Former Pittsfield School Fate Still Uncertain After Demo DelayBy Joe Durwin, Pittsfield Correspondent
06:38PM / Tuesday, October 23, 2012 | |
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The future of a former school building deemed historically significant remains uncertain at the conclusion of a six-month demolition delay enacted in May.
No new development plan has come forth since the delay was enacted, according to City Planner Cornelius J. Hoss, and there is continued interest from the Cafua Management Co. in eliminating the 103-year-old Fenn Street structure to make room for a drive-through doughnut shop.
"You can expect you'll be hearing about a renewed application from them in the near future," Hoss told the Pittsfield Historical Commission on Monday.
Cafua has an option to purchase the property from its current owners, Forer Development Co., which plans to raze the structure to construct a new restaurant with drive-through service. Cafua is the largest privately owned Dunkin' Donuts operator in the country. The new operation is expected to be a replacement for its existing eatery at 18 First St., a location which has raised concerns from the city about traffic issues in recent years.
The former Plunkett School building has been available for sale since 1987, and been vacant of all occupancy since 2009. A previous offer from another developer interested in converting the building to affordable housing has failed to win over its owners, because of the proposal's dependence on funding and approvals that could take one to two years.
Commission Chairman Will Garrison asked Hoss if the city's inclusion of the building in a newly created Housing Development Zone offered any hope of attracting interest in market-rate housing such as that being planned by Allegrone Construction for the Howard building just across the street at 124-132 Fenn St. The city planner said the structural modifications the building would need would probably be prohibitive to market-rate developments.
"Affordable housing, because there's so many different avenues of financing," said Hoss, "that there could be a way to overcome that."
Hoss stressed to the commission that the expiration of the demolition delay on Nov. 1 did not necessarily mean that demolition was inevitable. Cafua Management will still need to go through the normal process of acquiring permits for its proposed construction. Because the eatery will involve a drive-through window, permitting will ultimately require a vote of approval by the City Council.
"There'll still be a lot of hoops," said Hoss. "A developer is not going to demolish a building unless it first has approval for what it wants to do."
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