Lenox Planning Board Reorganizes, Launches Battery Storage Zoning Work Before November Deadline

LENOX — June 8, 2026 — Lenox Planning Board unanimously re-elected Buck Donovan as chair and opened substantive battery energy storage zoning work with a November 14 moratorium expiration looming. The board also endorsed a Form A lot-line adjustment at 140 Woodcock Road allowing property owner Rebecca Zim and Abidor to meet garage setbacks amid solid ledge, and heard an informal preview from Mike Kulig of Berkshire Engineering and Alicia Rossi of Sharp Sterile for a 100-space pervious-pavement parking lot on two Marble Street parcels the pharmaceutical manufacturer recently purchased to relieve what both described as a strained 200-space facility at 480 Pleasant Street. On BESS zoning, the board reviewed the state's October 2025 model bylaws and set a July 13 follow-up session with Fire Chief Brown to address setbacks, fire suppression, and air-emission questions before any language is drafted; the board also directed staff to prepare a letter recommending the town's land use department as the local government representative under the state's consolidated clean energy permitting process, a designation the Select Board must make before October 1. The town separately received a $250,000 MassDOT grant for a bike share program to be called Berkshire Bikeshire, with roughly seven dock locations planned across Lenox.