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The Royal Cleaners building is eyed to be razed and turned into a Dunkin Donuts.

Pittsfield Approves Permit For Dalton Avenue Dunkin' Donuts

By Andy McKeeveriBerkshires Staff
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PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Joann Driscoll can almost hear the coffee orders in her sleep.
 
She lives on Harvard Street directly behind the current Dunkin' Donuts on Dalton Avenue. She can hear the speakers with employees asking for customers' orders and hear them order. At 4:30 in the morning, the trash collectors come to empty the Dumpster. The trash employees toss out doesn't always make it into the Dumpster, which has attracted rats and skunks. 
 
"This is my home and they don't care. They go in and work a shift and are done. This is where I live," Driscoll said.
 
Soon she may be literally able to hear the coffee orders in her sleep. Cafua Management has proposed the construction of a new store at the intersection of Harvard Street. That puts the drive-through window directly across from her bedroom window. Dalton Avenue resident Charles Zelinsky says he's heard the former site will become a Donut Man, putting it all in surround sound for Driscoll. 
 
Zelinsky has his own concerns. He is worried about the truck traffic causing accidents. There is a number of drive-throughs on Dalton Avenue from Benedict to Harvard Street and he's counted 39 accidents. If there are two drive-throughs next to each other, Zelinsky says that will climb to 80.
 
"I do not think a full exit on Dalton Avenue is appropriate. I think it should be a right-hand turn only," Zelinsky said. "Dunkin' Donuts is not neighborhood-friendly people. They don't care about truck parking."
 
Zelinsky has gotten into arguments with truck drivers over parking when he's attempted to ask them to move.
 
Richard Kurek owns an apartment complex on Harvard Street. He can already see the day when tractor-trailers are stopping in front of the driveway while the driver runs inside for a coffee and blocking tenants from exiting. 
 
And he sees a danger with traffic trying to leave Harvard Street. He wonders how loud the outdoor speakers will be and if it will bother his tenants. 
 
Those concerns were all laid out to the City Council on Tuesday as Cafua Management sought the special permit. JFJ Holding LLC filed a proposal for the fast-food drive-through at 68 Dalton Ave. and 19 and 23 Harvard St. The plan would be to tear down the existing Royal Cleaners and two single-family homes on Harvard Street to construct the 2,100 square-foot takeout with a drive-through window. 
 
The neighborhood is a mix of commercial and residential properties. The City Council heard the residential concerns but at the same time, this was the most amicable permit hearing the city has had with Dunkin' — a permit that was once referred to by a councilor as a "political victory." 
 
The council granted the permit but wrapped those residential concerns into one of the conditions: that in one year from the issuance of the certificate of occupancy the developers and residents return to assess and possibly address the impacts — from noise to lighting to time of deliveries.
 
And then the councilors added their own conditions — that a soil assessment be done when the Royal Cleaners building is razed, that landscaping plantings on Harvard be replaced with an Evergreen hedge, that a parking spot on Dalton Avenue be removed to increase visibility, and that an 8-foot fence be placed around the perimeter and around the Dumpster. 
 
All of those conditions are coupled with the Community Development Board's conditions that a tracking pad is installed at the entrance of the project site to reduce movement of soils during construction, that if on-site parking is impeded by snow it must be removed, and that lighting is downward casting and not trespass onto neighboring properties.
 
Greg Nolan, chief development officer for Cafua Management, was fine with those conditions and addressing the concerns. He said the speaker for the drive-through is now on a post and not on the board, bringing the sound closer to the cars and lowering the volume, and he'd monitor the volume levels. 
 
"One of the first things to do would be to contact the Dumpster company and change the pickup times. That's easy to do," Nolan said. 
 
All of that is hoped to be a compromise for the mixed neighborhood, the developers, and the city. A compromise is something the city and Cafua Management has struggled to find in recent years. 
 
In 2013, the company came before the council asking for a special permit to tear down the former Plunkett School for a drive-through, just a short move from the current First Street eatery that has caused traffic concerns for years. The council's special permitting authority is only on the drive-through portion of the store and not the entire store. The council denied that permit with concerns about traffic and inconsistency with the city's master plan.
 
Cafua took them to court over it.
 
The next year, Dunkin' Donuts returned with a proposal to tear down the former St. Mary the Morning Star Church on Tyler Street for a drive-through — a move from the current Dalton Avenue store. That faced fierce opposition and ultimately the developer pulled out of the plan.
 
Now it is the former dry cleaning site, one which dates back close to 75 years but doesn't have the sentiments about it as the former school or church did.
 
"We find ourselves here as we left a previous site on Tyler Street, which had some debate. We worked with the city to find a site that was more palatable," Engineer James Scalise, of SK Design, told the City Council. 
 
Ward 6 Councilor John Krol remembers being party to that first lawsuit. He says while he still doesn't like drive-throughs in urban areas, he finds this location significantly better than the others. 
 
"I think this is a pretty solid success over the last year," Krol said. 
 
While it is a compromise, the council still had particular concerns about traffic. For nearly two hours the councilors debated various parts of the proposal but mostly returned to traffic over and over again. The entrance and exit are both on Dalton Avenue and the discussion ranged from trying to direct traffic onto Harvard Street instead or move the building further back. But ultimately, the traffic plan remained as presented. 
 
Scalise said the building is designed to allow for about 10 cars to remain in line at the drive-through window. He said it has a bypass lane with enough width for drivers to move around the building and off the property, there are 20 parking spaces which are more than needed, and he said crash data shows that the development will cause only minor traffic congestion issues. 
 
"This will change traffic operations at the intersection but not significantly so," Scalise said. 
 
The City Council was not so sure. Earlier this year the council approved invoking a rule which required the developers to pay for a third-party review of the plans. 
 
Peter Faith, the vice president of Greenman-Pedersen Inc. filed a report which agreed with Scalise that "it is unlikely that this development will cause any traffic impacts outside of the site driveways and the Dalton Ave. at Harvard St. intersection." He concluded the crash data "appears reasonable" with about 2.2 accidents per year at the intersection of the current shop. 
 
"There are going to be moderate to significant delays," Faith said.
 
But he raised concerns with sight distance — which the council hoped to alleviate by elimination a parking spot on Dalton Avenue — and he suggested orienting the site to direct more traffic onto Harvard Street. He told the council that he liked that idea better because if traffic grows, then the city has an option of putting in a traffic light at the intersection. If the plan stays as presented, then there is nothing the city can do with the private driveway.
 
Ward 3 Councilor Nicholas Caccamo is particularly worried about traffic attempting to take a left out of the establishment and onto Dalton Avenue while both east and westbound traffic is trying to enter. 
 
"That to me seems to be the most cluster situation," he said.
 
Ward 4 Councilor Christopher Connell called for the soil study. That area is surrounded by former General Electric factories which polluted the soil throughout Pittsfield. Connell wants to make sure any contamination will be assessed and cleaned up. 
 
Scalise said the property had already once been assessed and cleaned but that the developers will do another assessment as well. Connell also heard about employees at the current site using leaf or snowblowers at 5 in the morning, awakening the neighbors, and he called for the taller fence to help keep trash and to keep light pollution from going into yards.
 
Nolan said using leaf blowers at 5 in the morning is against city code and he'll stop that practice. A taller fence was added to the conditions.
 
Councilor at Large Melissa Mazzeo said it seemed that everybody involved was on the same page when it came to minimizing impacts to the neighborhood. Most of the items can be addressed at later points and the only thing she says can't really be avoided is the need for deliveries of products at 4 a.m. She agreed with the conditions put forth by the council and the Community Development Board.
 
For the neighborhood items such as trash or noise, she said that really isn't known until the operation is running anyway so she was fine with addressing those later.
 
"I think with a lot of the other things we are in the right direction," Mazzeo said. "I feel comfortable accepting your recommendations and adding a one-year review."
 
Driscoll and Zelinsky will be among the neighbors asked to return to voice their concerns then. But their hope of stopping the project altogether Tuesday night was dashed.

Tags: drive-through,   Dunkin Donuts,   

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MassDOT Project Will Affect Traffic Near BMC

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Prepare for traffic impacts around Berkshire Medical Center through May for a state Department of Transportation project to improve situations and intersections on North Street and First Street.

Because of this, traffic will be reduced to one lane of travel on First Street (U.S. Route 7) and North Street between Burbank Street and Abbott Street from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday through at least May 6.

BMC and Medical Arts Complex parking areas remain open and detours may be in place at certain times. The city will provide additional updates on changes to traffic patterns in the area as construction progresses.

The project has been a few years in the making, with a public hearing dating back to 2021. It aims to increase safety for all modes of transportation and improve intersection operation.

It consists of intersection widening and signalization improvements at First and Tyler streets, the conversion of North Street between Tyler and Stoddard Avenue to serve one-way southbound traffic only, intersection improvements at Charles Street and North Street, intersection improvements at Springside Avenue and North Street, and the construction of a roundabout at the intersection of First Street, North Street, Stoddard Avenue, and the Berkshire Medical Center entrance.

Work also includes the construction of 5-foot bike lanes and 5-foot sidewalks with ADA-compliant curb ramps.  

Last year, the City Council approved multiple orders for the state project: five orders of takings for intersection and signal improvements at First Street and North Street. 

The total amount identified for permanent and temporary takings is $397,200, with $200,000 allocated by the council and the additional monies coming from carryover Chapter 90 funding. The state Transportation Improvement Plan is paying for the project and the city is responsible for 20 percent of the design cost and rights-of-way takings.

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