SHELBURNE — A final public hearing on plans to create a public parking lot at the end of Deerfield Avenue will be held Tuesday at 7:15 p.m. in the Selectboard meeting room in Memorial Hall.
The town is seeking a Community Development Block Grant for up to $567,926 to redevelop a remote and under-used parking area at the bottom of Deerfield Avenue, behind the former Mole Hollow Candle Co. building near the Glacial Potholes.
At a public hearing on Feb. 8, engineer Michael Carter of GCG Associates laid out preliminary plans to create a public lot with about 24 marked parking spaces. The plan is to regrade and reconfigure the flat informal parking area, putting in one sidewalk going up to the more developed part of Deerfield Avenue, adding streetlights, and drainage. Also, the timber retaining wall will be replaced. Because the road has a 6 percent grade in some places, railings may be placed in spots, to help make the uphill walk easier.
Carter said another landowner close to the Deerfield River bank has put in a steel fence around their property, possibly because of liability concerns. Carter said the municipal parking lot may do something to make the area more aesthetically pleasing, for instance, by planting shrubbery to screen the fence, or with a bench with an especially fine view of the waterfront.
Book dealers from the nearby Shelburne Falls Booksellers, at 1 Deerfield Ave., suggested having a picnic table somewhere near the lot. They also suggested plantings to mask an occasional unpleasant exhaust odor from a nearby pumping station.
The grant application must be submitted in early March. Town officials hope to find out in July if Shelburne has been awarded a grant. If so, construction could start in the spring of 2019.