Hatfield Planning Board Continues Hotel Hearing, Clears Two ANR Applications

HATFIELD — April 5, 2023 — Hatfield Planning Board continues hotel hearing to May 3 after lacking supermajority. The board, meeting April 5 with two members absent — one for a medical procedure and one for a birth — could not muster the votes needed to act on a Special Permit for a proposed hotel at 16 West Street, where the applicant had submitted six revised drawings addressing lighting and landscaping concerns raised at the first hearing. Alternate Chair James C. Tarr told the applicant's representative, who cited colleague Jeff Squire's earlier outreach, that full attendance was expected at the May meeting. The board also approved two Approval Not Required applications unanimously — one for 75 Pantry Road submitted by W. Merrick Incorporated and one for 164 Depot Road — and held an informal discussion on a self-storage expansion at 12 to 18 Elm Street, where Doug Searle of Virtual Design Group presented plans for Benson Mini Storage to merge two parcels, expand facilities, and improve a riverfront resource area. The board raised a question about potential historic significance of a barn on the Elm Street site, once home to the Hatfield Club nightspot of the 1960s and 1970s.