Board grants variance to add fourth lot to shared driveway at 213 Park Hill Road with recorded maintenance agreement required

The Northampton County Board of Appeals voted unanimously to grant a variance allowing a fourth lot to use an existing shared driveway at 213 Park Hill Road in Florence.

Doug Searle, a landscape architect with Berkshire Design Group, represented Wright Builders and explained that conservation constraints and a drainage swale bordering vegetated wetlands limit direct access from Park Hill Road. The applicant sought the variance under Northampton zoning bylaw section 358.8 R(1), which limits a common driveway to three residences. Searle said the conservation commission supported the variance request as a means of reducing impacts to resource areas.

Searle presented an updated site plan filed the day of the hearing that slightly shifted the driveway connection and lengthened the approach to achieve a centerline slope of 10 percent. He said the change responded to fire department guidance: the fire department requested a sprinkler system if the driveway centerline exceeded 10 percent; at 10 percent or less the sprinkler requirement would not be imposed.

Board members cited the bylaw’s variance standard — that literal enforcement would cause substantial hardship because of soil, shape or topography and that the relief could be granted without substantial detriment to the public good — and found those elements satisfied here. Nathan Chung, planning staff, noted the city’s concern historically underlying the driveway limit: emergency vehicle access. The updated plan and fire-department input addressed that concern.

The board approved the variance with an explicit condition that, prior to issuance of a building permit, the applicant must record a revised maintenance agreement that incorporates the fourth lot and complies with city ordinance requirements for shared-driveway agreements. The board also noted in its decision the conservation commission’s support and that letters of support from the three existing driveway lot owners were in the record.

Maureen Scanlon moved to approve and Elizabeth Silver seconded; the three full voting members — David Bloomberg, Elizabeth Silver and Maureen Scanlon — voted to grant the variance. Planning staff will incorporate the board’s findings and the condition into a written decision and the applicant will proceed to site-plan review and building-permit steps with the Planning and Conservation commissions and the building department.