HADLEY — Proponents of a new senior center for Hadley have agreed to reduce the size of the project, acquiescing to an order from the Select Board in early September to pare 1,700 square feet from the proposed building.
The Senior Center Building Committee Monday morning voted to move forward with construction of a 10,350-square-foot building, said committee chairwoman Jane Nevinsmith.
This means that the building will be smaller than the 12,050-square-foot project approved by voters, at a cost of $7.1 million. But the decision also should resolve lingering concerns from the Planning Board whether the senior center, and the new library that would be built adjacent to it on the site of the Hooker School Building on Middle Street, will fit on the 2.6-acre parcel without violating town zoning.
Select Board member David J. Fill II said at last week’s board meeting that he anticipates the Planning Board will have the needed super majority in favor of the project when site plans for the projects comes before that board again Nov. 20. At least four of the five planners must vote in favor for approval.
Hadley’s zoning bylaws mandate the amount of parking be twice the square footage of the buildings for commercial, municipal and other non-residential projects.
Select Board Chairwoman Joyce Chunglo said Monday that she is pleased everyone is now on the same page and can again get the projects on track.
The agreement comes less than a week after the Select Board was part of a contentious meeting in which members of the Planning Board suggested that postponing the hearing on the senior center and library site plans to the Nov. 20 date would give time for the Select Board to bring a warrant article to fall Town Meeting to exempt municipal projects from the parking regulations.
The owner’s project manager and architect will have several weeks to redesign the senior center, Chunglo said, and that getting the building the right size for zoning “will do the trick” of getting approval from the Planning Board. Planning Board members have been uneasy at the projects not complying with zoning, and also reluctant to allow use of the Dover Amendment state law to exempt the library portion from the parking bylaw.
While she understands that the town will spend just as much on the smaller building, Chunglo said it will still have all the modern elements missing from the senior center’s location at the Hooker School, including air conditioning, fully handicapped accessible rooms and bathrooms on one level, and more space for meetings and programs.
“My goal is to build the best possible building we can,” Chunglo said.
She added that the building will still be larger than the 9,800-square-foot community center opened in Greenfield earlier this year, even though that city has a larger population.
And by moving forward with the plans, this means not putting in jeopardy the $3.9 million provisional grant from the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners, which stipulates construction has to begin by January 2020. Had the senior center project been delayed beyond this fall, demolition of the Hooker building, needed to make way for the library, would either have been postponed, or the town would have to find swing space for a senior center.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
