HADLEY — After several hearings and meetings related to the site plans for a new senior center in town center over the past year, the project finally won approval from the Planning Board this week.
The board on Tuesday voted 5-0 in favor of the site plan special permit needed for the $7.1 million, 10,350-square-foot building, which will be built in an open field behind its current home in the former Hooker School Building.
Jane Nevinsmith, chairwoman of the Senior Center Building Committee, said her group is prepared to move forward with the project voters first supported at a special Town Meeting more than two years ago.
“I think I speak for most of the seniors in Hadley when I say that we are delighted the project is moving forward again,” Nevinsmith said.
Architects will finalize the interior design next week and then over the next four to six weeks will complete the construction plans, in advance of a groundbreaking that could happen in March, Nevinsmith said.
The Planning Board decision also gives the OK to a new $8 million library as a “pad site” on the same 2.6-acre parcel on Middle Street. That project, though, will need to return to the board at a later date for further approvals.
The key to getting the affirmative vote from the Planning Board appeared to be reducing the size of the senior center building by 1,700 square feet. This change to the new senior center, combined with the new 11,635-square-foot library that will be built where Hooker School is located, will bring the entire site into compliance with the town bylaws that require projects to have parking that is twice the area of the buildings.
The project now has 44,751 square feet of parking, exceeding the requirements by 781 square feet.
“We’re completely in compliance with that 2-1 parking ratio,” said Thomas Reidy, an attorney with Bacon Wilson, PC of Amherst.
Earlier, Reidy had proposed to the Planning Board using the Dover Amendment, a state law that allows exemptions from certain zoning bylaws for projects with educational uses. But at least two members of the Planning Board were reluctant to allow this. The site plans needed a supermajority of four members for approval.
Select Board member David J. Fill II was instrumental in bringing to his board in September a proposal to make the senior center smaller.
The senior center project has faced other hurdles, including a second Town Meeting to appropriate additional money, a lawsuit filed by the neighboring American Legion Post 271 and a Town Meeting attempt to move the project to North Hadley.
Select Board Chairwoman Joyce Chunglo told the Planning Board that the Select Board and town officials worked hard to accommodate the Legion’s needs and allow its members and visitors to use the new parking.
The approval came with some critiques from the Planning Board, including that the project is not an example of good design under the town’s master plan, and that board members remain concerned that no parking is provided for the current Goodwin Memorial Library. That building will be vacated when the new library opens.
Although he voted in favor of the plans, board member John Mieczkowski made clear that he is not happy with the rising costs of the project stemming from delays, and feels the town is being ripped off. He argues that the architect and owner’s project manager knew that what was being proposed did not meet town regulations.
“I hope the next project doesn’t end like this,” Mieczkowski said.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
