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Sarah Gapinksi of SK Design Group presents site designs for two marijuana facilities — one outside, one inside — to the Community Development Board.

Pittsfield Community Development Approves Two Marijuana Cultivator Site Plans

By Jack GuerinoiBerkshires Staff
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PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The Community Development Board approved two site plans Tuesday for marijuana cultivation establishments.
 
The first site plan is from J-BAM LLC that wants to open an indoor cultivation facility at 71 Downing Parkway, the former Coca-Cola warehouse.
 
"Basically the marijuana will be cultivated in modules, which will be manufactured off-site and brought to the facility," Sarah Gapinksi of SK Design Group, said. "It will be a hydroponic grow operation."
 
Gapinksi said J-BAM only looks to use 16,000 square feet of the 20,000 square-foot structure. The current owner of the building will maintain 4,000 square feet for its own use.
 
The entire plot is 3.4 acres.
 
Gapinksi said they are not proposing any exterior changes but will erect a security fence. She said the plan  is to reuse the existing sign and and add security cameras and lighting and add two parking spots.
 
She did add that the Fire Department asked that some unused cars on the property be removed.
 
The board did say J-BAM still have to execute a Host Community Agreement with the city.
 
Before making this approval, the board approved an application request from Northeast Cultivation LLC that wants to convert a farm at 997 Peck's Road to an outdoor cultivation facility.
 
Gapinksi, who also represented Northeast LLC, said the area is zoned agricultural and is about 6.7 acres but won't all be used for growing product. 
 
"It will be grown in a bag system placed on the ground and spread out throughout the area," she said. "We would not be developing 6.7 acres of marijuana; it will be spread out on 100,000 square feet."
 
She said the barn on the property will be reused for drying, manufacturing, and processing. The plan is to install two greenhouses for future use.
 
A fence will be placed around the property and there will be 24-hour surveillance but Gapinksi said the operation shouldn't be visible from the road. 
 
"It sits generally lower than Peck's Road and abutting properties can't see it," she said. "Houses, vegetation, and topography really make this part of the property pretty well hidden." 
 
The only question the board had was about smell and Gapinksi said abutters would likely only smell the product during peak growing season. She did add that there are other farms in the area.
 
Members of Northeast Cultivation LLC said they did hold a community meeting and did not receive any push back from neighbors.
 
The board recommended the plan to the Zoning Board of Appeals.
 
The board continued a special permit approval request from True East Leaf, another proposed marijuana cultivator at 161 Seymour St., because it did not have enough members present to award a special permit. 
 
The board approved a site plan to make a small addition to the Pediatric Development Center on Columbus Avenue. This plan was approved before but the work was never done.  
 

Tags: marijuana,   Planning Board,   

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EPA Lays Out Draft Plan for PCB Remediation in Pittsfield

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff

Ward 4 Councilor James Conant requested the meeting be held at Herberg Middle School as his ward will be most affected. 

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — U.S. The Environmental Protection Agency and General Electric have a preliminary plan to remediate polychlorinated biphenyls from the city's Rest of River stretch by 2032.

"We're going to implement the remedy, move on, and in five years we can be done with the majority of the issues in Pittsfield," Project Manager Dean Tagliaferro said during a hearing on Wednesday.

"The goal is to restore the (Housatonic) river, make the river an asset. Right now, it's a liability."

The PCB-polluted "Rest of River" stretches nearly 125 miles from the confluence of the East and West Branches of the river in Pittsfield to the end of Reach 16 just before Long Island Sound in Connecticut.  The city's five-mile reach, 5A, goes from the confluence to the wastewater treatment plant and includes river channels, banks, backwaters, and 325 acres of floodplains.

The event was held at Herberg Middle School, as Ward 4 Councilor James Conant wanted to ensure that the residents who will be most affected by the cleanup didn't have to travel far.

Conant emphasized that "nothing is set in actual stone" and it will not be solidified for many months.

In February 2020, the Rest of River settlement agreement that outlines the continued cleanup was signed by the U.S. EPA, GE, the state, the city of Pittsfield, the towns of Lenox, Lee, Stockbridge, Great Barrington, and Sheffield, and other interested parties.

Remediation has been in progress since the 1970s, including 27 cleanups. The remedy settled in 2020 includes the removal of one million cubic yards of contaminated sediment and floodplain soils, an 89 percent reduction of downstream transport of PCBs, an upland disposal facility located near Woods Pond (which has been contested by Southern Berkshire residents) as well as offsite disposal, and the removal of two dams.

The estimated cost is about $576 million and will take about 13 years to complete once construction begins.

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