EASTHAMPTON — Mayoral candidate Eric Berzins, owner of Fort Hill Brewery, is in talks to settle a lawsuit filed by the city against his businesses over the unpermitted construction of a private BMX bicycle track and the addition of dozens of parking spaces at two adjacent sites on Fort Hill Road.
Documents filed in Hampshire Superior Court show that on Sept. 21, the city asked for a 120-day pause to the lawsuit to discuss a settlement with Berzins. The four-month window encompasses the general election season and the next mayoral swearing-in ceremony, held in early January.
Berzins and city resident Keith Routhier are challenging two-term incumbent Mayor Nicole LaChapelle in the Nov. 2 election. The winner will serve the first four-year mayoral term in Easthampton’s history.
This week, nearly two years after the city issued the first of three cease and desist orders against the allegedly illegal work, Berzins filed applications with the Planning Board for a new special permit and for an amendment to Fort Hill Brewery’s existing special permit in an effort to bring the two parcels into compliance with city requirements.
The applications, which also seek permission to build an outdoor dining patio, were a required condition of the lawsuit settlement talks, according to a written narrative filed with the applications and signed by Berzins’ attorney, Peter Lane of the Northampton law firm Fierst Bloomberg Ohm.
The city sued Berzins’ companies, 1776 Brewing Co. — which is Fort Hill Brewery — and Birch Family Farm, after sending three cease and desist orders since November 2019, according to the lawsuit and copies of the orders reviewed by the Gazette. The lawsuit was filed on July 16, about a week after Berzins pulled nomination papers to run for mayor.
The work has taken place on two adjacent parcels, which include the brewery site and the Birch Family Farm property next to it. The lawsuit argues that Berzins performed site work that violated the existing special permit granted to Fort Hill Brewery in 2017, and that several shipping containers with an area totaling 10,000 square feet are on the site in violation of the zoning ordinance.
Responding by email to questions from the Gazette, Berzins said that “shipping containers don’t need a permit according to the Easthampton Zoning Ordinance.”
The building commissioner’s office issued the first cease and desist order on Nov. 7, 2019; a second was issued on Dec. 8, 2020, and the third came on May 17. The lawsuit states that Berzins did not abide by the orders or appeal them.
“You have been informed on several occasions that the use of the parcel for a bicycle park is subject to a Special Permit from the Planning Board,” the Dec. 8 notice reads, threatening fines of $300 per day if the work did not stop. Any such fine would be enforced by the Superior Court through the current litigation.
The May notice, written by City Solicitor Mark Tanner, alleges that Berzins created 65 new gravel parking spaces in addition to an unpermitted bicycle “pedal park,” and engaged in associated site work. Tanner gave Berzins until June 20 to “cure the violations.”
In his email to the Gazette, Berzins wrote, “I have been working with my site engineer since the first cease and desist. Things got prolonged because of COVID-19 and because we have had three building inspectors since the original citation.”
Berzins wrote that, based on conversations with the Building Department, he did not think that he needed a permit for unpaved parking spaces. He wrote that the bicycle and motocross tracks were built with native soil, and he “didn’t know I needed a permit.”
The Planning Board held a public hearing on Aug. 17 at which Berzins’ attorney, Peter Lane, spoke about plans to bring the site into compliance. A Sept. 21 meeting of the board did not address the issue, and a meeting scheduled for Tuesday was canceled due to a lack of agenda items, according to Curtis Wiemann, the city’s assistant planner.
The Planning Board is now set to consider the applications on Oct. 19.
At the August hearing, Lane said the bicycle track has “one area” for BMX bicycle riding, and another area for motorcycles is planned.
“He doesn’t have any intention of opening that up commercially for public use,” Lane said.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Lane said, Fort Hill Brewery expanded its outdoor dining to include space on the blacktop parking area, which led to a change in the parking setup for customers.
“To offset the loss of parking spaces, they have expanded parking in a gravel area” that stretches onto the adjacent property, Lane said, and even though Berzins and his family own both parcels and there is a signed lease allowing that use, the city requires a stormwater management permit.
“I understand that is something that we’re going to have to apply for a permit for, retroactively, at this point,” Lane said.
Planning Board member Harry Schumann said he has “never seen anything like this in my life.”
“I’ve been on the board for 13 years. … A guy’s in total violation for three years, and all of a sudden, now he wants to come back and apply for permits just to clean everything all up?” Schumann said.
Lane said the shipping containers on the site hold empty cans used in beer packaging, and the containers are raised off the ground so as not to interfere with stormwater runoff.
“There’s a lot that’s unorthodox about what’s happening here,” said James Zarvis, the acting Planning Board chair, but “working together to build harmony in this between everyone, all the stakeholders, is probably for the best.”
Brian Steele can be reached at bsteele@gazettenet.com.