Panels advise City Council to reject petition to rezone Holly Street parking lot

The Northampton Planning Board and the City Council legislative matters committee on the joint public hearing voted to recommend that the full City Council reject a resident petition to change zoning for a 0.37-acre parking lot on Holly Street from Central Business Side Street (CBSS) to Urban Residential Core (URC).

The petition, submitted to the city clerk on May 10 and referred by the City Council, would reclassify the former St. John property’s parking parcel that abuts Phillips Place and Holly Street. Petitioner representative Dan Brendel argued the URC rules provide “appropriate massing and height,” require green space and parking, and include affordability controls, and said the CBSS designation “strips all of these protections.” Sarah Stein, president of O’Connell Development Group and owner of O’Connell Holly 2 LLC, told the joint meeting the owner supports keeping the parcel in Central Business Side Street and said the lot has been studied and rezoned before; Stein gave the lot size as about 0.37 acres (approximately 16,000 square feet) and said the owner has a pending site-plan and special-permit application for a 51-unit apartment building.

Planning Director Mish (the planning department) provided historical context for the zoning changes and the city’s 2011 and 2022 planning work. Mish said the 2022 form-based code divided the Central Business district into subzones intended to reflect differing downtown characteristics and that the URC district does not automatically require permanently subsidized affordable units. “There’s no requirement for affordable housing in the URC District,” Mish told the joint bodies, noting that one special-permit provision triggers an affordability or small-unit requirement only for projects over six units.

Public comment was extensive. Neighbors raised concerns about notice, neighborhood character, parking and traffic, building height and massing, and the potential for larger commercial development to spread into residential blocks. Speakers who said they opposed the rezoning included Harold Wolf, Colin Hoffmeister, Alex Bowman, Nina Shield, Matt Hoey and Meg Robbins; Ward 3 councilor Quaverly spoke as a constituent and said the change looked like “potential spot zoning” and urged reverting the parcel to URC to avoid legal risk. Several callers asked that the parcel be split so the Holly Street frontage remain CBSS while the rear return to URC.

During deliberations the two bodies focused on the history of rezoning at this location (a 2012 rezoning expansion and a 2022 adoption of the form-based code), how split parcels are treated under zoning, and the differences between CBSS and URC on height and setbacks. Planning staff explained that parcels that are owned together are often treated as a single lot for dimensional rules and that the key practical differences raised by speakers were building height (CBSS allows higher maximums than URC) and the absence of a universal parking minimum in CBSS.

Both bodies concluded their deliberations with negative recommendations back to the full council. The Planning Board voted unanimously to recommend rejection; the legislative matters committee also voted to recommend rejection. Both bodies’ recommendations are advisory; the full City Council will consider the petition at a future meeting. The planning department and members of the boards said the zoning interface between downtown subzones and adjacent residential neighborhoods is worth further study citywide.

Votes at a glance

- Planning Board — recommendation to full council: negative (unanimous). Motion to recommend rejection moved by Sam (Planning Board member), seconded by George (Planning Board member). Vote recorded as: Sam — yes; Chris Tate (vice chair) — yes; Stacy — yes; George — yes; Cameron — yes.

- City Council Legislative Matters Committee — recommendation to full council: negative. Motion moved (mover/second not specified in the hearing record). Vote recorded as: Marissa Elkins (chair) — yes; Councilor Jarrett — yes; Councilor Garrett Perry — yes. (Recommendation advisory to full council.)

What’s next

The petition and both bodies’ recommendations will be transmitted to the full City Council for a final decision. Planning staff said the issue highlighted recurring “edge” issues between downtown subzones and abutting residential districts and recommended the city consider targeted adjustments to side-street and edge standards as a follow-up.

(Reporting note: this article summarizes statements made on the record at a joint public hearing of the Northampton City Council legislative matters committee and the Northampton Planning Board. The hearing included presentations from petitioners, the property owner, and planning staff, public comment, and separate deliberations and advisory votes by the two bodies.)