Use this search box to find articles that have run in our newspapers over the last several years.
Date: 5/9/2023
EASTHAMPTON — The months-long hearing for the Tasty Top redevelopment will continue to a June 6 Planning Board meeting at 6 p.m. on the second floor of 50 Payson Ave.
During the May 2 hearing, Planning Board Chair Jesse Belcher-Timme said that the applicants and Stantec needed more time to prepare traffic mitigation strategies and a peer review. The hope is to talk about the traffic issues as a board at the June meeting.
Background
The Tasty Top Development, as presented at the Planning Board’s Dec. 21, 2022 meeting, will run from 93 to 97 Northampton St. and is set to include a gymnastics and daycare facility, 10 three-story apartment buildings with 176 apartment units, two restaurant pad sites, two mixed use retail and office buildings with 26 apartment units above, one retail building and two commercial storage buildings.
The project was also issued an enforcement order from the Conservation Commission in June of 2022, which is available for perusal on the city’s website. It states that at the commission’s June 13 meeting, it was determined that a Wetlands Protection Act violation occurred “due to activities which include, but may not be limited to, the removal of vegetation and ground disturbance [associated with the installation of a crossing] to bank, land under waterbodies and the 100-foot buffer zone associated with a tributary to the Manhan River without the review or approval of the commission.”
At the Conservation Commission meeting on Jan. 23, commission Chair Julianne Busa noted that the order was not being followed because a crossing over a stream was requested to be removed and had not been.
During the Feb. 7 Planning Board meeting, Luke Showalter, one of the engineers working on the project, went over some of the changes to the site plan. The updated plan includes additional sidewalks connections, bike racks, more trash container locations, photometric plans for the site, two electronic vehicle stations at each multi-family building, chain link fences around the stormwater basins near the multi-family buildings and a “significant” reduction in the number of parking spaces throughout the site.
Showalter explained it would result in a reduction of 169 spaces and the spaces removed will remain as green areas but are marked for additional parking if necessary. The work since the prior meetings also included updated traffic counts. With the reduction, there are 560 proposed parking spaces.
The Planning Board also discussed the traffic study around the area provided by the applicant, but decided it was best to hire a second company to review the study to help ease some concerns.
Eventually, Northampton engineering consultant Stantec was hired to conduct a peer review of the traffic study that was provided by the applicant and discussed during the February Planning Board meeting.
Rick Bryant, a senior associate of Stantec, said that the consultant reviewed the study and found that this project generates “a significant” amount of traffic and has significant impacts at the intersections of Northampton Street, both at the signal north and south of the site.
During a March 21 Planning Board meeting, Bryant said that more work needs to be done between the city and the state to address a lot of these concerns around the project. With the abutting road of the property owned by the state, there is very little input Easthampton can have on a local level.
“What we’ve tried to do is give [the applicant] a little roadmap for where they may need to go to work with [the Planning Board] and MassDOT — who owns the road — to address these impacts that they’ve already identified,” said Bryant.
Traffic concerns have been a common theme throughout the majority of these Planning Board hearings regarding this topic. In the past many in the public have expressed concern about the traffic in the area, including entrance and exit of the complex, how the traffic study was conducted, while other have expressed environmental concerns.
These concerns are further exacerbated by the nearby Starbucks which is also currently under construction.
While ideas of adding traffic signals have been discussed, along with other traffic mitigation strategies, Stantec recommends that the traffic study be expanded to include a more rigorous evaluation and development of potential offsite roadway improvements.
“This information will help project stakeholders determine the scope, feasibility and timing of transportation system improvements that are needed to mitigate project impacts,” read the peer review.
May 2 meeting
Environmental and traffic concerns were once again raised during public comment and by a couple of Planning Board members at the May 2 meeting, especially since the property abuts the Manhan River, which features wetlands. “I was surprised at how many trees are planned for removal,” Belcher-Timme said.
Easthampton resident Mary-Lou Dodge, meanwhile, said this project is doing little to help slow the ongoing climate change crisis. “The plan is by its nature going to degrade the local climate by removing about four acres of trees on that site property,” said Dodge. “I’m just recommending that somehow this be done in a much more reduced manner.”
City Councilor Owen Zaret also spoke during public comment and said that he appreciates the developer having an interest in creating affordable housing in Easthampton, but he also raised concerns about traffic and the environment.
“I strongly urge the developer and the Planning Board to make sure all of the considerations are made necessary to protect these natural resources and consider alternates to the design that would be the most environmentally friendly,” he said.
The city’s Conservation Commission is discussing additional information regarding the site during their next meeting on May 8 with hopes to have an initial peer review from the applicant by July 10.