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Date: 2/28/2023
HADLEY — The Hadley Planning board granted a special permit and permission for a license renewal at its Feb. 21 meeting. The special permit was for a home-occupied physical therapy private practice. The license renewal was on behalf of Barstow’s Dairy Store and Bakery.
Emily Ike appeared for her special permit application hearing, regarding her private practice as a pelvic floor therapist on Laurana Lane. Board Chair Jim Maksimoski said that he had been contacted by a few people in the area regarding concerns over parking from Ike’s customers spilling out into the neighborhood.
“I got a couple of phone calls…and they had some questions about parking. The only concern anybody raised was parking on the street. I said ‘Parking on the street is not permitted…the parking on the street must be 100 percent contained on the individuals property. If they park on the street, I’m not going to say it’s never going to happen, but if it happens on any kind of a continuous basis, you call the building inspector or zoning enforcement officer, and [the business] can actually lose their license to operate from the special permit,’” Maksimoski said.
Ike assured the board that she had taken care of the parking situation and that she had sent the prerequisite documents explaining so to the board.
“I am looking to start a private practice…it would be out of one room in my home. We have plenty of parking; I had sent over the parking plan done by Randy Eisner. I also emailed over a photo today of 6 by 12 inch sign that I put up to designate parking in our driveway,” Ike said.
Given that Ike had parking under control, Maksimoski saw no other issues with the business.
“The idea of a home occupation is to be virtually invisible, except for the occasional cars [the neighbors] are going to see. The parking on the street was the only concern [I heard], when I told them about the conditions, they were good. Nobody else had a concern.” Maksimoski
The board voted to grant Ike her special permit unanimously. Her home practice is not currently handicap-accessible, but Ike said that she will offer home visits for clients who cannot make their way into her home.
Denise Barstow Manz appeared before the board seeking to renew her business’s entertainment license after she was referred to the board by a different body.
“I’m here navigating the everchanging entertainment license. Barstow’s Dairy Store and Bakery went to renew our entertainment license but we were told we need to reapply, so that is what I’m doing [here],” Manz said. “[I] probably [do] about 10 [events a year]. We’ll have live acoustic music or a speaker to come and talk about the history of agriculture.”
Maksimoski said that the board is currently drafting a bylaw which would remedy these conflicts for businesses like the bakery, who are currently required to receive permission from the board before the Licensing Department can grant a renewal or replacement, even though they are not the board’s concern as a far as safety issues are concerned.
“We’re working on a zone or possibly entertainment bylaw to address some of the issues that have arisen on this [issue]. It will probably be on a Town Meeting warrant for the Annual Town Meeting. In the meantime, I don’t think we want to hold you up,” Maksimoski said. “As far as the venues, with the entertainment bylaw we’re proposing, any educational stuff to do with the farm, like if you bring somebody in for a farm tour, or to educate them on farm stuff in a nutshell, would be exempt. We’re really going after the live entertainment and the food trucks that would be coming in.”
He clarified that the new bylaw would not adversely affect Manz or her business.
“Anything that you are doing, you will still be able to do. It will have virtually no effect on you. Once the bylaw is in and passed, which won’t be until the Annual Town Meeting in May, it’s not going to put any undue hardship on you and it won’t prevent you from doing anything you’re doing today, because you’re a lowkey operation compared to some other stuff,” Maksimoski said.
The safety issues which Maksimoski was referring to are a series of out-of-state accidents due to lack of permit approval which he wants to keep far from Hadley.
“There have been some issues with some events, not necessarily in Hadley, but out of state where food trucks have exploded and people have been killed. And because they never went to the Fire Department or the fire chief to get the proper permits and the stuff they were doing was not in accordance with NFPA (National fire Protection Program). So those are things we’re trying to get and keep a handle on,” Maksimoski said.
Overall, he was supportive of Manz’s business and their events and wanted her to continue her work.
“We want to promote the farm use and what you people are doing, and we want to keep you in business because we want to keep the open space so we’re not trying to penalize you in any way shape or form…You fall under a different set of the building code, you’ve been compliant since day one. I’d make the recommendation that we simply let Barstow Farm continue on doing what they’re doing,” Maksimoski said.
The board passed the license approval unanimously.