Lanesborough Planning Board Unanimously Adopts Long-Awaited Master Plan Monday

LANESBOROUGH -- July 21, 2025, Lanesborough Planning Board unanimously adopted the town's new master plan Monday, capping months of intensive revision and public comment. The vote came with one condition: an addendum containing Lanesborough Elementary School enrollment data from the school's opening circa 2001 through 2024, when enrollment stood at 225 students, up from 205 in 2014, will be attached once compiled by planning staff. A business owner, Jen Lyon of 163 Balance Rock Road, used public comment to challenge the plan's inclusion of a community-preference survey question about the privately held former Berkshire Mall property, calling it "truly disgusting" and an overreach; board members defended the question as appropriate for a land-use document addressing the town's single largest taxpaying property. The board also voted unanimously to appoint member Leanne as the Planning Board's representative on an upcoming Open Space and Recreation Plan committee to be led by Berkshire Regional Planning Commission planner Andy McKeever, with a grant-funded completion deadline of June 30, 2026. Annual board reorganization, including a possible change in the chair role, was tabled to August.