DEERFIELD — With residents having been settled into their homes for years and drainage work complete, the Sugarloaf Condominium Association has formally requested that Deerfield accept its two roads as public ways.

The association came before the Selectboard last week to request the board begin the process of accepting Snowberry Circle and Gray Lock Lane, the two roads providing access to the 35 duplexes that opened in 2019. The condo association currently owns the roads and maintains them, including plowing them in the winter.

“We’re in the last processes of what we intended when we started the process back in 2015,” said Tony Wonseski, an engineer with SVE Associates. “Through construction, through COVID, getting everything built and sold and finishing all the improvements, fulfilling our requirements from the Planning Board … The final step is to come back to the Selectboard.”

Wonseski said the condo association has “kept everything within the street right of way as public, so it’s very discernible what’s public and what’s private.”

If the town were to accept the two roads as public ways, it would then take the responsibility of maintaining the roads, making repairs, plowing them and, if necessary down the line, paving them, according to Selectboard member Trevor McDaniel.

The association would maintain the responsibility of caring for the drainage basins around the properties, but the town will also receive a right of way if it needs to enter those areas for any reason.

To accept the roads as public ways, there are a number of steps involved; the first of which came Wednesday with the Selectboard approving the beginning of the process. Following the start of the procedure, the Planning Board must then review and submit comments to the Selectboard, which will then schedule a public layout hearing.

From there, the Selectboard will vote on whether to lay out the roads as public ways and residents will have a chance to vote to accept the roads at a future Town Meeting. That opportunity, according to Selectboard Chair Carolyn Shores Ness, could come as soon as this fall with a tentative Oct. 23 Special Town Meeting scheduled.

“There’s no guarantee we’re going to have a fall Town Meeting. We’re planning, potentially, a couple things we want to bring up as well,” Shores Ness said at the meeting. “We have plenty of time, especially if we start the process tonight.”

McDaniel noted that accepting Snowberry Circle and Gray Lock Lane as public ways allows Deerfield to receive and deploy additional Chapter 90 funding, which can be used to maintain, repair or invest in roadway infrastructure around town.

He said he doesn’t anticipate there being anything that residents would object to, but that’s why public hearings are scheduled and design documents are required.

“The only thing that would hold it up is if it wasn’t built right,” McDaniel said. “I think everybody is pleased with how it is and how it came out.”

Chris Larabee can be reached at clarabee@recorder.com or 413-930-4081.

]]>