AMHERST — More trees, grass and other landscaping at 40 Dickinson St. will allow Amherst College to move forward with changes to the property for its grounds department, including constructing a salt shed in the parking lot and installing a vehicle washing area.
The Planning Board at its Dec. 17 meeting voted unanimously to support the modification of previous site plans, which had been approved in 2014 and gave the college the ability to convert the former Classic Chevrolet automobile dealership.
Kris Baker, a civil engineer with the Berkshire Design Group, explained that changes from the first presentation in early December included adding landscaping around the salt shed and removing the impervious surface along Dickinson. The screening will include a mix of evergreens, including a Japanese maple, a fir and a cypress.
“We’re hoping these will look nice and add a screening,” Baker said.
The salt shed will be 20 by 30 feet, with 6-foot-high block walls and a 9-foot-high metal arch roof.
The pavement that runs from the sidewalk to the edge of the existing building will be replaced with grass. The college previously planted grass in another section of the property along Dickinson where the dealership had displayed new vehicles.
Jason Bhajan, project manager for the college, said new lighting on the building will be dark-sky compliant.
The board set a series of 21 conditions for its approval, including those related to the vehicle washing area with stormwater and sewer connection.
The decision came after taking input from Mindi Sahner, a neighbor who lives on Dickinson Street.
“This is a big improvement, I’m pleased to see it. I think the landscape plan is much, much better,” Sahner said.
Still, Sahner was critical that the college is in the neighborhood.
“Overall, I would say from Dickinson Street the new plan is not addressing anything that has become ugly over the years,” Sahner said.
The parking lot next to the grounds department has become a main parking site for visitors to the Beneski Museum of Natural History and the Science Center.
Planning Board member Bruce Coldham said one tree in the new grass strip would look better from the street. Bhajan said the college didn’t want a tree there because it would block the flowers in the building’s window planters.
Board members also noted their concerns about the many purple doors on the building, asking that they be toned down.
The college acquired the property for $474,000 in 2013, a few months after the dealership closed. A portion of the buildings on the site once housed a 19th-century operation manufacturing palm-leaf hats.
Classic Chevrolet traced its history to 1883, when it was founded as Paige’s Livery Stable on Amity Street. Then, in 1927, it became one of the town’s first automobile dealerships when it moved to North Pleasant Street, before relocating during World War II to the site, formerly L.M. Hills & Sons’ Hat Factory, across College Street from Amherst College. The dealership was renamed Classic in 2002.