North Adams Planners Pushing for Action on Gas Station
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The Planning Board is asking the City Council to address the long defunct gas station at the corner of Canal and North Eagle Streets.
Planners Lynn Ritland Bond and Kyle Hanlon brought up the eyesore at 140 Eagle St. — not for the first time — as a continuing enforcement problem at Monday's board meeting.
The former BP gas station has been closed and fenced off for years. It had continued to operate as a kiosk for several years after the gas was shutoff until it was found to be out of compliance with its permit.
The lot is owned by Boon Properties LLC of New Hyde Park, N.Y., which purchased that property and the current Valero gas station on State Road in 2014. The company (operating then as Summit Distributing) had said brought plans before the board to revive the station but only — and after several years — replaced what was then the Getty Station on State Road.
The Eagle Street property, former site of the century-old Eagle Mill that burned in 1971, has been fenced off since 2016 but the deteriorating canopy and kiosk remain.
"We had an enforcement order for the other property recently," said Building Inspector William Meranti. "I was told by the ownership that they are seeking to demo the property. That however, is all that I have. I don't have an actual application in the office. I don't have any proof beyond saying that."
Hanlon asked how they would get the property declared a nuisance and Meranti said it would have to go before the City Council.
"My office could talk to them about the signage and the fact that there's signage on the canopy and request that they have a structural engineer to take a look and see how stable that is," he said.
Bond said shouldn't the signage be decommissioned and Meranti acknowledged, "theoretically."
Planner Rye Howard asked about the underground tanks and Meranti said those had already been removed.
Chair Brian Miksic thought asking the council for a declaration of public nuisance and requesting an engineering assessment would help "turn up the heat as much as possible."
Hanlon proposed a motion to send a communique to the council to work with the building inspector's office "to take whatever declaration is necessary to get some remediation on that property."
The motion passed unanimously with Planner Lisa Blackmer absent.
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