Letter: Williamstown Planning Board Proposals

Letter to the Editor05:00PM / Wednesday, June 08, 2022Print Story | Email Story

To the Editor:

How many citizens voted at the last town election? How many will vote at the town meeting? Town meeting is quaint AND irrevocably broken.

A holistic approach to town zoning is far preferable. Selectively passing one or two of the failed Planning Board's proposed zoning changes amounts to spot zoning. All related articles should be tabled or voted down.

Here is something to consider if you think the GR proposals, at minimum, are harmless. If you own land that can be divided into two or more now buildable parcels, guess what? Your property taxes will be jacked up because now, your property is "more valuable!" Voila!

These ill-thought out zoning changes have actually sucked the life out of any new real ideas as to how to create affordable housing in "The Village Beautiful." Sadly, instead, all our energy has been wasted on debating these ill-advised Planning Board proposals!

Ken Swiatek
Williamstown, Mass.

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Williamstown's Gas Supply Is at Capacity, and Economic Development Is at Stake

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires.com
05:48AM / Monday, September 21, 2026

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — For more than a decade, town officials have been grappling with how the Village Beautiful can spur economic development.

Last week, the Select Board heard about a major impediment the town can do nothing about.

"Berkshire Gas had reached out to me last week," Town Manager Robert Menicocci told the board during his report at the twice-monthly meeting. "I did meet with them, and they're reaching out to let us know they're out of capacity for Northern Berkshire.

"The pipeline that comes up through North Adams and feeds into us is at its maximum capacity. So there will be no additional installations for the very foreseeable and, probably, distant future."

That means that soon no more new residential or commercial hookups for natural gas will be available in town. And new development is exactly what Williamstown has been hoping to spur, particularly in its population center.

Economic development was the focus of an intensive, yearlong town study in 2015. It has been at the heart of many of the initiatives of the town's Planning Board in recent years. And it has been a rallying cry of the Finance Committee, which has consistently told residents that without "new growth" in the property tax base, the spiraling tax burden will continue to be split among existing taxpayers.

As recently as Aug. 24, during the Select Board's annual tax classification hearing, Town Assessor Christopher Lamarre told the panel why growing the tax base is the only way to avoid either cuts to town services or a Proposition 2 1/2 override vote.

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