Lenox Gateway Redevelopment Plan
Location: Lenox, Massachusetts
Date Completed: August 2002
Client: Town of Lenox and the Berkshire Regional Planning Commission

Aerial Photo: The study area is located on Routes 7 & 20 outside the Lenox village center. This busy roadway connects Lee and Pittsfield and is threatened by commercial sprawl.

The Lenox Gateway Redevelopment project was an outgrowth of the Lenox Comprehensive Plan, which identified an area outside the village center as a potential growth center where current commercial zoning fails to meet the towns goals of "guiding future development in a manner that preserves open space, improves connections between people and places, supports affordable housing and bolsters the local economy." Supported by a Smart Growth grant from the Massachusetts Executive Office of Environmental Affairs, the Gateway Masterplan is meant to be a model for addressing these goals with a specific plan for the area.

Dodson Associates' first recommendation was to expand the study area beyond the borders of a single parcel to include the logical, functional boundaries of the neighborhood, incorporating at least ten different properties. The final plan shows development areas and open space to be protected, roads, parking lots, buildings, paths, and landscaping. While the masterplan is specific, it is not the only possible plan for the site -- rather, it is meant to demonstrate the planning and design principles that more detailed future plans should be based on. These principles can also help the town review development proposals. Among the first of these principles should be the idea of design as a partnership between landowners, developers, town officials, and the public.

The existing Lenox Shops.

Strip commercial development north of the site.

The existing Brushwood Shops.

To develop the masterplan, Dodson Associates used GIS to assemble base maps and other information about the site and prepared a series of schematic design alternatives. These preliminary concepts were presented for review at a public workshop, and refined after further review by the Planning Board.

A public meeting presented alternatives for development and recorded the participants views.

Quick sketch plans were presented to the public comparing development under current zoning with a range of creative alternatives. These were combined into this final conceptual masterplan.

A final masterplan was drawn up as a synthesis of the preferred plans, and presented to the public together with an outline of possible implementation strategies. These include changes to zoning, possibly including a "Lenox Gateway Overlay District," that would encourage development with the scale and character envisioned by the masterplan. Just as important are public/private partnerships that build on the cooperative spirit with which the plan was created to build a neighborhood that meets the town's goals for housing and open space within a thriving private-sector project.

Final sketch showing recommended future development. Click image for full size view.