SOUTH DEERFIELD — By way of providing possible alternatives to his proposed age 55-plus Sugarloaf Street subdivision, developer Mark Wightman plans to present mockup designs of a large low income development at Monday’s Planning Board meeting.
Wightman said Friday he intends to discuss the possibility of a larger development being built on the land if his 70-unit subdivision, called The Condominiums at Sugarloaf, isn’t approved at Monday’s meeting, scheduled for 7 p.m. in the town office building.
“This land will be developed. It is centrally located in a beautiful downtown, has a picture-perfect backdrop with Mount Sugarloaf and the Whately Hills in the distance, has access to town water and town sewer, has a deep water table and has sandy soils. So, it a question of what will be developed on the land,” Wightman wrote in an email Thursday.
“There is interest in this parcel by other developers less inclined to put the best interests of Deerfield first. Preliminary plans have been created for a 284-unit low income housing development, which is a very real alternative to my proposal,” he continued.
Those mockup plans outline 15 buildings situated around a loop road, with 570 parking spaces, exiting across from King Philip Avenue.
Under state law Chapter 40B, which requires at least 10 percent of a town’s housing be “affordable” (cost less than 30 percent of a homeowner’s monthly income) or fall under special zoning regulations, “this massive complex can be built, even though it does not meet many of the subdivision and by-law requirements I have been obliged to follow,” Wightman said.
As of last October, the state Housing Partnership listed 1.5 percent of Deerfield’s housing units as “affordable.”
Wightman’s proposed development — that the Planning Board could decide on Monday — calls for the 70 individual residences housed in 35 buildings on 22.8 acres of residentially zoned land at the base of Mount Sugarloaf, behind Mountain Road. Each residence is expected to cost about $300,000.
A petition opposing the project initiated by the opposition group Save Our Sugarloaf has so far garnered more than 200 signatures, as of Friday afternoon, said the group’s founder and Sugarloaf Street resident David White.
Notably, the petition calls attention to concerns about a 285-foot curb cut variance request, instead of the required 600-foot limit, and management storm water problems such a project might pose.
Also citing traffic concerns, White said Friday anything built on that particular land parcel, because of it’s vicinity to Mount Sugarloaf, “will cause a hydraulic disturbance — you have water coming under the ground, you build a cellar hole, the water is going to bounce and flow in another direction.”
The petition will be presented to the Planning Board at the meeting Monday.
“I’m not surprised. Changing the marketing (approach) to low income housing is what he’s threatened to do all along. This was always a possibility,” White said in response to Wightman’s alternative thought on the property.
“I ask those people to stop their badgering of our neighbors in their attempt to have Deerfield residents sign a petition in opposition and to refrain from name-calling those who support the project,” Wightman said, addressing opposition to the project.
In addition to the Sugarloaf Subdivision’s public hearing, Monday’s meeting will also cover a few proposed zoning changes, which will appear on annual town warrant. Those changes will address building height, and the development and operation of marijuana cultivation and processing.