NORTHAMPTON — A proposal to build a 3,600 square-foot Cumberland Farms convenience store and gas station in the heart of Florence Center was rejected 9-0 by the Planning Board Thursday night, only hours after the Zoning Board declined to close a special hearing on whether strip-mall parking was a grandfathered use at the site. The [...]

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story was published on Thursday morning, Sept. 8 with the headline, “King Street Re-Zoning Hearing Tonight.” The meeting was held that night, and we are preparing a report on that meeting. NORTHAMPTON – A complex package of zoning ordinances proposed to encourage commercial development and enhance design standards along King Street, the [...]

In a letter to the building commissioner, Angela Plassmann’s lawyer denies the mobile home was illegal and rails against “secret informants” who turned in his client to authorities. NORTHAMPTON – It’s case closed down in the building department, now that former city councilor Angela Plassmann’s unauthorized mobile home has been removed from her property in [...]

The city’s building commissioner has determined that the “trailer” on former city councilor Angela Plassmann’s property is really a mobile home that fails to meet state and local regulations for the floodplain. To say nothing of unpaid property taxes. . .   NORTHAMPTON – The mobile home on former city councilor Angela Plassmann’s property in [...]

HOLYOKE — Property developer and entertainment mogul Eric Suher walked into a standing-room-only Planning Board hearing at Holyoke City Hall on Wednesday night; most of the 80-90 people there were opposed to Suher’s bid to gain Highway Business zoning for an 11-acre parcel he owns adjacent to Mountain Park, his outdoor concert venue located off Route [...]

After meeting with neighbors late Wednesday, Father John Connors agreed to take another look at plans for a new parish house at the Sacred Heart Church on King Street. Connors also agreed to postpone a site plan hearing until December. *** NORTHAMPTON – A face-off expected at tonight’s Planning Board was avoided late Wednesday when [...]

NORTHAMPTON – Plans for a 26,000 square-foot medical office complex on Atwood Drive, called Northwood Development, have been filed with state environmental regulators, triggering the start of what could be lengthy reviews by city and state officials. The project calls for construction of two three-story medical office buildings on the south side of Atwood Drive [...]

The epic saga of the city’s proposed landfill expansion may be drawing to a close. Four city councilors will introduce a resolution on Thursday that would use legislative, rather than zoning tools to ban landfills within Zone II aquifer recharge areas and water supply protection zones. “No new sanitary landfills or open dumps as defined [...]

*Planning Director Wayne Feiden and Planning Board chair Steve Gilson took lead roles at a joint public hearing* on Thursday which considered a citizen petition to ban all landfills in the city’s Water Supply Protection Districts. Current zoning allows the operation of landfills in such districts if they have gained a state environmental permit known [...]

Parcel 1, purchased in 1969; Parcel 2, purchased in 1988. excerpt from Planning Director Wayne Feiden’s Feb. 12 memo to DPW Chief Ned Huntley. City Planner Carolyn Misch, citing an opinion from zoning lawyer Mark Bobrowski dated March 18, wrote in a recent memo that the  the city’s landfill should not require a special permit [...]