Stannard to withdraw suit

By Wiley Wood

On Monday, August 29, the Planning and Zoning Commission approved a plan for the proposed convenience store and deli at 6 Station Place, following a public hearing at which many town residents spoke urging approval.

The store’s operator, Ryan Craig, and the building’s owner, the Norfolk Foundation, plan extensive renovations to 6 Station Place, including a commercial kitchen and a walk-in cooler and freezer, features that require mechanical equipment including condensers, propane tanks, an exhaust fan, and an air intake fan.

The original site plan, presented at a public hearing in May, located the mechanicals outside the building, mostly along its back wall. The exhaust fan was mounted on the roof.

The owner of an abutting property, Joseph Stannard, strongly objected to the plan. Speaking through a lawyer, Stannard argued that the proposed modifications would decrease both the value of his land and his enjoyment of it.

Stannard owns the gray wooden barn directly behind 6 Station Place. The two buildings are very close to each other, with one corner of the Stannard barn, referred to by Stannard’s lawyer as a showroom, jutting across the property line to within a few inches of 6 Station Place.

At a second public hearing on July 19, the Norfolk Foundation presented a revised site plan designed to address many of Stannard’s objections. Fifty-seven letters from town residents were read into the record, almost all of them in favor of the store. The commission voted unanimously to approve.

But on August 8, the town was served a summons in a suit brought by Stannard against the Planning and Zoning Commission, appealing its decision. Also named in the suit were the Norfolk Foundation and Ryan Craig, doing business as Four Winds Enterprises.

The Planning and Zoning Commission at its August 29 meeting, just after voting to approve the convenience store site plan.

When the commission met on August 9, the building’s owners were again conciliatory toward Stannard and again presented a new plan, this time moving the condensers into the building’s basement and the air intake fan behind a grille on the building’s east wall. Two of the four existing propane tanks would be removed. And the exhaust fan on the roof would be relocated across the ridgeline away from Stannard’s property onto the slope facing the street.

In reviewing the third version of the site plan on August 29, the commission had to decide whether putting the 38-inch-wide, bell-shaped, metal exhaust fan on the street side of the roof would be consistent with the overall character of the village.

Stannard’s lawyer had in the meantime written the Norfolk Foundation saying that if the new plan with the ventilation chimney on the street side of the roof was approved, Stannard would drop his lawsuit.

A majority of the commissioners agreed that the fan would be sufficiently screened by trees and unobtrusive enough if painted a dull color to be acceptable. They also noted that a chimney on the south side of the roof would be plainly visible to anyone walking to Station Place from the library. The vote was 5 to 2 in favor.

“We’re really excited,” says Ryan Craig. “Support from the town has been overwhelming.”

Photos by Bruce Frisch. Top: The operator of the proposed Berkshire Country Store, Ryan Craig, is congratulated by a Norfolk resident following the meeting.