By Rachel Goff
New development can be good for The Valley, "there's no doubt about it, but it's at the point where it's straining our municipal services," Warren Volunteer Fire Department president Nick Morehouse said. "We need to look at what we're doing as a community and the position we're putting ourselves in."
Morehouse and several other members of the fire department came out to the Warren Development Review Board (DRB) hearing on Monday, February 2, to state their concerns with the latest proposed development at Sugarbush Resort: Gadd Brook Residences.
The building and its construction
According to Sugarbush director of planning and regulatory compliance Margo Wade, who presented the project to the DRB, Gadd Brook Residences is a 16-unit full-ownership condominium complex with a mix of two-, three- and four-bedroom units. The 4,000-square-foot building would have four stories and an underground parking garage.
Gadd Brook Residences is one of six mixed-use buildings that comprise the Lincoln Peak Base Area Redevelopment Phase II Master Plan, which if completed would add approximately 93 residential units to the bottom of the ski mountain. The Warren DRB approved a version of the Phase II Master Plan in 2012 and that plan has since evolved.
On Monday, Wade, Sugarbush vice president of base operations and lodging Jim Westhelle and architects Jim Edgcomb and Jeff Schoellkopf of The Design Group in Warren presented detailed plans for the construction, landscaping and installation of stormwater systems associated with Gadd Brook Residences, which the resort hopes to break ground on in May. So far, Sugarbush has submitted applications for the project to the DRB and to the District 5 Act 250 Commission.
With the construction of Gadd Brook Residences, the Lincoln Peak Redevelopment Phase II Master Plan includes a reconfiguration of the parking lot and the road leading into Sugarbush Village. Gadd Brook Residences would be located just southeast of the ski resort's most recent development, Rice Brook Residences, a 15-unit full-ownership condominium complex that was completed in December of 2013.
According to the current plans, the construction of Gadd Brook Residences will be very similar to that of Rice Brook, Edgcomb said, as the clapboard-style building will have a cement base and a fire-protected wooden frame wrapped in gypsum sheetrock and a sprinkler system.
The Design Group met with the state fire marshal several times to ensure that the building is up to code, Edgcomb said, but prior to Monday's hearing, Warren Volunteer Fire Department submitted a letter to the board stating their safety concerns for Gadd Brook and for what the entire Lincoln Peak Redevelopment Phase II Master Plan would mean for the town.
The fire department's concerns
In February of 2013, a fire destroyed 36 units of Mountainside Condominiums in Sugarbush Village. Over 70 firefighters from Warren, Waitsfield, Fayston, Moretown, Waterbury, Stowe and Berlin responded to the alarm, and it took them over five hours to extinguish the flames. In that time, crews had to cut down trees in order to reach parts of the burning building and dig ditches to accommodate the water runoff.
After the fire at Mountainside Condominiums, Morehouse said, and also after receiving a report from an independent consultant that the town recently hired to evaluate the Warren Fire Department, "We're probably more aware than we were two to three years ago," Morehouse said, speaking to the challenges the department faces in staying up to date on trucks, equipment and training.
Since the ski resort boom of the 1960s, the town of Warren has continued to grow, but single-family houses are "a very different animal" from multi-family complexes like Gadd Brook, Morehouse said. With the construction of more multi-family complexes, "this becomes an urban environment," Morehouse said of Sugarbush Village, and "that's not what our experience is in."
To be able to handle a fire in a building like Gadd Brook Residences, "We don't really know for sure what we need yet," Warren Volunteer Fire Department chief Pete DeFreest said, but already the department is significantly increasing its requests to the town.
"We're going to need to buy another ladder truck to support our ability to handle these structures," Morehouse said, and the taxpayers of Warren would need to pay for it.
If Warren does buy another ladder truck to accommodate the proposed development at Sugarbush, it has to be able to use it, Morehouse said. While Gadd Brook Residences "meets code, it doesn't meet what the fire department wants to see from a life safety standpoint," he said, explaining that due to physical constraints such as the waterways surrounding Gadd Brook Residences and the slope of the hill, firefighters are worried about being able to access certain parts of the building to extinguish flames.
To increase fire safety at Gadd Brook Residences, "I think 360-degree access is key," Morehouse said, explaining that the department does not necessarily have to be able to drive a truck all of the way around the building, but it does have to be able to at least extend a ladder to all of its sides.
Access to water is also an issue, Morehouse said, suggesting that the resort extend its snowmaking system to be able to provide water to extinguish flames in times of emergency, instead of relying on the existing Mountain Water Company System, as the plans currently suggest. "We need resources from Sugarbush," Morehouse said.
Finding a compromise, biding time
Indeed, in reviewing permit applications, "Part of what we look at is whether a particular development imposes a financial burden on the municipality," Warren DRB chair Peter Monte said. "For some part of it, it may be appropriate for the developer to pay."
Moving forward, the DRB suggested that Sugarbush and the fire department work together to hire an independent consultant to evaluate what the fire department would need to meet the needs of a building like Gadd Brook Residences. Wade responded that the resort would be open to such a partnership and Westhelle said Sugarbush is open to sharing the cost of hiring an outside professional. "We'll pay for it," he said.
In the meantime, "Let's leave the timeline open," Monte said, suggesting that aiming to secure all of the necessary local and state permits in order to start construction on Gadd Brook Residences this summer is unrealistic.
"This is the development that is going to make us determine, as a town, what we want to provide, from a fire safety standpoint," Morehouse said. "Now is the time to have a conversation."
Past approvals and letters of support
In 2012, Warren Development Review Board approved a subdivision plan submitted by Sugarbush for the Lincoln Peak Base Area Redevelopment project so that the resort could move forward with permitting for Rice Brook Residences. Included in that subdivision plan, Sugarbush received partial approval for the project's Phase II Master Plan, which included a description of the buildings that were to make up Gadd Brook Residences.
Also in 2012, Mad River Valley Planning District (MRVPD) chair Jared Cadwell submitted a letter to Sugarbush stating their support for the construction of Rice Brook Residences and the overall Lincoln Peak Base Area Redevelopment Phase II Master Plan.
"MRVPD views the latest development proposal for the Lincoln Peak Base Area as a necessary and positive step in the growth of the resort," Cadwell wrote. "Concentrating the residential and related components of the resort at the base area will efficiently serve visitors and the community as a whole."
The MRVPD has yet to comment on Sugarbush's current application to the Act 250 Commission for the construction of Gadd Brook Residences but expects to do so in a couple of weeks. In the meantime, Bob Ackland of the Warren Select Board voiced his support for the project from a town planning perspective at the board's meeting on January 27.
"To me, I see buildings that are very similar to this in many ways," Ackland said of Gadd Brook Residences. "Somebody's figured out methodology or ways to solve the problem" of ensuring safety in case of fire, he said, suggesting that Warren could do the same.
The area where Gadd Brook Residences are located is identified in the Warren Town Plan as an area in which the town would like to encourage dense development, Ackland said, countering the fire department's argument that the buildings are too close together to allow for 360-degree access. "From a planning perspective, we would encourage even more density," he said.
Moving forward, the DRB plans to hold a site visit of the proposed development before their next meeting on Monday, February 9.
