Williamstown Con Comm Recommends Conservation Restriction
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Conservation Commission on Thursday endorsed a proposed conservation restriction on a 7-acre lot on Luce Road.
Owners Bruce and Judy Grinnell of North Adams were before the commission to seek its blessing for a CR to be managed by Williamstown Rural Lands Foundation.
The foundation's Dan Gura explained the reasons for the conservation restriction to the commissioners.
"This piece of land is largely agricultural," explained Gura, who serves as land protection coordinator at WRLF. "In terms of why we're protecting it, we identified some conservation values: open space protection, high quality soils, habitat connectivity, farmland currently in use and scenic views."
The lot in question has been farmed by the Chenail family since 1916, Gura told the commissioners.
It also abuts other currently conserved parcels and the Mount Greylock State Reservation managed by the commonwealth's Department of Conservation and Recreation.
"The hedge rows along [the Grinnell property] provide corridors that wildlife can use as they migrate through the area," Gura said.
The proponents of the CR were before the Con Comm to ask for a finding that the restriction is in the public interest. They plan to make the same request of the Select Board at its July 13 meeting before sending the CR back to the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs in Boston for final approval.
If established, the conservation restriction would prohibit development of the property while allowing agriculture, forestry and habitat improvement in perpetuity. The CR would be attached to the deed and apply to future owners, Gura explained.
Gura was joined at the podium in Town Hall by both landowner Bruce Grinnell and Win Chenail, whose family operates a farm stand across Luce Road from the Grinnell lot.
"It's an excellent frontage for our farm," Chenail said of the 6.988-acre parcel. "Our barns are right there, our silos and so forth. It's always concerned us that if anyone built a house there, it would be detrimental to the farm.
"We're able to plant corn out there. People at the farm stand love to see the corn [growing] right there. … It's a piece of property we use, actually, most of the time. I think we get three or four cuttings of grass off that plus the sweet corn and so forth."
Grinnell explained that he and his wife live in North Adams on the Williamstown town line and that their home has some of the best views in Berkshire County, in part because of the lack of development on the parcel under consideration.
"We came into possession of this lot recently, and we did so with the understanding that we'd make an effort to preserve it in perpetuity," Grinnell said. "We did it wanting to make sure no building was built below us to obstruct the view … but also wanting to make sure it's available to Win [Chenail] and his family in perpetuity."
Town Conservation Agent Andrew Groff suggested that the commission, based on Thursday's testimony, could find that the conservation restriction is in the public interest because the lot is, "a key part of this important agricultural organization [Chenail Brothers Dairy Farm], it's adjacent to other lands in conservation, it has statewide important soils … and is a critical and key piece of Williamstown that has the classic vista of agricultural land and mountains in the distance."
The commissioners voted, 7-0, to recommend the conservation restriction to the commonwealth for the reasons Groff cited.
In other business on Thursday, the Con Comm discussed its findings from recent site visits to four of the town-owned properties under its care, custody and control.
One of those visits was to Bloedel Park, near the recently completed rotary at the junction of Routes 7 and 43.
Chair Philip McKnight proposed that the town could improve the park by narrowing the road that runs through it and eliminating one of its two access points, the curb cut onto Route 43 in the northwest part of the park.
McKnight said that, historically, the park has been used as a cut through for drivers who did not want to go through the former Five Corners intersection or, now, the traffic circle. And he said he has had preliminary conversations with the town manager about making that and other improvements to the park, one of seven properties under the care of the commission.
Some of the commissioners suggested that before any improvements are made to the park, the commission should check in with the Store at Five Corners and Williamstown Historical Museum, both of which sometimes use the park for overflow parking during special events.
Commissioners wondered aloud how much the road in and out of the park could be narrowed without losing potential parking spaces.
McKnight agreed to name a working group of three members to develop a plan for improving the park in consultation with the local non-profits and the town's Department of Public Works.
Tags: conservation commission, conserved land, farmland, rural lands,
