ZBA Advises New Owners to Comply with Special Permit Requirements

Report on the Meeting of the Zoning Board of Appeals, April 10, 2025

This meeting was held over Zoom and was recorded.

Present
Craig Meadows (acting chair), Steve Judge, Everald Henry, Philip White, and David Sloviter. Associate members participated in some of the hearings held under the umbrella of the ZBA meeting.

Staff: David Waskiewicz (inspection Services) and Jacinta Williams (Planner)

New Owners Failed to Submit New Management Plan as Required by Special Permit
A non-owner-occupied two-family house at 120 Belchertown Rd came before the Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) at a public meeting for review and approval of the management plan, due to change of ownership as required by the conditions of a special permit granted in 2016. The present owner, Daniel Saltman of Pioneer Valley Ventures, Miami Beach, Florida was represented by Donna Golec of Kendrick Property Management with offices in Hadley. 

There was considerable discussion as to why this property, which Saltman purchased in September of 2022, did not appear sooner before the ZBA. Golec, whose company manages many other Amherst properties, was informed that she and/or the owner should have known about the conditions on the permit when the sale closed. She stated that she thought that filling out the annual rental registration forms sufficed. She said she had not managed this property before and did not know what companies handled what services for the former owner. 

The new management plan was approved unanimously by the ZBA with the suggestion that the property manager make sure all lighting is downcast for night sky compliance, which is included in the management plan.

Steve Judge stressed that new owners are required to check to see if there is a special permit attached to a property that they purchase and to comply with any requirements of that permit. Building Inspector David Waskiewicz said that the revised rental registration permit form includes a space to indicate if there is a special permit for the property. He is hoping that this helps alleviate the problem. The board recommended that Kendrick Property Management review the other properties it manages in Amherst to make sure that there are no other violations of special permits.

More Delays for Shutesbury Road Solar Project
(The panel for this public hearing was Craig Meadows, Judge, Everald Henry, and David Sloviter)

The attorney for ASD Shutesbury MA Solar, LLC  Tom Reidy, asked the board to withdraw without prejudice the plans for a 41-acre ground mounted solar array proposed on Shutesbury Road. Reidy argued that by the time the resource areas were delineated and approved by the Conservation Commission, there would be only three members from the current ZBA panel able to serve. Four concurring members are needed to approve a special permit, so a new panel would be required to start from the beginning with a legal advertisement for what could be a different design. In the past, the terms of ZBA members have been extended to finish deliberation on a project, but the Conservation Commission could require substantial redesign of this project, so that much of the discussion that has already occurred would be irrelevant.

The ZBA voted unanimously to allow the application to be withdrawn without prejudice. Reidy expected that the new special application would be submitted in July or August.

ZBA Finalizes Greenleaves Plan to Replace Community House with Parking Lot
(Panel for this public meeting was Hilda Greenbaum (chair), Judge, David Ahlfeld, John Varner, and Rizwana Khan)

Amhad Development, represented by its attorney Donald Allison, brought a project at 28 Greenleaves Drive  for approval of a new parking lot with landscaping and lighting plans as well as a schedule for the completion of Building 28 with sales to begin on May 8. When all of the units are sold the developer will turn management of the complex over to the homeowners’ association. A special permit to allow the replacement of a previously planned community building with the parking lot was approved in March.

Allison presented the plans for improving drainage and lighting and paving the 11-car parking lot between buildings 25 and 27, which is now being used for overflow parking and is unpaved and poorly drained. Lighting will be installed on each of the two neighboring buildings. Ahmad said bushes will also be planted around the site. 

Greenbaum allowed the public to speak although they had been told by staff on the advice of town counsel that they would not be recognized to speak during a public meeting. Greenbaum granted the permission to speak because she felt that the condo owners’ presence at the site visit would have proven useful, but they were told that they could not attend as it was considered a public meeting and not a public hearing. This had not been a board policy in other years, so the condo owners were allowed to speak to the issues that were advertised on the agenda.

Ed Perkins said that he lives across from the new parking lot and is worried that the light would shine into his living room and bedroom and wanted to be sure that the lighting was downcast. He was also concerned about snow removal, because that parking lot is now used to store snow. Susan Cummings reiterated concerns expressed at the March 24 meeting that the stairs on the side of Building 27 were not safe. Allison assured her that the stairs would be replaced to mirror those on Building 25.

Judge offered a motion that covered these issues as well as those addressed but not completed in the special permit issued last month. It passed unanimously with special notes taken by the building inspector that lights be bright enough for elderly people to see well at night and downcast and illuminate the entire parking lot yet not shine in abutting windows. The chair felt that motion detection lights would be better than dusk to dawn lighting.

Parking Plan on Salem Street Reduced to Comply with Bylaw
The owners of a duplex at 63-65 Salem street asked to withdraw their plan for eight parking spots presented at the December 12 ZBA meeting to comply with bylaw parking requirements. Neighbors reported that the house was often “over-occupied” with as many as 13 cars parked there regularly. Currently, there are no cars from one of the units. There is space for two cars in the driveway and two in the garage. Engineer Bucky Sparkle presented a plan that provided five parking spaces in the driveway. Withdrawal of the eight-space plan without prejudice was approved unanimously.

Read more:
A Zoning Primer: How Building Permits Are Decided (Amherst Indy)
A Zoning Primer: What is the Zoning Board of Appeals (Amherst Indy)