GREENFIELD — After a heated public comment session, the Planning Board approved extending the special permit that allows Clinical & Support Options (CSO) to use a portion of its second-floor office space at 1 Arch Place as a temporary shelter and housing resource center while its 60 Wells St. housing is under construction.
With the Planning Board’s approval on Thursday, CSO can continue operating its 45-bed shelter at the temporary facility until Aug. 17. The vote was taken following public concerns about the property’s alleged safety conditions and strain on the area’s stormwater drainage system.
“I am speaking today about my own visual observations and conflicting maps that are provided to me by the Assessor’s Office that conflict with the maps that hang in the Planning Department,” resident Stephanie Duclos told the Planning Board. “We are surrounded by water, waterways, blocked culverts and non-permitted impervious surfaces being added to the area. I’ve lived in this area, in that four-block radius, for 47 years. There is no one more expert to that neighborhood than myself. I know the history of it, I know the mapping of it.”
The board, on Jan. 4, 2024, had granted CSO a special permit, valid for 18 months, to use its 1 Arch Place facility as a shelter. Jones Whitsett Architects Project Manager George Dole, who was hired to oversee the Wells Street construction project, explained that supply chain shortages, tariffs and other setbacks delayed the new facility’s construction. The Wells Street project is slated for completion this summer.
“The goal was to finish it in a pretty aggressive 16-month schedule. That didn’t happen — there was a delay in the state finance project closing,” Dole said. “Over the last two years, there have been significant global supply chain disruptions, including tariffs and issues of being able to procure lumber from Canada or lumber from other places, materials, equipment. There’s delays on a multitude of transformers, etc. All these things have caused some delays in the current project, but now we’re in pretty good shape.”
Duclos, who lives across the street from the location of the temporary shelter, initially presented her appeal of the special permit to the Zoning Board of Appeals on May 30, 2024, arguing that contractors working for CSO were parking in areas that encroach on her land, overwhelming the sewer system and causing sewer backups. In June 2024, the ZBA voted 6-1 against Duclos’ appeal of CSO’s permit to open the temporary shelter.
While Duclos’ husband Ryan Whitney also commented, expressing similar concerns with the shelter’s extended permit, other residents, such as Housing Greenfield Coordinator Susan Worgaftik, voiced support for the permit extension. Worgaftik argued that the people currently living in the shelter would be displaced should the request be denied.
“There well may be merit in many of the things that Stephanie has talked about. I don’t know. I think it’s something that you all should look at for this period of time between now and the middle of August,” Worgaftik said, requesting that the Planning Board “maintain the present situation” for the shelter. “For the last five years, at least, the shelter has been full, regardless of the season — that is going to continue. We have no reason to expect that it won’t. Where people will go if that is closed down, we don’t know.”
After CSO President and CEO Karin Jeffers presented slides showing an outline of the shelter’s current use, Greenfield’s Planning and Development Director Ella Wise explained that the site plan had been sent over to the Fire Department, Health Department, Conservation Commission and Building Commissioner Mark Snow for approval.
Responding to concerns about flooding and potential sewer backups, Wise read the Department of Public Works’ comments on the property. She explained that while there have been reports of flooding in the area, the DPW reported that the 45-person shelter adds little to no strain on the city’s water and sewer infrastructure.
“DPW did acknowledge that there was a catch basin failing there, meaning that a few bricks fell into the catch basin below ground level. The probable cause of the catch basin failure could have been the water main failure on Arch Street in 2021,” Wise said, reading the DPW’s report. “No work occurring at 6 Arch St. would have caused this failure.”
Planning Board members also generally agreed that while the site’s use was a concern for neighbors, those extended beyond the scope of the board’s responsibilities or powers.
Jeffers, however, responded to the public criticisms that the facility has received, explaining that CSO must adhere to tight state and local regulations, and stating that the shelter benefits the community.
“We are a heavily, heavily regulated organization. We have to meet state licensing. We have to meet contractor oversight. [Inspectors] come out every six months or so. We publicly, competitively bid on the services. Our reputation is at stake for what we do, and we invest in our communities so that they’re stronger places,” she said. “It is incredibly hard to sit here and, frankly, feel a little bit slandered and threatened, and then hear that there are serious questions for what we do. … We have staff who are so committed to this population, to helping them be self-sufficient, to making sure that they can have a fair life.”