HATFIELD — A Hadley landscaping business is planning to relocate to 137 North Hatfield Road, pending Planning Board approval of its site plans and a special permit for a new building and on-site storage of materials and equipment.
The Planning Board will hold a hearing on the plans filed on behalf of Omasta Landscaping on Wednesday at 6 p.m. at Memorial Town Hall.
In a preliminary overview presented at a meeting in February, Berkshire Design Group landscape architect Jeff Squire showed a sketch of the property, including a 15,000-square-foot, pre-engineered metal-style building, with garage bays in the back, and offices in the front facing the street. Those plans also show two access drives.
Squire said wetlands would be flagged and setbacks would be identified, along with stormwater management, as well as site lighting and traffic evaluation, as required by the special permit application.
The application follows annual Town Meeting’s approval of rezoning of three properties, at 127, 129 and 131 North Hatfield Road, from rural residential to light industrial last spring, acting on a petition brought by Hatfield residents Greg Omasta and his son, Chris, who run the business.
At the time, Greg Omasta said he is crammed for space at his Bay Road location in Hadley and has no room for future growth there. In addition, he said he wanted to bring tax revenue from the business to Hatfield.
A similar rezoning proposal fell short of passage in 2021.
It’s uncertain what concerns might be raised by residents in response to the plans, but board member Jimmy Tarr said at the February meeting he didn’t anticipate that adding landscaping vehicles would be a problem for a road that already handled traffic from the former Food Bank of Western Massachusetts, though some residents objected to the rezoning out of concern that a light industrial use isn’t appropriate off Routes 5 & 10.
“We’re already seeing plenty of truck traffic on North Hatfield Road,” Tarr said. “I don’t think that’s going to be anything new.”
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
