A new plan put forward by Cafua Management would avoid razing the former St. Mary's Church.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Cafua Management has submitted a new application and site plan for a drive-through Dunkin Donuts location on Tyler Street.

 

The newly filed application includes a change in configuration from a site plan first submitted by the company last fall that would subdivide the former St Mary the Morningstar property and include the demolition of only two out of five vacant structures currently there.

 

"The former rectory and convent will be razed as part of the project," according to the application narrative submitted by project manager Robert Fournier of SK Design Group Inc. "The church will be subdivided out of the overall property. For the purposes of this application, the church will remain as-is."

 

Cafua's earlier proposal at the Tyler Street location, which included demolition of the 74-year-old sanctuary, stirred considerable local controversy in September 2014. Skepticism from the local Historical Commission, as well as opposition voiced through social media, boycotting, calls to the developer and the Diocese of Springfield, along with a petition signed by more than 1,500 area residents prompted Cafua to withdraw that application two weeks later.  

 

While at that time the applicant, who operates more than 300 Dunkin locations nationwide, indicated it intended "to donate the church to the city of Pittsfield, for use as the city deems appropriate," to date no direct discussions have transpired between Cafua and the city's Office of Community Development about this possibility.  

 

The potential did inspire the formation of the Friends of St. Mary's, an ad hoc committee of interested local residents who have been working to foster interest in redeveloping the former church building, who have presented tours, architectural renderings and workshops with consultants specializing in former church redevelopment.

 

The new plan calls for a 2,100-square-foot Dunkin Donuts hub with a drive-through on the western side of the building, with traffic accessing from Tyler Street and Plunkett Street. The 0.8-acre parcel will have about 185 feet of frontage on Tyler Street, and another 190 feet on Plunkett Street.

 

The design calls for "new paved parking areas, outdoors seating, pedestrian walkways, landscaping," and will offer 29 parking spaces, almost twice that necessary for the capacity by city zoning requirements. The drive-through service area has also been designed to include twice as many queuing spaces as demanded by local ordinance, planning for a total of 12.   

 

"This will [ensure] that no vehicles will back onto any public roadways," states the site plan.

 

Traffic backup has been the primary source of periodic strife between Pittsfield city government and the rapidly expanding franchise "empire" in recent decades. Repeated complaints and censure by the City Council over traffic issues at their existing First Street location have occurred over a span of several years. Differences of opinion over traffic concerns also lead the council to deny a requested permit for a new First Street location one block north. A land court suit by Cafua to appeal the city's decision is still pending.

 

An appended 76-page traffic impact analysis conducted by the firm Tighe & Bond in 2014 for the original proposal concluded that the earlier project was "anticipated to have a negligible impact on the adjacent roadway network" [at Tyler St. and Parker St.]  The new business, it calculates, will generate an estimated a total of 109 new cars entering and exiting during the AM peak hour and 47 during the weekday peak hour, in overall increase to that intersection area's existing traffic count, a rate that decreased by 2.23 percent between 2009 and 2013 according to cited state Department of Transportation data.  

 

Before the application can progress to the process of review by local boards, the City Council will first be asked to authorize the Office of Community Development to request funds from Cafua to pursue independent consultant and attorney review of the project. In September, the Council voted unanimously to authorize requesting up to $10,000 from the applicant for independent study of traffic and other neighborhood impacts. The figure requested this time may run higher to assess the traffic change at the new proposed intersection of Tyler and Plunkett Streets, as well as overall neighborhood impacts in relation to the impending completion of the Woodlawn Avenue bridge, Berkshire Innovation Center and new TDI program launch.

 

The construction of the restaurant at that location is allowed by right, but the proposed drive-through operation requires special permitting subject to review and approval by the Community Development Board and the City Council.