Fairgrounds Project Stalled

Former city councilor Maria Tymoczko’s appeal to the state DEP over stormwater problems at the Three County Fairgrounds brings a temporary halt to construction plans.

 

NORTHAMPTON – It only took a week for visions of a revitalized and redesigned Three County Fairgrounds here to hit a high water mark – and then to quickly drain away.

On Dec. 10, the Conservation Commission unanimously OK’ed plans to remove and replace deteriorated horse barns, to build two large equestrian show rings and walkways, and to install two underground detention basins in an expanded Phase One project pegged at $4 million. The amended plans were a significant boost from simplified ones the commission had already approved in April.

The 4-0 vote to approve an amended order of conditions (pdf) pursuant to state and local wetlands regulations came despite concerns aired at the public hearing by some project neighbors and by the engineer and lawyer hired by Pomeroy Terrace resident Maria Tymoczko; the former city councilor and college professor had already filed a lawsuit in state Land Court to block the project.

During a discussion that was more procedural than substantive, commissioners backed claims from project engineers who said the beefed-up plans would reduce peak stormwater flows off the property, and from a city official who said the upgrades were needed to keep the Morgan Horse Show as a prime tenant.

Within a week, though, another legal action would stop the project in its tracks.

On Dec. 17, lawyer Michael Pill, who represents Tymoczko, filed a a formal request to the state Department of Environmental Protection. The filing asks the DEP to issue its own “superseding order of conditions” on the proposed work, citing alleged flaws in the newly approved plans.

“[W]e recognize this project, when properly completed, will be an asset to business growth in the region and we also realize this floodplain building site is most challenging,” reads the DEP petition, signed by 24 city residents, including many fairground neighbors. But it asserts that many of the engineering calculations approved by the Conservation Commission are suspect, and asks for a complete review.

So, until the DEP makes a determination, the project appears dead in the water.

The DEP and a Screeching Halt

The entire 55-acre fairgrounds property, located between Bridge Street (Route 9) and Interstate 91, lies within the Connecticut River’s 100-year floodplain, and stormwater flooding has long been a concern for fair officials and residents there.

It is also located in a special conservancy zoning district that recognizes the delicate environmental balance in the area, which includes rich farmland that borders the river.

“The appellant group appears to be focused on stormwater as a matter of concern,” DEP spokesman Edmund J. Coletta Jr. told Northampton Media last week after reading the appeal. “Specifically, they question whether some of the stormwater standards have been met by this project. There is also a claim that some of the work will further exacerbate neighborhood flooding problems.”

Coletta said his agency has at least 70 days to make a ruling after it reviews Pill’s request, which may involve a site visit with all parties.

Lawyer Edward Etheredge, who represents the Three County Fairgrounds Redevelopment Corporation – which obtained a $4 million state grant and with the city is a co-applicant for construction permits – said Tymoczko’s appeal prevents any work on the parcel. He said Berkshire Design will work with the DEP to provide information and try to streamline the review process.

But Etheredge told conservation commissioners that fair officials should not be required to fix what he said is a long-standing flooding issue the city should have corrected years ago.

“They have added more drainage. . .because they have the money now,” Etheredge said. “They’re not able to solve all the drainage problems in the city.”

The Land Court Suit and City Permits

On Oct. 25, Tymoczko filed  a lawsuit in state Land Court to force fair officials to submit the proposed development through the city’s special permit process, which requires more stringent review and a stronger right to appeal than the process undertaken by city planning officials and proponents, which involved a Zoning Board finding and site plan approval from the Planning Board.

The lawsuit alleges that the demolition and construction proposed on the property far exceeds changes that are legally allowed to pre-existing, non-conforming parcels.

In November, the Zoning Board of Appeals ruled (pdf) that the fairground’s right to make upgrades is “grandfathered,” due to its having been organized and built more than 100 years ago, long before the city adopted zoning there. The board argued that the proposed alteration was not more detrimental to the neighborhood than the existing non-conforming use, said it was told that the barn reconstruction would result in less, not more runoff to the neighborhood, and cited the importance of the Fair’s retaining its contract with the Morgan Horse Show.

Also in November, the city Planning Board approved a five-year site plan for the overall fairgrounds project, incorporating all the upgrades that were shifted to Phase One.

And the Department of Public Works, whose staff engineers identified several technical problems in an initial permit filing from Berkshire Design, in March OK’ed a stormwater management plan (pdf) for the entire project, which would have to be fully implemented in Phase Two, if and when that takes place.

Pill has said that the fairgrounds project could result in increased stormwater flooding onto abutting farmland that Tymoczko owns. Defendants in the lawsuit are the property owner – the Hampshire, Franklin and Hampden Agricultural Society – the Three County Fairgrounds Redevelopment Authority and the City of Northampton.

Flooding was also the main topic of discussion at the Conservation Commission hearing, where engineers for the fairgrounds explained their plans for stormwater management under Phase One.

Detailing the New, Expanded Phase One Plan

Richard M. Klein, a principal with Berkshire Design Group, which drafted plans for the fairgrounds upgrades, told Northampton Media that the amended Phase One work includes:

• Removing more than 500 deteriorated horse stalls along the northeast edge of the property, and construction of three 100-stall barns in the center of the parcel.

• Laying of a 20-foot-wide “promenade,” an internal sidewalk made of either gravel or asphalt, to be used for vehicles, pedestrians and horses.

• Building two large horse showing “rings” constructed with compacted stone dust.

• Installing two new underground stormwater detention tanks that, Klein told commissioners last week, will more than handle all additional runoff from the site. The tanks will regulate discharges into the Williams Street Brook, reducing peak flows during storm events, Klein said.

• Constructing a large traprock gravel-covered area in the northeast corner of the fairgrounds site to serve as the new midway area for the annual Three County Fair. The area will also accommodate overflow parking for horse trailers and portable stalls during the Morgan Horse Show, which this year is scheduled for July 24-30.

• Installing new water and sanitary sewer lines for bathrooms in the three new horse barns, along with some new site electrical and lighting.

Phase One initially called only for replacing the deteriorated horse stalls with new barns and minimal other site upgrades. The proposed changes to Phase One work were summarized in a Nov. 12, 2010 cover letter to the Conservation Commission from Berkshire Design.

The commission’s unanimous vote Dec. 10 followed almost two hours of discussion and a finding by commissioners that the proposed changes were “minor” alterations to the original Phase One plan, given the overall scope of the long-range project. Voting yes were commissioners Linda Fusco, C. Mason Maronn, Timothy Parshall and Chairman Kevin Lake.

The long-range project – jointly proposed by the non-profit Three County Redevelopment Corporation and the city’s Office of Community and Economic Development, and presented to the commission by Klein – calls for the construction of several new buildings, including an 80,000 square-foot, climate-controlled exhibition hall, and an equestrian riding arena.

Overall, fair officials have said building out the master plan will cost about $42 million, create 500 new jobs and generate $26 million a year in new spin-off revenues for city businesses. (See “A New Vision for Northampton’s Three County Fairgrounds.”) About the only money raised so far is a $4 million state grant, which is being spent on the amended Phase One plans.

The Williams Street Brook, the Horse Show and the Airport

At the Dec. 10 meeting, Pill and consulting engineer William Shaheen of Granby questioned numerous assumptions made by Berkshire Design. Shaheen said Berkshire’s stormwater calculations used flawed soil-drainage and water-table data and relies on continued performance by the already overburdened Williams Street Brook.

Pill said increased runoff from an expanded Phase One threatens to flood Tymoczko’s agricultural parcel, rendering it unusable for farming. He said new underground pipes to pump stormwater would be below the water table, and said the whole scheme can work only if heavy-gauge plastic sheeting in the plans is able to keep subsurface water flows completely separate from new stormwater-transporting trenches.

While Shaheen told commissioners that Berkshire’s water-management system is a marvel of engineering, Pill said it was doomed to fail.

“They (Berkshire) have to solve an insoluable problem,” Pill told commissioners. He described Berkshire’s proposed stormwater plan as an “engineering house of cards” that can only work if it’s calculations “stand up forever, infallibly.”

Klein responded, rattling off a slew of numbers detailing how the proposal would add more stormwater-handling tanks and piping that is required, and will reduce peak-flow runoff after rain events.

About the Williams Street Brook, an underground culvert that carries drainage under Bridge Street and down to the Meadows, Klein said:  ”[It] is horrendous (and) needs help.. . .the best thing we can do is to let less water pass in it at any given time.”

The city, Klein said, is studying the problem of flooding in the area of the fairgrounds, which is also inundated during storm events.

“It’s not like the fairgrounds is causing it,” Klein told commissioners. “The watershed for the Williams Street  Brook line is massive, and it’s everybody’s problem, no one person is ever going to solve it without a complete reconstruction of that line.. . .The fairgrounds is an innocent bystander, too.”

Commissioner Lisa Fusco and others at the Dec. 10 meeting said the best long-term solution to stormwater flooding at and around the fairgrounds might be to pipe it under the Northampton Airport and into the Connecticut River.

“Yes, perhaps there is a solution under the airport, but there’s no money to study it yet,” said Klein. He said initial rough calculations seemed to indicate that plan would work.

And Teri Anderson, the city’s economic development director, told the Conservation Commission that developing detailed plans to handle stormwater in the area of the fairgrounds is a top priority in Phase 2 of the redevelopment.

“Our intention is to look for that money and to do it. But we can’t do it right now because we just don’t have the money,” she said.

The Councilor, the Developer and the Neighbor

But Ward 7 City Councilor Tacy, who described himself as an expert in building water-control systems throughout the city, said fairground officials are doing things in the reverse order. While he called himself “the biggest supporter of the Morgan Horse Show” and of the Three County Fair, Tacy said water management must be a priority.

Rather than make property upgrades and then tackle the long-term stormwater solutions, Tacy said, proponents should solve the water problems now — “not get the money later on to handle the mess that you know is absolutely going to happen.”

The city’s Anderson, who also sits as a director of the fairground redevelopment corporation, said replacing old horse barns and installing new equestrian show rings is crucial to keeping the Morgan Horse Show from leaving Northampton for a more accommodating venue.

“Anyone who doesn’t think we are in danger of losing the Morgan Horse Show is underestimating that reality,” Anderson said.

Without the horse show, she said, the fairgrounds itself would be in financial danger, something the city can ill afford. The proposed construction work, she said, will allow the fairgrounds to attract even more tenants and visitors to the city.

“It’s so important. And I think a lot of people really don’t understand  how important it is to Northampton as a whole,” said Anderson. “And I think it is urgent.”

Gerald Budgar, president of the Ward 3 Neighborhood Association, spoke for almost all project neighbors when he told the Conservation Commission he wants the fairgrounds to succeed.

“I’m a supporter of the project and I think (it) should move forward, but (it) has to move forward properly and correctly,” said Budgar.

The crumbling Williams Street Brook – which runs under Budgar’s property and that of many neighbors – “is in rotten shape,” has collapsed in places and could fail again with increased flows from fairgrounds project, he said. Project neighbors, said Budgar, are in fear of more flooding, and damage to their homes, property and farmland.

“And we rely on you folks to protect us from that happening,” he told commissioners.

Can a Building Permit Be Issued?

As this story was being readied for publishing, phone calls and emails went out to city officials about the status of a building permit for the fairgrounds.

Building Inspector Louis Hasbrouck told Northampton Media Sunday night that he has not issued a permit for the demolition of the old barns and construction of the new ones. And since the Conservation Commission’s vote to approve the amended order of conditions, he said, he has not seen such a building permit request.

If such a request were made, Hasbrouck said, he would research the subject to see if Tymoczko’s appeal to the DEP in any way prevents him from issuing a permit. “And then I would speak with the city solicitor,” he said.

But Wayne Feiden, the city’s director of planning and development, said Sunday that the Conservation Commission’s original approval of Phase One plans in April was never appealed, thus allowing work on the new and old barns to proceed. The request for an amended and expanded Phase One, as well as the appeal to DEP, he told Northampton Media, should have no effect on the fairground’s ability to seek a building permit.

Hasbrouck said that scenario makes some sense, since the additional work focused on underground tanks, sidewalks, horse show rings and a gravel parling lot. But he said the answer is not yet clear.

Attorney Pill, who represnts Tymoczko, could not be reached for comment Sunday.

Lawyer Etheredge, who represents the project applicants, said Sunday that his guess is yes they can. Since the demolition and construction were approved in April and the amended order of conditions changed nothing, he said, there seems no reason a building permit couldn’t be issued. But he said no on from the fairgrounds has yet asked him. The person who would know, he said, would be the building inspector.

For Hasbrouck, the whole fairgrounds permitting issue has gotten murky. For now, he said, one thing is clear: “I have not seen a building permit request on my desk.”

© 2010 Northampton Media

David Reid can be reached at dreid@northamptonmedia.com