Promise them anything…
Posted by - Bruce Winn : Category - Conservation Commissions, Pittsfield City Government, Wahconah ParkEverybody knows that BEAT keeps a close eye on the Pittsfield Conservation Commission. It’s no exaggeration to say that we know the regulations related to the Wetlands Protection Act better than the conservation commissioners sworn to enforce it. So if the City of Pittsfield wanted to slip one of its own projects past our eyes and the eyes of other members of the community, how might they do it? How about this idea. Present one set of plans to the Pittsfield Conservation Commission for public review, but then actually build something else.
In a previous posting in this blog, I wrote about the city’s success in thwarting the use of private funds to renovate Wahconah Park and instead arranging for the project to be funded by taxpayers. Well, funding issues aside, BEAT and others have had objections to the project on environmental grounds (the project violates the Massachusetts Wetlands Protection Act.) When we and others appealed to the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, the city backed down and decided to go with an earlier plan that avoided the issues under appeal. They then put the plan out to bid. But wait a minute! The plans put out to bid weren’t the plans that had gone before the Conservation Commission. They weren’t the plans that BEAT had appealed. They weren’t even the earlier plans that the city eventually decided to fall back on. These are plans that have never been to any public review or conservation commission review.
If you have been following this blog, you know that the city is not avoiding the Pittsfield Conservation Commission out of some crazy notion that the commission might suddenly decide to enforce environmental laws, but is instead avoiding them in hopes of expediting the process (there is a window of opportunity for funding) and avoiding public review and the possibility of another appeal.
Watch this space in the days to come for the specifics. (Note added August 23, 2009. It seems that the rush to start the construction had to do with funding that was available only during a specific time window. See my posting dated August 22, 2009)
April 29th, 2009 at 12:14 pm
Wow! BEAT is great for keeping up with that and making it public. Is there nothing we can do? Are we past the point of letters and attending CC meetings on this one?
April 29th, 2009 at 12:20 pm
Maybe a sit-in at the mayor’s office? Let’s organize an action and get some press and stop this from going forward.
April 29th, 2009 at 12:49 pm
Well that is disappointing. Has there been any official explanation as to why the plans are not similar?
April 30th, 2009 at 6:21 am
This is a new one for us. Sarah, we’re not past the point of working within the normal channels, but letters to the mayor, the press, the Pittsfield City Council, the Pittsfield Conservation Commission would help a lot right now, although people might want to wait until they’ve seen the actual plans (I’ll put them up on our website tonight). We’re still hopeful that the city will rethink this one, but we do have plan B (and C, …). Jeff, thanks for the support. Calling attention to this would be great, but again, the discrepent plans will be up on the website tonight. Erik, this is very disappointing and frustrating. We’ve asked the questions, but no, there hasn’t been any official response. What could they say? It’s not the kind of mistake one makes inadvertently. This is going to take putting pressure on them to do the right thing.
May 1st, 2009 at 5:02 am
I’ve posted the two sets of plans on the website. The links to the plans are in the blog posting above. I’ll add annotations and comments as time permits.
June 27th, 2010 at 2:58 pm
[...] repeated violations of environmental law at Wahconah Park in Pittsfield (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8). The violations continue. To minimize flooding in the parking lot, which is in the [...]