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Company which manages nationally cited, super-fast Internet broadband for Leverett says it will respond to new request from Williamstown

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. -- The town has taken a first step toward creating a super-fast Internet competitor to Time Warner cable, and Crocker Communications Inc., the Greenfield-based company which managed building a municipal system for Leverett, Mass., said on Friday it may be interested in helping.

Responses are due by May 20 to a town "Request for Information" which was posted on Williamstown.net -- the town's website -- on Thursday. The RFI says the town is evaluating "options for making broadband available to its residents and businesses" by "evaluating the last-mile options to make fiber optic cable available to its residents and businesses."

In an email exchange with GreylockNews.com, Matt Crocker, president of family owned Crocker Communications Inc., said: "We are very interested. Thanks for sending me the link. We will work up a response." Crocker's participation in the Leverett 1-gigabit municipal Internet system has been written up as a national case study. Now, nearly 500 Western Massachusetts residents are petitioning Massachusetts Gov. Charles Baker to release $50 million in funds to build rural broadband.

The town's RFI, authored by Selectman Andrew Hogeland, notes that the quasi-public Massachusetts Broadband Initiative delivers super-fast Internet service to Williams College and the Clark Art Institute, as well as to town buildings and other community-anchor institutions such as town hall, the library, schools and fire station.

But so far, connecting this government-owned and paid-for Internet connectivity, has proved a competitive and bureaucratic challenge throughout Western Massachusetts, despites its educational value. In effect, super-fast, publicly owned Internet connections exists throughout the region, but almost no citizens can connect to them.   The town's RFI is a response to suggestions in last year's town Economic Development Committee report. Hogeland served on the committee.

That December 2015 report concluded the town "should continue to investigate the potential of broadband access to be a community asset for both residents and businesses, and to understand the project scope, costs, benefits and organization options for such a project so that an informed decision can be made whether to pursue broadband access."

Connections to the Internet have been available in Williamstown and the region for at least 25 years, first through "dial-up" phone connections, then through so-called "Digital Subscriber Lines" -- DSL -- via phones, and for at least 20 years from the monopoly cable-television franchisee -- now Time Warner Cable and soon to be Charter Communications via a merger.

But the issue has been speed of access. As entertainment -- movies and other services such as connection to medical-technology or distance learning -- have increasingly moved from text to multi-media, the need for faster connections is seen by some as an economic-development priority.

Verizon has technical difficulty delivering speeds of more than 5 megabits/second over phone lines because they are copper wires to homes; Time Warner's fiber-optic cable lines to homes can support speeds many times faster, but Time Warner's prices for doing so are prohibitively high for consumers -- $80 a month for only 10 megabits/second -- barely fast enough to watch a low-definition movie. Also, both Verizon and Time Warner's standard services are "asynchronous" -- the speed to download (consume) information are as advertised, but the speeds to upload (create) information are a fraction of that. Thus they create a culture and reality of consumption rather than creation.

By contrast, Leverett residents, served by Massachusetts Broadband and local fiber-optic cables managed by Crocker, delivers 1 gigabit service to homes (that's 1,000 megabits/second) for $80/month -- or about 100 times the monopoly broadband supplier Time Warner is selling for $80/month. And the Leverett service is "synchronous" -- the upload and download speeds are the same.

Last year, Citizen Media Inc., the non-profit publisher of the Greylock Independent newsletter and website, organized a community discussion of broadband options for the region. Despite repeated invitations, neither Verizon nor Time Warner sent any representatives to the discussion.

Besides non-broadband consumer Internet services provided by Verizon, and monopoly-priced broadband services from Time Warner, the other potential superfast link to the web in the Greylock region besides MassBroadband is a fiber optic cable buried along the old Boston & Maine railroad right-of-way. It's not clear who controls the cable, installed during the 1990s by the old MCI Telecommunications Corp. or what the cost might be to connect to it.

RELATED LINKS:

• "The Hills are Alive: Without the Sound of Internet Access" -- Susan Crawford
• Broadband links
• Selectman Andrew Hogeland's efforts began July 2015
• Earlier reports by GreylockNews.com on broadband

Planning board set to vote Wednesday on recommending 70,000-square-foot "country inn" at Waubeeka after developer agrees to 67-acre conservation restriction

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. – The Planning Board is poised to recommend next week that voters approve a zoning change that would allow a 60,000-70,000 square foot “country inn” resort alongside the Waubeeka Golf Links. The developer withheld a decision on whether to agree to the building size limitation.

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TEXT: Testimony excerpts from April 28, 2016 Planning Board meeting

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There would be no specific number of guest units or rooms in the zoning revision, under the plan favored by three of five board members – Sarah Gardner, Elizabeth McGowan and Ann K. McCallum – leaving it up to a developer the interior layout and uses within the total square footage.

After hearing the developer’s attorney, public testimony and discussing among themselves for more than two hours, the five-member board found itself lacking unanimity on whether to either specify a square-foot size limit on the building, or set a limitation of 10 acres on the total footprint of resort and golf-course buildings.

So they instructed Town Planner Andrew Groff to come up with two documents – one taking each approach -- and scheduled a meeting for Wed., May 4, at 5 p.m. at Town Hall to decided one way or the other.

By the end of Thursday night’s meeting, it appeared three three members of the board were ready to go with a square-foot limitation and the other two –D. Chris Winters and Amy C. Jeschawitz -- were uncommitted. Whether it will be 60,000 or 70,000 square feet or even 75,000 square feet -- appeared still a matter of discussion.

The board is working toward a vote on whether to recommend adoption an amendment to an article on the May 17 Town Meeting warrant. The amendment would replace the language in a Citizens Petition placed on the meeting warrant by supporters of developer Michael Deep.

DEEP ACCEPTS 67-ACRE CONSERVATION RESTRICTION

Deep’s attorney, Stan Parese, appeared to surprise the board and some audience members when he announced during an introductory presentation that Deep was prepared to commit to putting a permanent conservation restriction on 67 acres of the 207-acre golf-course property, which sits in a valley cited as one of the most scenic in the state. The 67 acres is presently wet and wooded.

The decision was praised by a number of speakers, including botanist Pamela B. Weatherbee, who owns an adjacent parcel. “I find the idea of a conservation restriction for the 67 acres very, very attractive because it is with other protected lands,” said Weatherbee. She called the 67-acre parcel “very unusual, with many springs.”

Parese said Deep would like the conservation restriction to permit development of a well and underwater thermal heating resources as well as electricity-generating solar panels if possible. Some speakers expressed concern about having to cut trees – which sequester carbon dioxide – to install solar panels. Weatherbee said solar might not be compatible with a conservation restriction. Parese said if that turned out to be the case, Deep would still go along with the restriction.

There were these additional highlights at the meeting:

• Selectman Hugh Daley, in testimony, urged the Planning Board not to be fixed on requiring a conservation restriction on more than 67 acres in exchange for supporting the hotel zoning -- given that Deep was agreeing to not develop homes on the golf course.
• Parese said the Deep was willing to limit the development footprint to 10 acres. He said he would have to consult his client’s architect – David Westall – to determine if they felt an overall size limit of 60,000-70,000 square feet was economically feasible. By comparison, the current 128-room Williams Inn is about 70,000 square feet and the 49-room Orchards Inn is about 49,000 square feet. Williams College’s proposed inn at the foot of Spring Street is planned as 60 rooms and 49,575 square feet.
• Parese also said the developer had abandoned language that would have specified application of the state’s timeshare development law to the project. “So everybody who’s been saying a 40-acre, timeshare resort – it’s gone,” Parese said.

• Presently, Waubeeka is in a 2.5-acre residential zoning district. If votes approve the hotel overlay district, Parese said “my client is in for a long ride, he’s losing money all the way, but he’s willing to see it through” to starting of construction estimated in 2020 after lining up development partners, design, zoning and planning final approvals and financing.

• Numerous speakers, both public and among the board, declared support for the objective of creating a development opportunity that could sustain the 18-hole public golf course that has been in operation for a half century. “And it would be beneficial to the town to have some increased employment and taxes,” said Sherwood Guernsey, an attorney and former state representative who’s home abuts the golf course. He said the challenge was to find a balance between fostering economic development and not threatening too much open space.

• Both Guernsey and public speaker Foster Goodrich asserted “frustration” that some advertisements placed by Deep citing tax and other economic benefits of the proposed project appeared to them to be inflated. Parese said he was confident in the numbers and said they could be made more accurate once the details of the project are clearer.

Adding up tax predictions for Waubeeka proposal -- comparison tough without explanation

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. – Developer Michael Deep might be overestimating the tax benefits to the town of his proposed 120-dwelling-unit “country inn” proposal at the Waubeeka Golf Links, data from the town and the Williams Inn suggest. But it's hard to be sure because the developer has so far not provided information to the public about his calculations.

In advertisements on Facebook and the Time Warner cable system, and in written materials, Deep has asserted that “an estimated $500,000 per year in local tax revenue will be generated when the new facility is in operation.”

As a benchmark, the 128-room Williams Inn paid $64,388.92 in real-estate and personal property taxes in the last full reported tax year, according to figures provided to GreylockNews.com by Town Manager Jason Hoch.   Those figures are based upon an assess value of $3,524,100 for the inn property.

The Williams Inn most recently paid $120,000-a-year in room taxes and $9,000 in food-and-beverage taxes to the state, according to Carl T. Faulkner, who co-owned and ran with his wife the Williams Inn until their retirement and sale to Williams College last year.

While there have been estimates from Deep that his project might cost $45 million, it’s not clear that figure would have the most significant bearing on the property taxes it pays, town officials say. More critical is its business success.

Williamstown assesses hotels and motels based on industry-standard methodology knows as the income-capitalization approach, according to Town Assessor William Barkin. “Which takes a property’s net income before debt service and converts it into an indicator of value.” (a complete description from Barkin of the method appears at the bottom of this blog post)

Given their similar size, and presuming similar levels of success, a Waubeeka project of the size suggested by Deep would pay a total of less than $200,000 in taxes on an apples-to-apples basis with the Williams Inn – and a percentage of the room taxes are retained by the state.

Deep and his attorney have not responded to a request for detail about methodology or assumptions for the $500,000 estimate. However, Deep is scheduled to appear May 9 before the Williamstown Finance Committee to explain the proposed project’s economic impact.

COMPARISON TO WILLIAMS COLLEGE PROPOSAL

Last week, Williams College official James Kolesar circulated to the public a “Q&A on the Williams Inn Project” – the college’s proposal to raze the current inn after constructing a new, 60-100-room hotel at the base of Spring Street. In his Q&A, Kolesar said “we estimate that the net effect will be an annual addition of $60,000 in property tax and another $50,000 in room tax, bring the net effect of the Williams Inn to approximately $125,000 a year in property taxes and approximately $260,000 a year in room and meal taxes (a portion of which goes to the state).

 

ASSESSOR’S METHODOLOGY

Here is the rest of assessor Barkin’s explanation of valuing hotels, as provided to GreylockNews.com:

“Briefly put, the appraisal consists of first ascertaining the potential gross income from all sources then subtracting out income loss due to vacancy; then all expenses, to arrive at a net operating income. This net operating figure is then divided by a mathematical factor known as the Capitalization Rate, which is the weighted cost of the invested capital that takes the form of mortgage debt and equity. The resulting figure is the estimate of value.

“For property tax purposes in Williamstown, all hotel/motel reported income and expense data is analyzed to produce an equalized “rate” schedule which is then applied to all of the hospitality properties. Individual business enterprise value or “good will” is eliminated from the analysis. This methodology preserves uniformity and consistency when assessing “like” properties.   Thus, the town does not subsidizes establishments for poor management nor penalize those with superior management."

Deep had resisted setting aside any restricted open space as part of Waubeeka hotel bid, or any limit to size of building or guest units; hearing Thursday

THIS STORY  HAS BEEN UPDATED

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. – The owner of the 207-acre Waubeeka Golf Links in South Williamstown, set in a valley with one of the most celebrated views in Massachusetts, will go before the planning board Thursday night at 7 p.m. at Town Hall and argue against any permanent "conservation-restriction" guarantee that any of the property will remain forever open -- as well as any size limitation on an up-to-120-"guest unit" country inn. 

Two weeks ago, Town Manager Jason Hoch – seeking a compromise between a majority of planning-board members and developer Michael Deep, offered language that would impose a legal conservation restriction on at least 67 acres of the parcel, and more than that as the size of a proposed 120-room country-inn development grew. But in changes to Hoch’s draft made public on Wednesday by Deep’s attorney, Stan Parese, the language about conservation restrictions is removed.

Meanwhile, Planning Board member Ann McCallum was described by Hoch as working on her own adjustments to Hoch’s “compromise” proposal. Both Hoch’s proposal and Parese’s revisions represent proposed amendments to a “citizens petition” warrant article which will be before voters at the May 17 Town Meeting.

LINK TO PARESE VERSION, SHOW HIS PROPOSED CROSSED-OUT DELETIONS FROM HOCH COMPROMISE, AND UNDERLINED ADDED LANGUAGE

Among key changes to Hoch’s compromise proposed in Parese’s markup:

• A reduction to 10 acres in the size of the parcel (with the overall 207 acres) on which the country-inn structures would have to be constructed.
  
  
• A numerical ceiling of 120 “guest units” – all “without kitchens” on the development. Each unit could be multiple rooms.  Also, the Parese proposal eliminates any maximum square-footage for the inn structures. Hoch has proposed a maximum of 50,000 square feet – about the same size as The Orchards Inn.
  
  
• An agreement that “no dwelling units” could be built elsewhere on the golf course other that as part of the country-inn development, once a developer obtains – and maintains – a special permit for the country inn. However, if Deep is unable to put together an inn-development package, he could revert to closing the golf course and developing housing lots.
  
  
• Acceptance of Hoch’s definition of a country inn as “an establishment where overnight transient sleeping accommodations are provided to lodgers in one or more, but not to exceed 120, guest units without kitchens.” A restaurant, gathering and banquet facilities and accessory recreational facilities such as a swimming pool or hiking trails would be permitted.

For earlier stories on the Waubeeka proposal, click to http://www.greylocknews.com and scroll down continuously.

Ribbon-cutting set for May 24/25 at $61-million Cable Mills apartment complex; 70% of 61 units "spoken for"

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. -- The former Cornish Wire factory on Water Street in Williamstown is well along in its transformation to the $61-million  "Cable Mills" apartment complex and principal real-estate agent Kevin White of Harsch Associates says about 72 percent of the 61 one-, two- and three-bedroom units and townhouses are "spoken for" in one way or another -- either leases signed or a non-refundable $500 deposits put down.  Some tenants have already moved in, he said on April 17. 

(Earlier Berkshire Eagle story)

White says most of the incoming tenants are moving to the area, although there are some "locals" as well.  A ribbon-cutting is planned for either May 24 or May 25, he says. Units in the main factory building and one of two adjacent buildings are ready to occupy; the second adjacent building is still being fitted out on the inside.  Ongoing landscaping will gradually create a scenic walkway along the Green River behind the complex, with additional condominium units slated for construction next year sometime. 

Originally owner Mitchell Properties LLC of Boston, had planned a condominium development, with a percentage of units sold at below-market prices as a condition of getting support from the town as well as special financing from the state based on "affordable-housing" guidelines.  But after the 2008 mini-economic crash tanked the first cut at financing, a new package was arranged that requires the units be held in ownership by Mitchell for five years.  So everything right now is rentals.  

The below-market "affordable" units are approximately $1,343 a month for a two-bedroom unit, White says, and two people with a combined annual income in the $44,000-to-$52,000-a-year range could qualify. The market-price for similar units would be over $2,000 a month, he says.   For more information, call White at 413-884-4935.

 

 

 

Originally

Developer begins targetted ad campaign on Facebook to promote up-to-120-room "country inn" at Waubeeka

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. -- Ads targetted to local users are appearing on Facebook promoting a developer's proposal for an up-to-120 room "country inn" on up to 10 acres of the 207-acre Waubeeka golf course in South Williamstown.

https://www.facebook.com/supportwaubeekainnandspa/

The ads provide a link to a PDF document which lays out what appears to be developer Michael Deep's latest iteration of his proposal -- scaled back from a proposal his supporters have asked Williamstown Town Meeting to approve on May 17. The much-bigger proposal is still officially on the Town Meeting warrant, however.

Here is a link to the PDF self-described "fact sheet" posted on Wednesday:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bzqc-n6wusd7T0Vybjd1eHFCREE/view

And a link to a PDF of concept drawings and other assertions:
http://newshare.com/planning/developer-deep-assertions-drawings-04-22-16.pdf

The "fact sheet" asserts the "60 new jobs" will be added to Williamstown if a country inn is built. The Facebook ads link to a Facebook business page which contains messages promoting the project such as:

"Did you know...The Country Inn and Spa proposal is expected to generate an estimated $500,000 per year in local tax revenue when the new facility is in operation."

Deep has been asked by this writer for substantiation of the mathematics for such assertions as well as others made in earlier advertisements placed on the Time Warner cable system that serves Williamstown. In addition, the Williamstown Finance Committee had granted him time at its next meeting on Monday, May 9 to make his case for an assertion of financial benefits to the town if he is granted a zoning change to build the hotel.

Meanwhile, town officials have proposed a modified zoning-overlay proposal for the South Williamstown area that includes Waubeeka, and members of the Planning Board are expected to discuss that, and possibly recommend or reject it to Town Meeting, at their public meeting next Thurs., April 28.

EARLIER POSTS:

http://newshare.typepad.com/greylocknews/2016/04/planning-board-sets-april-28-public-hearing-as-deeps-attorney-takes-dim-view-of-conservation-restric.html

http://newshare.typepad.com/greylocknews/2016/04/town-seeks-fresh-jumping-off-point-as-controversy-swirls-around-hotel-proposal-for-scenic-south-will.html

http://newshare.typepad.com/greylocknews/2016/04/-deep-offers-six-features-of-his-waubeeka-timeshare-hotel-plan-in-effort-to-appeal-to-neighbors-and-.html

http://newshare.typepad.com/greylocknews/2016/04/deep-granted-time-by-finance-committee-the-night-before-election-to-pitch-his-40-acre-waubeeka-times.html

Planning Board sets April 28 public hearing as Deep's attorney takes dim view of conservation restriction for Waubeeka site

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. – The developer of a proposed timeshare development in one of the most scenic spots in Massachusetts signaled displeasure on Tuesday with moves to require that he commit to permanent open space in exchange for a zoning change to permit his country-inn hotel idea.

“Frankly we’re not enthusiastic about the idea of any conservation restriction,” said attorney Stan Parese, lawyer for developer Michael Deep. He cited a development in Lenox, which was given authority to build 164 condominiums. Parese said there is no way Deep would agree to conserve the entire golf course. He said that was, "not economic." 

(ALSO SEE iBerkshire story on meeting, which includes square-foot data for other hotels.)

Parese’s remarks, as Deep stood alongside, came immediately after a meeting of the Williamstown Planning Board at which the zoning change was discussed. (Read the text of Parese’s recorded remarks at the bottom of this post).

Deep’s Waubeeka Land LLC bought for $1.2 million the 207-acre Waubeeka Golf course in 2014.   The 18-hole course and restaurant, both open to the public, are losing money and will be closed, Deep has said, unless he receives favorable rezoning to develop a hotel on the property. (See earlier posts for background)

When he reached an impasse with the Planning Board in January, Deep’s supporters obtained signatures of 20 voters to put a citizen-petition warrant article on the May 17 Town Meeting warrant with a zoning change permitting a time-share hotel on up to 40 acres of the golf course. On Monday, Town Manager Jason Hoch proposed a significant amendment to the citizens’ article. (READ TEXT)

Williamstown voters will decide at Town Meeting whether to consider or table to zoning change. 

At Tuesday’s meeting, board Chair Amy C. Jeschawitz said there would be no public-comment period so that board members could talk in public among themselves. After discussing the matter, the board scheduled a public hearing on the zoning change for Thurs., April 28, at 7 p.m.

The board voted 3-2 last month against recommending recommend voters approve the zoning change in the form Deep’s supporters put on the Town Meeting warrant. In Tuesday’s discussion, it appeared the split is continuing. The two-vote minority – Jeschawitz and member D. Chris Winters – argued that Deep should not be required to surrender rights for residential development in exchange for getting the hotel project authorized.

The other three board members – Sarah Gardner, Ann K. McCallum and Elizabeth McGowan, expressed the view that two-thirds of the town will be unlikely to approve a hotel at Waubeeka without at least some permanent conservation easement in trade.

“We want to keep our applicant happy with the permission for an inn of a certain size, we want to keep the long term viability of the golf course for the golf-course people and we also want to protect the scenic and environmental,” said McGowan at the end of the discussion. “And we have to keep this in mind because this is the only way this is going to pass at town meeting.”

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Here is a transcription of Parese’s recorded remarks at Town Hall following Tuesday’s Planning Board discussion of the Waubeeka zoning-change proposal.

“Frankly we’re not enthusiastic about the idea of any conservation restriction. The basic tradeoff which is being ignored over and over and you can, everybody has become an expert in town so everybody can do there own research. When there are permanent conservation restrictions there are sales of residential units. That’s been negotiated out of this. Compare this, pull out the Cranwell [Eds: a Lenox golf-course development] restriction and read it. It’s 164 condominiums for 66 percent open space. We’re talking about 95 – 96 percent permanent restriction with no residential sales at all. We do not exist in an economic vacuum in Williamstown. This dialogue needs to snap out of it because it’s not going to continue.”

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Here are excerpts of some remarks by Planning Board members at Tuesday’s meeting:

Chris Winters:

“This is what we are taking, potentially . . . a business that serves the public, employs people in town, pays taxes. This is what we are teaching potentially by having such a transaction as your suggest.”

Sarah Gardner:

“I just want to clarify that we’re not taking away any rights. They’re asking for new rights to do a commercial development and in exchange this bylaw that the town manager wrote asks for an exchange so there is a balance of development and conservation on the property. It’s a exchange that’s come up because the bylaw says, the bylaw has always said that there is striving to find a balance between conservation and development on the property. That’s always been in there.”

Chris Winters:

“So an exchange, a negotiation. A win win. Are we moving toward achieving that? It sounds like these arbitrary numbers we are throwing around, and we haven’t heard from the applicant so I have no idea. But it sounds like we are not moving toward a (balance). We are creating a demand that will not be a negotiation as much as a demand.”

Amy Jeschawitz:

“At this very moment as it stands it is [zoned] RR2. By a special permit someone could come in and put a nursing home on that property at this moment, without a conservation restriction, mind you, without opting to conserve anything they could use all of that land if it was approved.”

Sarah Gardner:

“[But] the owner has said he wants to keep the golf course there and open so it doesn’t feel overly restrictive to me to say, to put it, to preserve the golf course because the applicant has always said the whole goal of this project is to keep the golf course open and we all want to keep the golf course open . . . the [town manager’s proposed] bylaw seems to codify what they have been saying the want.”

 Amy Jeschawitz:

“I think the view of forcing them to put it in conservation to get what the need to do the project as opposed to giving them an adequate amount to do the project with an option of getting more by putting land in conservation. Those are two different things. And I think that is where we are on the board right now between our views. We have an option vs., I don’t want to say coerced, I want to say requiring, a requirement.”

Elizabeth McGowan:

“So well said. Point well taken. What we’re trying to do is create an amendment that can be made on the floor that will pass by a two-thirds vote at town meeting and we’ve heard from various, we’ve heard from the applicant in public hearing and heard from people in the neighborhood who want to preserve the golf course. So basically we want to support the development of an inn that provides for the long-term viability of   the golf course because that is what the citizens seem to want and need.

 “But there is another group that wants to protect our scenic and environmental area as well and continue to preserve that legacy and it seems that to make everybody happy there has to be some sort of protection put in at some point in this bylaw. It doesn’t seem like we’re there yet or are entirely in agreement at this point. We don’t have the number of square feet that we think a country inn and all the attendant necessary rooms, banquet halls and the rest of the support buildings for the golf course itself, sheds for keeping golf carts etc. Maybe we do have to expand this 20,000square-foot number.

 “And so we want to keep our applicant happy with the permission for an inn of a certain size, we want to keep the long-term viability of the golf course for the golf-course people and we also want to protect the scenic and environmental. So we have three things that we are working in here, in mind here. And we have to keep this in mind because this is the only way this is going to pass at town meeting. So we can sit here and quibble about what we should put, whether it should be this size in conservation right now or that size but I think we just have to keep the big picture of those important three aspects of this project in mind as we go forward at this point.”

 

 

Town seeks "fresh jumping off point" as controversy swirls around hotel proposal for scenic South Williamstown golf course acreage

Proposal would trade open space for hotel building rights

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. -- Town officials are pitching in to help draft a zoning change which would permit a developer to put a "country inn" in South Williamstown -- on a parcel considered one of the most scenic in Massachusetts because of its views of the 3,492-foot Mount Greylock.

Developer Michael Deep and his supporters say the inn could save a money-losing 18-hole public golf course from being closed and turned into house lots. They say it will produce jobs and taxes for the town. Neighbors and some other opponents say Deep's proposals to date are too vague, too large and run counter to the town's master plan calling for preserving open space. 

CLICK TO READ TOWN MANAGER'S PROPOSAL TO CONSERVATION COMMISSION

"Views from the Route 7 corridor in South Williamstown are recognized as among the finest in Massachusetts," Thomas Por, northwest/northern Berkshires manager for the Trustees of Reservations wrote in a letter to the editor published April 12 by The Berkshire Eagle, adding: "A 1982 Massachusetts inventory gave this scenic landscape an A."

On Monday, Town Manager Jason Hoch made public a proposal that will be submitted to the Williamstown Planning Board for consideration at an upcoming meeting. The proposal is designed to replace a Town Meeting warrant article backed by Deep and 20 citizens to develop up to 40 acres of the 207-acre Waubeeka Golf links with a timeshare lodging resort of undetermined size. "It reflects an amalgamation of the Planning Board's original work, the petitioner's [Mike Deep's] draft, and subsequent input from both the petitioner and concerned residents, reflecting through the prims of our own professional experience," Hoch wrote in an email accompanying the proposal. Also on Monday, selectmen tabled their consideration of the Deep bylaw proposal as originally submitted.

Hoch wrote that he hopes the proposal would be a "refreshed jumping off point for the Planning Board and interested parties to consider at public meetings" between now and Town Meeting on May 17.  At Town Meeting, voters will have the opportunity to consider or table Deep supporters' original petition, or amend it with language from Hoch's proposal or elsewhere.

Hoch's proposal, drafted with the help of Town Planner Andrew Groff and at least one Planning Board member, proposes granting zoning rights for a "country inn" of up to three stories and not more than 50,000 square feet in size -- a restriction that suggests a facility in the 60-80-room size.  However, if Deep or a future developer seeks permission to construct a facility of that size, they would be required to agree to put all but 20 acres of the golf-course property under a permanent deed restriction limiting its use to open-space recreation (including golf) or agriculture under the control of the town or an organization such as the Williamstown Rural Lands Foundation. Also, the land would have to be freely open to the public for passive recreational use.

If a country inn of 20,000 or more square feet was build, a minimum of 67 acres would have to be put under a conservation restriction. For each one-thousand square feet of additional construction, another four acres would have to be added to conservation.  In addition, the town manager's draft eliminates any reference to the "timeshare" form of ownership. 

In addition, a developer of a country inn would have to forever extinguish any right to build single-family homes on the property.

The proposal defines a country inn as "an establishment where overnight transient sleeping accommodations are provided to lodgers in one or more guest units without kitchens." It continues: "Country inns ahve common sitting and dining areas and may include a restaurant which may be open to the general public."  It says a country inn may include a swimming pool, hiking trails and recreational facilities and "areas to accommodate social evens or gatherings, e.g., conferences and weddings." 

Hoch's proposal comes as citizens continue to comment on Deep's original proposal in letters to the editor, on social media and in other forms. On Monday, Tela Zasloff, editor of The Greylock Independent newsletter and website emailed to selectmen an analysis of Deep's proposal  by Foster Goodrich, president of School Guard Glass, Inc., of Adams, and a Bennington, Vt., resident who grew up in Williamstown. Goodrich says he has been directly involved with over $5 billion worth of vertical construction projects across the country as a builder and developer. 

RELATED LINKS:

• Earlier posts on GreylockNews.com
• Archive of related documents
• Greylock Independent website 

 UPDATED: 11:22 a.m., Tues. April 12 to correct that only if the sum of site buildings exeeds 20,000 square feet would the requirement to set aside 67 acres into conservation be triggered. 

"REwind" multimedia exhibit at Williams invites 'uncomfortable' inquiries about apartheid and U.S. race relations

 
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. -- For almost two weeks, through April 17, students, faculty and visitors to the Williams College campus are invited to confront the uncomfortable, to disrupt their daily routines to go to a place they don't want to be -- considering, for example, apartheid, and Black Lives Matter.

"We are wanting to disrupt peoples' everyday lives," says Lois Banta, a Williams biology professor who holds the Gaudino Scholar chair. "It's easy to just bob along," she adds, "to think, 'People are dying out there, and I'm worried because I have a paper due tomorrow' . . . but these things are happening. I want these things to intrude in people's lives." 

The "interruption" is a multimedia art-and-music installation in the Williams College Chapel -- seven video monitors looping 3-to-7-minute excerpts from the choral work, REwind: A Cantata for Voice, Tape & Testimony.  The are based on testimonies from South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation project. (VIDEO) In addition, each of the seven clips is reproduced in one other open-to-the-public location on campus and town.

The seven video monitors are in Sawyer Library, Hollander Hall, WCMA, '62 Center, Schow, Davis Center and the town's Milne Public Library. 

REwind is not new. It was commissioned  in a 2007 collaboration between two professors at Williams -- Brad Wells and David Eppel -- and artists in South Africa, including husband-and-wife team Gerhard and Maja Marx. This week, the Marx' were on campus, overseeing the Williams installation and lecturing to classes at the invitation of the Gaudino program.

Gerhard, who is a theater director and designer and visual artist in South Africa, says he sees some parallels -- or at least some opportunities for learning -- between his native country's addressing of statutory racial discrimination -- apartheid -- and today's ongoing institutional racism in the United States. "The African National Congress is not the same liberation party that it was," he says. "We are disappointed that things haven't translated on the ground, even though we now have a great constitution." 

Robert Gaudino was a Williams political-science professor in the 1960s and 1970s who challenged his students to go to uncomfortable places and situations that challenged what he called the "borgeoise" upbringng -- living India, Appalachia or predominantly black neighborhoods in Detroit as a semester-long learning experience. The goal of the college's Gaudino Fund is to perpetuate his "emphasis on reflection, confronting our own biases through immersive engagement with otherness and, through that experience, learning to know ourselves more deeply and differently." 

While visiting Williams with a serious purpose, Gerhard Marx took some time to do a favor for the couple's children, ages 3 and 6, back home. Early on Tuesday morning, Marx was observed building a snowman on the edge of Westlawn Cemetery -- it was about 6 degrees Farenheit and there were several inches of snow on the ground, a both extremely rare for April in Williamstown. 

For REwind building locations on the Williams campus,  consult the map outside the driveway entrance to the Security Office located in Hopkins Hall on Main Street (Rte. 2), next to the Thompson Memorial Chapel, or call the Office of Communications (413) 597-4277. The map can also be found on the web at www.williams.edu/map

 

Deep offers six features of his Waubeeka timeshare hotel plan in effort to appeal to neighbors and town

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. -- A proposed timeshare hotel on the 200-acre Waubeeka golf-course property in South Williamstown could be limited to 120 rooms, could occupy less than 10 acres and could be sited on what is now a driving range nearly a half-mile from U.S. Route 7, developer Mike Deep suggests in an email made public by the town on Tuesday.

Deep suggests in an email to selectman Ronald Turbin that he might agree to such a project -- and a limitation on timeshare hotels in town only to his Waubeeka property, "in an effort to obtain town-wide support."  His email does not offer to agree to one request that Deep says he has heard from neighbors:  That he accept a permanent conservation easement on the other 190 acres as a condition of obtaining zoning relief to build a resort hotel complex. "I'm not sure what the future will hold 50 years from today," he says on that point in the email. "We should not lock out our options."

In his email, Deep says he believes just about everyone in South Williamstown supports what he is calling a resort hotel project, but some neighbors have asked for a "narrower bylaw" than contained in the language of a citizen petition submitted to the May 17 Town Meeting by Deep's attorney, Stan Parese, and 19 other town residents.

"Hopefully, if we are all reasonable, together we can build a wonderful entrance to our southern gateway and not divide our neighbors against one another," Deep wrote in the March 20 email to Turbin, adding: "Thank-you for all your interest and help in trying to keep an iconic area in our town! Thank you for putting your trust in us. Valued customers like you often provide us with the best referrals."

CLICK HERE TO READ TEXT OF MARCH 20 EMAIL 

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