Community Development Board approves self-storage site plan at Downing Parkway

The Pittsfield Community Development Board on May 19 approved a site plan for a self‑storage facility on 0 Downing Parkway (Assessor Map M13, Block 1, Lot 210), a roughly 28.6‑acre parcel in the industrial zone.

SK Design Group’s Jim Scalise told the board that a federal Letter of Map Revision had refined floodplain lines and showed the proposed buildings would lie about one foot in the floodplain; he said the impact would be "non‑significant." Mr. Scalise also described two access points (a customer entrance on Hubbard Avenue and a utilities entrance on Downing Parkway) and said the site’s primary operations would be internal to the building.

Board member Katie Soules pressed the applicant on stormwater and runoff into nearby Squires Pond; Mr. Scalise replied that "the runoff will go to the Fore Bay, which has no access point to the pond." The board approved the plan with the condition, motioned by Gary Levante, that "the applicant be subject to all other federal, state, and local rules and regulations not specifically covered by the granting of this site plan review" and that the applicant submit as‑built plans after project completion.

The approval was recorded as unanimous at the meeting (5‑0). The board’s action implements standard city conditions and does not itself grant any building permits, which remain subject to separate permitting and inspections.