Deerfield Planning Board OKs Leary Lot site plan

SOUTH DEERFIELD — With its site plan approved Monday night, the long-awaited Leary Lot project is finally ready to head out to bid.

After a discussion with the Deerfield Selectboard and Berkshire Design Group Landscape Architect Jeffrey Squire about the roughly 1.5-acre lot’s amenities and traffic flow, the Deerfield Planning Board unanimously approved the project, which has been in the works for several years.

“The whole purpose of this is to bring a green space to the downtown and enhance this whole area,” said Selectboard Chair Carolyn Shores Ness, describing the town’s goal in designing the parking lot as being “additional value added to the neighborhood, rather than just a parking lot.”

The Leary Lot is the current asphalt and dirt parking lot located behind Ciesluk’s Market with an official address of 59 Main St. The lot extends west toward Hamshaw Lumber and Berkshire Brewing Co. and then south onto Elm Street on a small piece of property the town swapped with Hamshaw. The Selectboard has previously allocated $495,954 in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) money toward the project and it will be the first piece of the town’s South Deerfield revitalization plan to be completed.

Monday’s Planning Board meeting followed three public forums held over the summer, where residents, abutters and business owners worked with the Selectboard and Squire to carve out a design that fit everyone’s needs.

The result of those meetings is a parking lot with two-way entrances on North Main and Elm streets with approximately 61 parking spaces, eight new electric vehicle charging stations, greenery, pedestrian walkways and areas for visitors to take a seat after visiting South Deerfield’s businesses.

Part of the green spaces will be natural plantings of trees and bushes to screen the apartments and businesses on the south end of the parking lot. Parking will be free and open to the public.

While most major design features were decided early in the public engagement process, two aspects of the project were the focus of the Planning Board: the use of porous asphalt and whether traffic should be one-way or two-way onto Elm Street.

The Selectboard and Squire said porous asphalt will be used for the majority of the site because it can better handle large amounts of rain and snowmelt. While the majority of the site will be porous asphalt, the entryway onto Elm Street will be a regular asphalt surface because porous asphalt cannot be within 10 feet of a building foundation and could interfere with Hamshaw Lumber’s property.

Planning Board Chair Denise Mason thanked the Selectboard for opting to use porous asphalt for stormwater management, while her fellow board members asked about potentially limiting the use of the Elm Street entrance to one-way traffic.

“There’s a lot going on in a very narrow space,” said Planning Board member Kathleen Watroba, who noted the general feeling at the town’s public forums was leaning toward it being one way.

Selectboard member Trevor McDaniel said town officials have been bouncing back and forth between the two traffic configurations and they figured if they design it as a two-way entrance, they can always post it as one-way entrance later if the town experiences problems. He also addressed Kathleen Sylvester’s concern about people using the lot as a cut-through.

“I think it may take some time to see how it’s used,” McDaniel said. “It’s definitely something we have to monitor and I know our police will be looking at it for sure.”

Planning Board member Emily Gaylord agreed with the Selectboard’s philosophy and said starting with a two-way entrance will give more “flexibility” to the town.

With those concerns addressed, the Planning Board unanimously approved the Leary Lot site plan and the town can now move forward with the bidding process for construction. McDaniel said the project will likely break ground in the spring.

Chris Larabee can be reached at clarabee@recorder.com or 413-930-4081.