Close Mark's Meadow? Town Meeting says no way

By Scott Merzbach
Staff Writer

Published on November 09, 2007

Mark's Meadow School will be getting new portable classrooms next fall, a 28-acre parcel in North Amherst will be protected from development, and a new group for elders, Friends of the Amherst Senior Center, is in the works.

Those measures were three of the seven that Town Meeting got through Monday as it met to take up the 20 articles on this fall's warrant. The body was expected to begin taking up zoning articles Wednesday, leaving mostly additional zoning articles for members to consider when Town Meeting resumes Nov. 15.

The authorization for borrowing $195,000 to pay for four new classrooms within modular buildings at Mark's Meadow was approved despite an effort by Town Meeting member Nancy Gordon to not only stop the spending, but close the school.

Unsuccessful argument

While the portable classrooms were recommended by the School Committee, Select Board and Joint Capital Planning Committee to supplement $80,000 appropriated two years ago, Gordon argued unsuccessfully for taking the 180 children there and putting them into the town's other three schools.

"There's no use in buying portable classrooms for a school you're going to close," Gordon said.

She argued that closing the school could alleviate the $1.9 million deficit projected in next year's operating budget by Finance Committee Chairman Brian Morton, saving $1.62 million immediately.

School Committee Chairwoman Elaine Brighty, though, said there is no room in the three other schools to have 180 more students. The expansion, she said, would allow the smallest of Amherst's elementary schools to improve by having fewer mixed grade level classes.

Meanwhile, Town Meeting Monday agreed to use $123,000 in Community Preservation Act money, generated though a surcharge on property taxes and a state match, to protect the Cushman Brook Wildlife Corridor.

This will supplement a $427,000 grant from the state's Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, along with $60,000 in contributions nearby landowners in Amherst and Leverett are expected to make.

The land had initially been expected to be a 27-home development, but will now be preserved to protect the integrity of water that feeds Puffer's Pond and extend a green belt of fields and forests into Leverett, through Shutesbury and all the way to the Quabbin Reservoir.

Town Meeting also agreed to dissolve the Senior Trust, with this money going to a new Friends of the Amherst Senior Center that will be forming.

Town Meeting also gave a $700,000 property tax exemption for American Legion on Amity Street and Veterans of Foreign War on Main Street, allowing these properties to continue to be exempt from being assessed property taxes.

Meanwhile, Town Meeting members Wednesday were expected to decide whether to spend another $100,000 from the CPA account to pay for renovations of the south steps and clock tower at Town Hall, and borrow $295,000 in CPA money over the next 10 years to pay for the repointing of the brick on the historic building

In addition, the first of 10 zoning articles, which would create a research and development overlay district on the west side of University Drive, was expected to be considered.

The Planning Board has endorsed its proposal for that neighborhood by a 7-2 vote. If approved, it would change the permitting for research and development, testing and light manufacturing uses from special permit under the Zoning Board of Appeals review to site plan review by the Planning Board.

No matter how far Town Meeting got on Wednesday, the remaining sessions are expected to continue to take up several zoning amendments, sponsored both by the Planning Board and a group calling itself the Coalition for Sustainable Neighborhoods, as well as a petition article from Amherst Taxpayers for Responsible Change that seeks to have Town Meeting advise the Select Board to rescind an earlier vote that allows the University of Massachusetts to use effluent free of charge.

Of the zoning articles that should remain, a major initiative is the extension of the downtown business to encompass both sides of Spring Street between the Town Common and Churchill Street, and at the same time to change the permitting process for hotels, motels and inns to site plan review by the Planning Board.

The Planning Board has endorsed the first part of this article by a 7-0 vote, and by a 6-1 tally is in support of the second motion.

Another article seeks to rezone land South East and College streets to promote business development, and see replacement of several student houses near Colonial Village. The Planning Board has voted 7-2 in favor of this new mixed-use village center development.

The Planning Board was expected to make a recommendation on this article at its Wednesday meeting.

The Coalition for Sustainable Neighborhoods has offered an alternative that would feature more densely built homes and allow some new offices. This group has a second petition seeking to rezone land near Main, Dickinson and High streets.

Another zoning article still to be decided include a petition from Kenneth Bergstrom, who has asked to rezone land at 500-502 Sunderland Road, the former BioShelters facility, so that condominiums can be put on the site. The Planning Board has recommended that Town Meeting refer this back to the Planning Board for further study.