PLANNING BOARD MINUTES
Thursday, March 19
6:00 PM
Present: Kameron Spaulding, Kate McNulty-Vaughan, Tom Delasco, Gwen Miller (LU Director/Town Planner), Stephanie Salvini (iBerkshires)
The meeting commenced at 6:00 PM. The meeting adjourned at 6:45 PM.
- Solar Bylaw Public Hearing Discussion
The Planning Board reviewed the draft Solar Large-Scale Ground-Mounted Solar Photovoltaic Installations Bylaw in preparation for the Tuesday, March 24 public hearing. Ms. Miller indicated that she had made a few revisions, as had Town Counsel. The board discussed these revisions and requested that Ms. Miller provide copies to hand-out at the public hearing. The most notable revisions included the provision of specific material modifications, revising the phrase “National Electric Code” to the “Massachusetts Electric Code”, and clearly connecting the solar bylaw language to existing, underlying zoning language in the Lenox zoning bylaw.
Ms. Miller shared a revised version of the parking language they had reviewed in February, entitled Village Center Parking Overlay District. She noted this language had also been reviewed by Town Counsel. Mr. Spaulding indicated he had shared the language with the Great Barrington Town Planner, Chris Rembold, who also thought it looked good. The members discussed potential tweaks to Section 5.1.22, Boundary, to refine the boundary from the Historic District.
The board discussed the other parking initiatives that would link with this bylaw change, including better signage, a parking map, the creation of additional parking, stricter enforcement, longer parking periods for on-street parking between Memorial Day and Columbus Day, and a parking study for the village center.
Mr. Spaulding stated that Town Manager Christopher Ketchen was going to discuss the proposed bylaw amendment with the Board of Selectmen that night, and they would likely recommend it. This would require the Planning Board to schedule a public hearing prior to Town Meeting. The Planning Board decided to schedule a public hearing for Tuesday, April 21. They will continue to refine the parking language at future planning board meetings.
The planning board members present discussed the ongoing Elm Court process. They agreed to place it on the agenda for their March 24 meeting to discuss further, and to contemplate as a group how they could update or revise the recommendations they shared with the Zoning Board of Appeals in February.
- Open Session
- New Business
The board also discussed other topics for the March 24 agenda, including a BRPC update from Mark Smith and a CPC update from Tom Delasco.
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