Planning board endorses ANR to divide 3 Elm Street parcel for St. Mary’s Church site

The Northampton City Planning Board endorsed an Approval Not Required (ANR) plan to divide the parcel at 3 Elm Street into three lots, a site that includes St. Mary’s Church and related buildings. Staff told the board an ANR review only determines whether a proposed plan creates a subdivision; because the parcel sits in the central business district, minimum frontage issues are effectively not applicable in this case.

Board members discussed statutory nuances that can require a zoning variance when separate lots would generate non-conformities, and staff noted that parcels containing multiple structures are often required to be divided so each structure sits on its own lot. The board emphasized that easements and shared-access language are commonly handled later and recorded at the registry when development requires them.

Tim Armstrong of Bergkshire Design Group, the project’s land surveyor, spoke via the BDG laptop to clarify that the ANR intentionally omitted extensive easement exhibits because the project team evaluated future buildout and determined multi-page easement documentation was not necessary for the ANR filing. "this ANR has looked at like the future development um and we decided the like five pages of easements was not necessary to include for the ANR," Armstrong said.

A board member moved to endorse the ANR for 3 Elm Street; the motion was seconded and carried. The board endorsed the plan to create three lots and encouraged applicants to present full buildout scenarios during site-plan and special-permit reviews when possible.