Copyright berkshireeagle
LENOX — When voters head to the special town meeting next month, the marquee topics include a proposed $1 million town purchase of two privately owned downtown parcels. To provide details on that warrant article, as well as new local regulations on short-term rentals, acquiring a 10-acre addition to Kennedy Park and other topics, town leaders will host one-hour informational sessions this Wednesday. The discussions at the Town Hall auditorium are slated from 1 to 2 p.m. and from 5 to 6 p.m. A letter from Town Manager Jay Green and a copy of the meeting warrant are available online. Voters attending those sessions also can raise questions about two zoning bylaw updates on residential property fencing and screening, and on ADUs (accessory dwelling units). The special town meeting begins at 7 p.m. Nov. 6 at the Lenox Memorial High School’s Duffin Theater, 197 East St. The town proposes to acquire the parking lot at 41 Housatonic St. on the corner of Church Street, and an adjacent dilapidated 1870 house at 51 Housatonic St. from the longtime owners Schulze Lenox Properties. A two-thirds supermajority is required for approval. The proposal “for general purposes and redevelopment” is supported by the Select Board and the Finance Committee. Both sites are in the downtown commercial zone. “I think this will generate a lot of conversation at the town meeting,” Selectman Neal Maxymillian said. “We couldn’t only buy just the parking lot. This is the best deal that we could get.” He noted that there is no development plan currently for the properties other than preservation of the parking spaces. If the town acquires the side-by-side properties, “we can guide the development,” Green said. “The community can choose what we want that to look like, it’s a very visible section of the town.” The long-term goals are some form of commercial development and to maintain parking capacity, he said. The Historical Commission has imposed a demolition delay on the 1870 house that expires next July. The town’s certified free cash reserves now total a robust $5.5 million, Green said. That means the purchase price, as well as other town meeting purchase proposals, can be paid from the reserves without any borrowing or impact on the town’s tax rate. Green explained that it’s vital to preserve the 20 spaces at the parking lot, which many residents had assumed was owned by the town. The lot and the adjoining historic house were offered by Oliver Schulze, representing Charles Schulze, the founder of the real estate company bearing his name, only as a package deal. If approved by a simple majority, the update of the town’s short-term rental bylaw would require annual registration of properties used for Airbnb and VRBO rentals as well as inspections and upgraded safety rules. A controversial, costly automatic sprinkler requirement for properties used as short-term rentals is part of the updated state building code, not the local bylaw proposal. Properties used as short-term rentals before Oct. 17, 2017, are exempt from the sprinkler requirement. The town’s current short-term rental registration list has fewer than 80 properties, compared to about 170 operating, based on state Department of Revenue records on hospitality tax collections. That’s about 7.5 percent of the town’s housing stock. The goal of the proposed local bylaw is to balance the interests of neighbors, short-term rental hosts and the town, according to Land Use Director and Town Planner Eammon Coughlin, who will lead the discussion at Wednesday’s informational sessions.
