BERNARDSTON — After more than two years of community meetings, the Master Plan Steering Committee has finalized the town’s master plan, which focuses on encouraging local agriculture and enhancing the business district.
In particular, the master plan outlines a desire to attract more businesses to Route 10 — seen as a priority development area — that Bernardston can support and that in turn support the rural economy.
“It’s one of the few spaces of open property between the Connecticut and Vermont borders where there is still room to develop immediately off the interstate,” said Town Coordinator Hugh Campbell.
The plan recommends establishing a Development and Marketing Committee and coordinating with the Franklin Regional Council of Governments to determine how to attract desired businesses like milk processing facilities, sawmills, outdoor recreation outfitters, breweries, pubs, restaurants or bed-and-breakfasts.
“The focus would be on light manufacturing and retail,” Campbell said.
The area south of the railroad tracks along River Road will also be considered for Center Village development.
To strengthen business connections within the community, the plan encourages current business owners to establish an informal organization through which they could collaborate and support each other.
Some zoning changes would need to be made, like rezoning Route 10 for mixed use. Regardless, the plan ensures that the district would have design standards to maintain the town’s historic character.
The plan also recommends changing zoning bylaws to encourage more clustered development, reducing minimum lot sizes. Current lots could be subdivided and sold for further development, with the idea that clustered development will preserve open space and farmland.
The Master Plan Steering Committee recommends creating an agricultural interest overlay district, which would require development of working farmland to place a minimum amount of the property into the Agricultural Preservation Restriction program, ensuring a minimum loss of farmland. The proposition is based on Southampton, N.Y.’s model, which requires a minimum of 80 percent of farmland be protected.
The plan outlines potential ways to improve farmers’ businesses, like growing mushrooms on hardwood logs to supplement their income, or creating a newsletter to inform residents what produce will be offered at farmers markets.
Another proposal is for the town to work with the Massachusetts Farm to Schools Project and the Pioneer Valley Regional School District to source some of its food from local farmers.
Other recommendations include: forming an event committee; seeking to install central sewage; arranging for public transportation directly from Bernardston to Greenfield; increasing funding for the Senior Center based on the population of seniors; renovating Town Hall through the Community Preservation Act; creating a full-time foreign language program at Bernardston Elementary School; expanding the current fire station or building a new one, and adding staff; joining the initiative to bring broadband Internet to western Massachusetts; pursuing bids for a solar field on the town landfill; and seeking funds to extend Cushman Library’s hours.
The plan had not been updated since 1975. Campbell said Massachusetts now requires that town master plans be updated every 10 years.
Conway School of Landscape Design students helped develop the new plan for a cost of $13,000, alongside a nine-member Master Plan Steering Committee made up of members of town government and businesses.
“It was great that the town had the opportunity to work with students,” said Stanley Garland, a member of the Board of Selectmen. “The biggest thing now is to not let (the plan) sit on a shelf, but to implement it.”
The Master Plan Steering Committee will release an update in five years with a summary of which aspects of the plan were carried out and which need further action.