday's meeting applauded the initiative.
"There are two categories of Williamstowners," Selectman Hugh Daley said. “You've either almost been hit on that road or you've almost hit someone on that road."
Tags: bicycling, complete streets, MCLA, taconic golf, village business district, Williams College,
