AMHERST — Two Planning Board members will be allowed to participate in a decision on proposed improvements to Amherst College athletic fields, despite living near the project site and having spouses employed by the institution.
The Town Council on Monday approved requests from Maria Chao and David Levenstein, who seek to review and vote on the college’s application for work at 212 Northampton Road.
The decision came following a legal opinion received from Lauren Goldberg of KP Law.
While Chao and Levenstein normally would recuse themselves from participating because they both received abutter’s notices about the project, that would have left the seven-member board with just four voting members, an insufficient number to decide on a site plan review application.
The board is down to six members following the recent resignation of Pari Riahi, who had served for 4½ years as an appointed member.
Approval of the “disclosure by non-elected municipal employee of financial interest” applications was a discretionary decision for the council, Goldberg wrote, but was reasonable under the circumstances.
Goldberg cited Massachusetts General Law Chapter 268A, Section 19 in her reasoning. “The Town Council may then vote to approve the exemption, finding that the financial interests involved are ‘not so substantial’ as to create a concern of bias on the board members’ part,” Goldberg wrote.
District 4 Councilor Evan Ross said he had no concerns about Levenstein and Chao making fair decisions, and joined in the 11-0 approval of the exemptions, with District 1 Councilor Cathy Schoen and District 5 Councilor Darcy DuMont abstaining.
At-Large Councilor Mandi Jo Hanneke said her understanding of the project is that it will have minimal impact on neighboring properties and will be mostly improvements to four sets of existing fields abutting Route 9 and Orchard Street. The project includes resurfacing one field with artificial turf and adding light stanchions, spectator seating, asphalt walkways, fences and nets.
Still, Schoen said that as abutters, Levenstein and Chao could have a financial benefit and would likely be affected by the development.
“It feels like a fairly substantial conflict of interest to me,” Schoen said.
Schoen said she would have preferred to make an appointment to the Planning Board to bring it full membership, allowing the two members to abstain from a decision.
But Council President Lynn Griesemer said any new appointment would take time and has to go through the council’s appointment process, which is currently being revised.
District 4 Councilor Stephen Schreiber said if the council did not approve the exemptions, the town might lose its voice and the college’s project could be automatically granted without a review.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
