Mass DEP OKs Williamstown Habitat for Humanity Project
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The president of Northern Berkshire Habitat for Humanity this week expressed satisfaction after the state Department of Environmental Protection ruled on a proposed four-home subdivision off Summer Street.
"It's basically exactly what I expected," Keith Davis said of the Nov. 7 decision from the Massachusetts DEP's Western Regional Office in Springfield. "The only real difference is any time we have to make a change, we have to go to the state instead of the local [Conservation Commission].
"They were happy with our proposal. … Charlie LaBatt and Guntlow and Associates did a good job with all the issues with wetlands and stormwater management."
The state agency needed to weigh in after a Summer Street resident — one of several who were critical of the Habitat for Humanity plan — filed an appeal of the town Con Comm's decision to OK the project on land currently owned by the town's Affordable Housing Trust.
"[The DEP] didn't make any changes to the order of conditions [from the Con Comm]," Davis said on Wednesday. "The project meets all the requirements for the Wetlands Protection Act."
The only change is that now the DEP will be the one overseeing any changes to the current plan, Davis said.
"I honestly don't foresee any changes," he said.
The next and, theoretically, final regulatory stop for Northern Berkshire Habitat for Humanity is an appearance before the town's Planning Board, which needs to conduct a Development Plan Review and grant some waivers to the town code in order for the project to proceed.
The non-profit went to the Planning Board last spring for a preliminary review of the development plan. Most of the waivers sought by the developer were received favorably by the five-person panel at that time.
After receiving a signal that the planners did not have any major objections to the project, Northern Berkshire Habitat for Humanity proceeded with the engineering needed for a Notice of Intent to the Con Comm, which now has had two chances to approve the subdivision plan — first when it issued an order of conditions in June and again when it saw a refined plan this fall.
The June 13 Con Comm decision was the subject of the appeal filed by Summer Street resident Jeffrey Parkman.
Last week's decision by the DEP regional office can be appealed to the DEP's Office of Appeals and Dispute Resolution in Boston.
A Wednesday email to Parkman seeking comment on the Nov. 7 decision and asking whether he would appeal was not answered.
Davis said on Wednesday he did not know whether the project will face another appeal.
"It would cost them a little more if they want to appeal the decision," he said. "To kill [the project], you have to have an engineer say we haven't met the Wetlands Protection Act, and we have met the Wetlands Protection Act. I don't think they can appeal it, effectively. Any appeal, what it does is delay the project."
Davis said he hopes to be able to get on the agenda for the Planning Board at its December meeting and that it can make a ruling without pushing the process into a second meeting in January.
"We have to line up contractors if we're going to do the roads and utilities next spring," Davis said. "We're getting to the point where if we don't start lining them up now, we're going to be held up for another year."
Once the infrastructure for the subdivision is in place, Northern Berkshire Habitat for Humanity can begin building homes with its volunteer workforce. The plan is to build one home per year over a four-year span.
That means that Habitat may have to go back to Mass DEP for an extension of the order of conditions, which has a Nov. 7, 2027, expiration date. Davis said such extensions are not uncommon with Habitat for Humanity projects.
"With normal [commercial] developers, they have a large crew and can build four houses in a year very easily," he said. "It would not be at all uncommon [for DEP to grant an extension] because there would be no change to the plan."
Davis said he hopes that the project can break ground in the spring so that Northern Berkshire Habitat for Humanity can continue to address the town's housing needs, albeit in a small way.
"We try to keep housing costs so they don't exceed 30 percent of a homeowner's income," Davis said. "We're part of the solution. We're not the whole solution. One house a year isn't going to solve the problem. Our goal is to make a dent."
Tags: habitat for humanity, MassDEP,
