WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Jack Miller Contractors has received the town's approval to renovate and expand the abandoned gas station and convenience store property at the corner of Sand Springs Road and Simonds Road (Route 7) to serve as its new headquarters.

 

Last Tuesday, the Planning Board voted, 5-0, to approve a development plan for 824 Simonds Road that will incorporate the existing 1,300-square-foot building and add an approximately 2,100-square-foot addition.

 

"We look forward to turning what is now an eyesore into a beautiful property and hope it will be a great asset to the neighborhood and to Williamstown," Miller said on Friday.

 

Charlie LaBatt of Guntlow and Associates told the Planning Board that the new addition will be office space while the existing structure will be converted to storage for the contractor.

 

The former gas station, most recently an Express Mart, was built in 1954 and, as of Friday morning, was listed with an asking price of $300,000 by G. Fuls Real Estate on 0.39 acres of land in the town's Planned Business zoning district.

 

"The proposed project is to renovate the existing structure and create a new addition of office space," LaBatt told the planners. "So it's both office and, as I've described in the [application], we have a couple of them in town: a storage/shop type space, more industrial as opposed to traditional storage."

 

He explained that while some developments can be reviewed by Town Hall staff for compliance with the bylaw, there are three potential triggers that send that development plan to the Planning Board: an addition or new building 2,500 square feet or more, the disturbance of 20,000 square feet of vegetation or the creation or alteration of 10 or more parking spots.

 

Only the third trigger, the 10 spaces proposed for the Simonds Road site, put the project on the Planning Board's agenda.

 

He added that the project also would not require a review of its stormwater management plan.

 

"This thing is all at grade," he said. "We're not disturbing 10,000 square feet of vegetation [the trigger for stormwater management review], because there's not 10,000 square of vegetation on the lot."

 

In fact, while the redevelopment calls for a building addition and the creation of those 10 parking spots, it actually reduces the amount of impervious area on the lot by about 2,700 square feet, LaBatt said.

 

The members of the Planning Board asked for a few clarifications on aspects of the plan, including how it will incorporate both vegetative screening and fences to comply with the bylaw and whether the proposed exterior lighting will spill over onto adjoining properties or the state highway.

 

The panel spent some time looking at the distance between the proposed project's curb cuts on Simonds Road, ultimately agreeing that the spacing was appropriate under the bylaw. LaBatt noted that the Massachusetts Department of Transportation also must OK those cuts, and early indications are the state agency will be amenable.

 

Before giving their signoff, members of the Planning Board took time to praise the proposed redevelopment of the blighted property.

 

"It's a great adaptive reuse of an existing building that's an eyesore now," Roger Lawrence said. "It's going to greatly beautify that intersection. You're reducing the amount of impervious surface, you're including green shielding, so you're checking off a lot of good boxes here that reflect our community values."

 

Also on Tuesday, the Planning Board approved a request from the town to subdivide a South Williamstown property owned by the Hart family.

 

A portion of the 8.25-acre parcel on New Ashford Road (Route 7) was used as a town landfill in the 20th century, and the town is seeking to acquire part of the lot in order to maintain the degraded portion.

 

"It's our responsibility to stabilize and maintain [the landfill site] long term," Community Development Director Andrew Groff told the board. "So we are transferring property from the Hart family. They're going to maintain the home that's on New Ashford Road. The town is going to maintain the landfill on the back lot. So it is a building lot, but nothing will ever be built there."

 

Public Works Director Craig Clough told the board about how the town plans to maintain the former landfill in order to protect the Green River, which runs behind the property.

 

"Because this landfill is up against a river bank, we do have to stabilize the bank, because we do have some of the old trash that gets into the river," Clough said. "What it's going to be in the future is a lot of bioengineering, probably a lot of tree cribbing and stuff like that to actually build up the bank that is on the west side of the river. We'll stabilize all that so we no longer have the intrusion of rubbish into the river."

 

The Planning Board's 5-0 approval of the subdivision is one step in the town's process to acquire a portion of the property. Ultimately, the acquisition will require the approval of town meeting.