SOUTH DEERFIELD — Some residents are questioning whether the Planning Board violated the Open Meeting Law after confusion over whether a discussion about Dollar General would take place on Monday night.
The public hearing for the proposed discount store on Mill Village Road and Routes 5 and 10 — the site of an illegal tree-clearing by property owner Greg Gardner — has been continued multiple times, and was intended to be picked up Monday at Town Hall.
On Sunday around noon, the Planning Board announced on the town’s website stating that board would meet Monday but that the Dollar General hearing would be continued to a later date.
Monday’s meeting did not draw the same size audience that previous meetings about the proposal had attracted. Those who did attend Monday’s meeting, which did in fact include a public hearing, expressed their unhappiness about the posted language, saying it appeared the hearing was not going to happen.
Tolly Stark, co-chair of the new grassroots group Deerfield for Responsible Development, asked the board why the meeting appeared to be canceled.
“I’m sorry if this is confusing at all. We’re trying to be open and transparent about it,” Chairman John Waite said. “Our intent is to be very open and let all questions come forward, but it gets tricky sometimes.”
Waite said he found out during the weekend that the developer would not have any new information for them. Additionally, the developer had yet to pay the town for the independent review, so the only thing that had been settled was what firm was going to handle their questions.
At a previous meeting, the developers agreed to pay for independent studies on issues like traffic and drainage.
Given these factors, and instead of holding a public hearing on a hot and humid day, Waite decided it was best to try to let people know ahead of time that there was not going to be any new information.
Although he communicated this through the town’s website, he did not send this change to the Recorder. An article in Monday’s paper stated the hearing was supposed to go on as planned.
While the board and the developer did not have any major news to share about the independent review, Waite did read a letter from the town’s attorney saying the tree issue over the clear-cut could not be taken into consideration when the board makes it decision on the store.
At the end of public comment, local businessman and resident Mark Valone also offered to help pay for a lawyer, separate from the town, to investigate the ramifications of the illicit tree clearing.