WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Planning Board is leaning toward a proposal to create an overlay district to accommodate a potential inn on the Waubeeka Golf Links property in South Williamstown.

 

At its most recent meeting, board members once again expressed their preference for using the request from Waubeeka owner Michael Deep as an opportunity to address larger zoning issues in the Five Corners district at the junction of Routes 7 and 43.

 

And Planning Board members said they were disinclined to address the issue through "spot zoning."

 

But given the response of South Williamstown residents, the board decided to forego the "big picture" approach and focus on a regulatory path that would allow Deep to explore possibilities with potential partners.

 

Any zoning change would require a two-thirds affirmative vote at town meeting. But the Planning Board is responsible for generating proposals to put before the town's legislative body.

 

Deep asked the Planning Board this fall to help create a zoning solution that would allow for the creation of an inn on his financially-troubled golf course.

 

"We on the Planning Board seemed to think it's not a bad idea," board member Anne McCallum said. "It's a good idea. We like the open space. We like the golf course being there. And if this is a way to keep it .. .."

 

Deep has told the Planning Board that without another revenue stream on the property, the golf course is a losing proposition.

 

"Next year the golf course will be 50 years old," Deep's attorney, Stanley Parese, told the Planning Board at its Nov. 10 meeting, which was telecast on the town's public access television station, WilliNet. "It's very much a small business. And there are not very many small businesses in Williamstown that have survived for 50 years. It is an obsolete business model as it stands.

 

"The way to think clearly about it is if it were not to be there, there is zero chance someone would come to Williamstown and incur the capital expenses to construct a golf course as a stand-alone business that has, as a practical matter, three months to make money.

 

"The need is very real."

 

The last couple of Planning Board meetings were well attended, largely by Waubeeka's South Williamstown neighbors who generally were supportive of the course and of the town taking steps to help Deep keep it viable.

 

The stumbling block has been the Planning Board's assertion that now is the time to clean up other zoning issues in the Five Corners area, such as the fact that the historic Store at Five Corners is a pre-existing non-conforming use not allowed in the rural residential zone that covers the area.

 

"The way the last meeting went ... it looked to me and looked to the audience like the preferred plan was [an overlay]," South Williamstown resident Andrew Hogeland told the Planning Board. "It looked like 'option B' was going to be taken off the table because it wasn't popular, wasn't viable and was more than Michael [Deep] needed to get his plans going.

 

"With option B [the comprehensive zoning fix], you're introducing uncertainty ... and making people worry whether they'll support it or not."

 

Hogeland, who spoke as a private citizen, is also a member of the Board of Selectmen. K. Elaine Neely, who lives in South Williamstown and serves as chairwoman of the Finance Committee, also encouraged the Planning Board to go the overlay route.

 

"I'm interested in seeing you make changes that would allow all the businesses there to be viable," Neely said. "I'm interested in supporting Mr. Deep's golf course. I don't want Waubeeka to go out of business.

 

"Perhaps we need to do an overlay for Mike and come back and do the whole South Williamstown Historic District.

 

"It doesn't bode well for everything we need to do in town if our only revenue comes from residential homeowners. But I don't want you to do [plan B] if it means Mr. Deep doesn't get his hotel."

 

The members of the Planning Board appeared to grudgingly accept that line of reasoning.

 

"We're going to do option A [the overlay], and if, in a few years, the hotel is a success, the store is going to come to us and say, 'Hey, what about me?' and the farm is going to come and say, 'Hey, what about us?' And we'll be kicking ourselves," Planning Board member Chris Winters said.

 

"I think option B is the right way to go. It's not the practical way to go."

 

As it develops the overlay proposal, the Planning Board will need to grapple with whether to include design standards for anything developed at the golf course.

 

Bruce MacDonald told the board that his biggest concern is not whether an inn is built but what that inn looks like. He asked Deep whether he would be willing to accept aesthetic restrictions as part of a zoning bylaw. Realtor Paul Harsch, a member of the town's Economic Development Committee, agreed that the town should require an architectural review of any development.

 

Town Planner Andrew Groff reminded all present that the overlay under consideration would allow an inn by special permit — not by right — and therefore any project would trigger a review by the Zoning Board of Appeals, which would look at whether a potential project is detrimental to the neighborhood.

 

Winters argued that the town has not and should not be in the business of writing aesthetic criteria into the zoning law.

 

"Mike or any future developer is on that property to satisfy demand," Winters said. "No one wants to stay in an ugly hotel. No private property owner wants to anger their neighbors.

 

"This is a problem that does not need to be solved by an act of government. This is a problem that gets solved by everyone acting in their own self interest."

 

The specifics of the new zoning proposal will be ironed out by a Planning Board that likely will have a new look the next time it meets. The resignation of one of its members created an open seat that needs to be filled on an interim basis until the spring's town elections.

 

On Monday, the remaining four Planning Board members will meet with the Board of Selectmen to choose from among five residents who have applied to fill that seat until May.