After over two years of fits and starts on a proposal by two Southampton-based developers to build a self-storage facility on College Highway, the project was essentially greenlighted by the Planning Board after a public hearing on the proposal Tuesday night.
“This is a great replacement project than what was originally before us,” said Planning Board Chair Jessica Thornton after the facility’s designer, architect, and one of the developers presented its updated plan to build a 34,800-square-foot two-story building between O’Reilly’s Auto Parts and Pioneer Valley Trading Co. on College Highway.
The developers, Jim and Ellen Boyle, originally applied for a special permit to build a nearly 60,000-square-foot building in May 2023.
The Boyles had been meeting with the Planning Board for months during its first request for a permit, trying to meet the board’s expectations. It came to a head in February 2024, which was when board members and the Fire Department made it clear they weren’t satisfied with the proposal.
The general complaint from the Planning Board about the first permit request was that the proposed facility would be too big for the 3.17-acre parcel the Boyles own on College Highway.
“I appreciate the effort, time, and money it took for you to review this project and come back and meet us closer to where we were,” Thornton said.
Chris Chamberlain of the Berkshire Design Group addressed what occurred in the past during the board’s meeting on Tuesday.
“It’s changed quite a bit over that time,” he said about the facility’s redesign over the last two years.
Chamberlain said he, William VonFricken, an architect and project manager for the New York-based Frank G. Felf Architect firm, and the Boyles had been meeting the town’s planning staff and board to address “previously expressed concerns.”
“We wanted to make sure we were headed in the right direction,” he said, adding that the new site plan would be accepted by the board.
Thornton said it was.
“I like that it takes the site location into consideration and is also appropriately sized for the general area,” she said.
The new proposal has the building facing College Highway, painted reddish to resemble a tobacco barn, and has nine doors for the 10-by-20-foot storage spaces. There will be an entrance into the facility with glass doors.
The two-story facility uses an “over/under concept” that would be fully sprinklered, meet all applicable building codes, and will have video surveillance cameras installed that cover every square inch of the facility operating 24 hours a day, VonFricken said Tuesday at the meeting.
It will also be built into a gentle slope at the rear of the property and have 10 parking spaces, five in front and five in back, with one designated as handicapped accessible.
The facility’s front will be a little between 450 and 500 feet from College Highway.
Between the office building and the facility is a wetland area that will be crossed by the entrance road. The road will be built over the wetlands and a pipe installed under it to allow water to move back and forth along it.
The project already has an order of conditions from the Conservation Commission.
The Berkshire Design Group added in its proposal and potential impact on traffic on College Highway.
“Based on 2023 traffic counts from MassDOT, the average daily traffic passing the site is 12,419 vehicles (two-way). The proposed project represents an increase of 0.4-0.6% over existing traffic levels. The proposed project is estimated to generate a maximum of 11 trips per hour during the heaviest peak traffic periods, which equates to approximately one additional vehicle every 5 minutes on surrounding roads, according to the The proposed access will require approval from MassDOT via a highway access permit,” according to the site plan.
It also wrote that the proposed access to the facility will require approval from MassDOT via a highway access permit.
Before continuing the public hearing on the special permit request for July 14, Thornton asked that the board members take a look at the plan and come back with any questions.
“Provided there are no further major issues, I believe we’ll be able to close that hearing [on July 14] at that meeting and prepare a decision the following meeting,” he said.
