By: By Glenn Drohan Berkshire Eagle Staff
(21-02-2001)

HANCOCK -- Local planners, who have been rebuffed three times in the past two years in attempts to establish local zoning laws, are trying yet again, but they are already encountering opposition.

Brian Fairbank, owner of Jiminy Peak Ski Resort, said yesterday that a skimpy zoning package under review by the Planning Board is ambiguous and potentially unfair to his resort's master plan for more development.

Hancock is the only town in the county, if not the state, that doesn't have zoning laws and undoubtedly needs them, Fairbank said, to protect against increasing development pressure. But he contends the current proposal won't do the trick.

"I'm totally in favor of zoning," Fairbank said. "But I care that we find the right long-term solutions, not short-term."

One page long

The latest zoning bylaw proposal is only one page long and has two basic elements: a section that would require all dwelling units to be built on a minimum lot of one acre and a section that would establish a five-member Zoning Board of Appeals, which would rule on development proposals. A dwelling unit is defined as "a residential building designed for one or two families."

Fairbank said Williamstown lawyer Donald Dubendorf, who specializes in land-use planning, has criticized the proposal as being ambiguous and vaguely defined. While it appears to try to guard against future condominium projects, it could open up the town to "postage stamp" development in which dozens, if not hundreds, of one- or two-family houses could be built on small lots, according to Fairbank.

"What's written is unclear," he said. "Whether it's being done as a reaction to Silverleaf [Resorts] or anyone else, I think it would end up being tested in court. I believe the town should go back to a more comprehensive package, like the one that unfortunately got defeated back in 1999.""