Planning Board elects Kain clerk in annual reorganization
Planning Board · Meeting of May 14, 2026
Great Barrington Planning Board reorganizes, elects new clerk amid tree protection dispute. Chair Brandee Nelson was unanimously re-elected, with Pedro Rafael Pachano continuing as vice chair and newly seated member Jacqueline Kain elected clerk, replacing Jonathan Hankin. The board recommended Malcolm Fick, who vacated the seat Kain now holds, as the town's alternate delegate to the Berkshire Regional Planning Commission.
Much of the meeting turned on complaints that an excavator is parked within the drip line of a protected maple tree at a 21-unit apartment project on Mahaiwe Street, with resident Aislin Amor and Tree Committee chair Julie Anidjar saying the developer's permit protects only half the tree's actual root zone. "When a neighborhood comes together, they can affect change," Nelson said, declining to revisit traffic conditions already settled in the project's site review. Town Planner Christopher Rembold said the town has a Berkshire Regional Planning Commission grant to review its solar bylaw for compliance with new state clean-energy permitting rules launching in July.
In the full story:
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Source: the Planning Board meeting of May 14, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.
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