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Date: 7/13/2022
HADLEY – Building Commissioner Tom Quinlan Jr. raised concerns about a food truck that has morphed into an entertainment venue with a liquor license located at 100 Mill Valley Rd. at the Planning Board meeting on July 5.
According to Quinlan, the owner has permission from the Board of Health and Fire Department to stay in that location until September or October.
The Maple Valley Creamery and its ice cream stand, Scoop at the Silos, are located at 102 Mill Valley Rd., where they frequently host musical acts and food trucks.
Reminder Publishing reached out to Maple Valley Creamery but did not receive comment as of press time.
Quinlan said the problem is that the board doesn’t have the authority to permit that, but the local bylaws don’t directly address it or give him the authority to overturn it.
“This has some roots. This is the gentleman that came in and talked to us about having some guitar players and I knew from the meetings of the Project Coordination Committee that I attend that there had been some issues about that property turning into some sort of a performance venue,” said Planning Board Clerk Bill Dwyer. “I’ve heard he’s built some sort of performance stage there, then I saw that a beer truck was getting a one-day liquor license for 14 weekends over the summer for the same property and then it appears that there’s a food truck there too.”
Dwyer affirmed that he wasn’t accusing the owner of being untruthful. Dwyer said the owner had approached the board after being directed to them from the Building Department about entertainment permits and said he also received a live entertainment license from the Select Board.
“This is one of those things, everything’s a little compartmentalized and by the time we get a big picture of what’s going on, all of a sudden he’s got a performance venue with a beer truck and a food truck for the summer in an agricultural/residential district,” Dwyer said. “If this was his own beer he was selling, that would be one thing. If it was in a business district like Sugar Shack, that’d be another thing. There are just a lot of layers to this onion about what is allowed in the agricultural/residential district and his ice cream stand is [allowed], but how much can he layer on top of an ice cream cone?”
Planning Board Chairman Jim Maksimoski said that while the well-known Cook Farm and Barstow’s Farm are also operating in the agricultural and residential zone, they make all of their own food on-site, unlike the food truck owner whose actions were unclear in the bylaws.
Planning Board member Michael Sarsynski replied, “Why is it unclear? I think it’s pretty clear; it’s not allowed.”
“The agricultural exemption is a bit open,” Maksimoski said.
“The other part of my question was the entertainment that you had given them permission for,” Quinlan said. “I was told by a reliable source that they were there until 7 [p.m.] this weekend, I believe you had said 6 [p.m.], is that correct? Because that’s something I do have the authority to act on. It’s nice to see a business do well, but where the feedback comes in is we’re going to have other people complaining because they’re not allowed to or weren’t allowed to.”
The board confirmed that the agreement was for entertainment to be allowed from 2 to 6 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays.
The board also unanimously approved agreeing to a $12,500 fiscal year 2023 assistance contract with the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission (PVPC).
“How PVPC usually gets funding is towns usually municipal match which is through participation by town planners, and we have contributions from Ware, Belchertown and Monson to look into this particular issue,” said PVPC Senior Planner Ken Comia. “Ware particularly because I believe they just put together a moratorium for these types of uses in their town meeting so they’re looking at trying to come up with regulation as well.”
Comia said the Land Use Planning grant came from the Energy and Environmental Affairs Department. He thanked Hadley for its contributions to the discussions and work with the PVPC over the past fiscal year for open space, residential design and farmland protection zoning. He added that the grant funds from the state would allow for another similar exploration of zoning regulations for battery energy storage.