Planning board to move on signs without HDC

LENOX – A joint meeting of the historic district commission (HDC) and the planning board hit a snag when only three of the planning board members and two members of the HDC were in attendance.

The two boards had intended to discuss changes to the town’s sign bylaw.

Yet as the town tries to continue to work through the wake of issues around signage in the town some in town government may be cautioning against change.

“[Building Inspector] Bill Thornton told me today that this summer has had the least amount of problems with signs he has experienced,” said Town Planner Mary Albertson. “So maybe we should just be focusing on sandwich boards and place the other items on the back burner.”

Not all members are on board with that idea.

“I would say that there have been too many signs, and mainly this year flags, in the district,” said HDC Member Lucy Kennedy. “So I would hate to see you lose that direction of changing all the sign bylaws.”

The planning board now plans to pull out the issue of sandwich boards to make regulations for first and then return to the other sign issues.

Although before they can move forward the planning board is looking for agreement from the HDC. That agreement has been hard to determine in past meetings, and without half of the HDC at their latest meeting, the planning board was still left searching.

“Do you have a consensus in your meetings?” asked Planning Board Member Kathleen McNulty-Vaughan. “I am getting tired of going in circles on this sign issue.”

Now the planning board will look to move forward and craft their own language without the HDC.

“I think it is time that we just move along and craft our own by-law,” said Planning Board Member Stephen Sample. “And as we do that we can try to include some HDC guidelines, but we have to move forward.”

The planning board then hopes to get town approval to use the document they create as a part of the zoning by-law and the HDC guidelines to unify the rules.

Open space plan

The town has been looking for a firm to develop an open space plan.

During that search the Berkshire Regional Planning Commission recommended that the town contact the Conway School of Design.

“They do a top-rate, professional job,” said Town Planner Albertson. “They have done some local projects including Kripalu.”

The Conway School would be able to keep the cost far under the current budget of $20,000. The school has quoted that they would charge $6,000 for the project.

Past projects of the Conway School include the master plan for Beaver Dam Sanctuary, Walden Pond Stewardship Plan and the South Shore (Boston) Greenway.

If the town elects to use Conway, it would be a winter project for the school meaning they would be working on the project from January to April.

That would mean the town could have the plan by mid-spring.

Posted by Kameron Z. Spaulding on August 30, 2012. Filed under Community News,News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry