Use this search box to find articles that have run in our newspapers over the last several years.
Date: 11/20/2023
EASTHAMPTON — After nearly a year of hearings before the Planning Board, the Tasty Top Development has been approved for development.
The development, which runs from 93-97 Northampton St., is expected to include 188 housing units across 10 apartment buildings, three mixed-use commercial units, a restaurant site, a bank site, a retail space, a Roots Learning facility and a Roots Gymnastics facility. Pending Massachusetts Department of Transportation review, the project is also expected to include a roundabout.
Before jumping into the draft review, Luke Showalter, an engineer with Furrow Engineering, provided an update on the changes made since the previous meeting.
“We did submit a revised set of plans today, reflecting the changes that were asked of us at the last meeting. We did remove 24 additional parking spaces from the plans and replaced them with green spaces,” he said. “We also noted on the plan that they will remain green spaces, unless it is determined that there is parking demand in the future.”
Showalter added that the project was waiting for a draft decision from the Conservation Commission, which is scheduled for the commission’s Nov. 27 meeting.
“The Conservation Commission met last night, the peer reviewer presented and all the stormwater comments have been addressed, so the conservation agent will be putting together a draft conditions and they plan to vote on it at the next meeting,” he said.
City Planner Jeff Bagg explained that the draft decision was put together after the previous hearing and the board was scheduled to vote on three different aspects of the draft decision, one for plan approval in the city’s Smart Growth Overlay District, the second for the approval of a special permit for more than one multifamily residential building and the third for the approval of multifamily housing, 15% of which is affordable.
Following the introduction, Planning Board Chair Jesse Belcher-Timme read through the entire draft decision, which highlighted the different findings for the three different votes the board was required to take for approval of the project. Included in the nearly 20-page portion of the draft decision focused on the three required votes were meeting vehicular and pedestrian access requirements, lighting requirements, landscaping requirements and much more.
Belcher-Timme spent the first nearly hour and 45 minutes of the meeting reading through the draft decision, before the board discussed conditions for the project’s approval and the three required votes to approve the project.
Included in the conditions is a note that the project is “conditioned upon the applicant obtaining any and all applicable Permits and Approvals from MassDOT (driveway access permit), a final Certificate from the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act and, an Order of Conditions from the Easthampton Conservation Commission (or a superseding Order of Conditions from MassDEP).”
Also included in that condition is the note that if the proposed roundabout needs a significant change after MassDOT review, or if there are significant changes after the MEPA review for the approved site plans or stormwater management review, the Planning Board may review the changes to determine if they are significant enough to modify the approval.
The full draft decision with conditions is available for review at: https://www.easthamptonma.gov/DocumentCenter/View/6560/f-Planning-Board-DRAFT-Decision_Sierra-Vista-95-Northampton.
Planning Board member James Zarvis said that the project would be beneficial to the city.
“At the end of the day I feel that overall, the vast majority of this is a very beneficial project to Easthampton. I don’t agree with some of the commentary I’ve heard that we have left things undiscussed or haven’t resolved certain issues, I think we’ve done an exceptional job over the last year pushing this to a good place for this city, and I am excited to vote in favor of it,” he said.
Board member Christopher Cockshaw said despite losing some of the views in the city because of the project, the city would still be a beautiful place after the project is completed.
“Someone asked what does Easthampton get? We get more people in a community that will increase our school attendance, it will increase our tax base, it provides affordable housing, I think there is a lot of benefits to this project,” he said. “Yes, there are impacts to our land, but if you look at Easthampton and you look at the actual open space and the mountain, and all the trails we have in our city, this is why I live here … This project doesn’t take away from that, there is still beautiful views in our city.”
Board member Kenneth Iaveccia said he was looking forward to additional housing in the city.
“We need affordable housing in Easthampton, we need housing everywhere, we need workforce housing and I think the developer is working the community to get the housing, the workforce housing and low-cost housing in town,” he said.
Belcher-Timme said he wasn’t “thrilled” about approving the second vote but said the applicant “met their burden on that part” based on the current zoning.
“This one to me is harder, I really did not like the level of tree removal back here, I felt like they could have done better with it, I know that there were efforts made to try to limit that. I think the truth is we don’t have a good tree removal ordinance, what you see in the ordinance is what we have to work with,” he said. “To the extent people are frustrated the with the things we can and can’t consider, that’s stuff that can be changed for the future, we can’t change zoning in the middle of the process, but there are more things coming.”
Board member Harry Schumann said he believed the development of several three-story buildings for the project was not in “harmony with the neighborhood and Easthampton as a whole.” He added that he was worried about what the next development after Tasty Top could entail.
Belcher-Timme agreed with Schumann but explained their backs were against the wall with the bylaw as written.
“I don’t love the big swing for everything at once, but I don’t think our bylaw really lets me at least feel comfortable voting against that part of it,” he said.
Belcher-Timme added that the board was “using the tools the city had given us.”
“The city has looked at this since before I’ve been here, and this parcel has been rezoned and reconsidered. It’s in the highway business, it’s in the Smart Growth Zoning district,” Belcher-Timme said. “The city has had a chance to protect this, either buying it or changing the zoning on it for decades since they’ve known it was a problem, and that hasn’t been a decision that anyone wanted to make.”
Despite the reservations noted by Belcher-Timme and Schumann, the board unanimously approved all three votes to approve the Tasty Top Development.
The Easthampton Planning Board is scheduled to meet next on Nov. 28.