According to J. Christopher Irsfeld, chairman of the board of selectmen for this town, most residents do not support an interchange exit here. "The Highway Department has tried to do this a few times over the past 50 years," he tells GlobeSt.com. "The town sits in the middle of Route 7 and once you build an interchange, you bring in more traffic." Irsfeld notes that a Highway Department study states that with the new interchange traffic on Route 7 will increase by 87%.
Stockbridge is home to a number of well-known venues that attract tourists all year long. Among these are Tanglewood, the Norman Rockwell Museum, the Berkshire Theatre Festival, the Red Lion Inn and Chesterwood. "Stockbridge is the goose that laid the golden egg," notes Irsfeld. "Our venues are internationally famous. People come here for the town. If you mess up the town, people won't come."
In the 1950s, Lee fought to have an interchange in its town. Since then, Lee also lobbied to have a large outlet shopping center built on a hill. "Lee caused its problems by itself," says Irsfeld. "Residents fought to get that outlet and now they're tired of it." The outlet causes even more commercial truck traffic in the town because of the shipments required by the stores there.
Despite the fact that Stockbridge has managed to avoid the interchange exit many times, this time things are a little different. Reportedly, smaller northern Berkshire towns, such as North Adams and Pittsfield will get south to north road improvements along with this interchange exit.
The decision by the highway commissioner is supposed to be made in a few days, but it doesn't look like that will be the end of this story. Irsfeld says that at a recent town meeting, residents indicated that they were prepared to give money for a legal challenge to the decision if the exit is approved.
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