Council adopts rules for small battery storage sites

Select Board · Meeting of October 15, 2026

Northampton City Council heard that the downtown parking garage has "concrete cancer" that could cost up to $33 million to fix. Hoffman Architects engineer Rob Marsoli said alkali-silica reaction and chloride-saturated concrete have corroded the 37-year-old E.J. Gare garage's steel connections, with repair options ranging from $2.5 million to $10 million and full replacement estimated at $18 million to $33 million.

The garage, closed on its top two levels since March, now offers 220 of its original 430 spaces and costs $9,000 a month just for temporary monitoring. Councilor Meg Robbins called keeping it open "a really bad idea" given safety risks. Separately, the council adopted, 6-2, a zoning ordinance setting up local permitting for small battery storage and solar facilities, after rejecting amendments from Councilor Chris Stratton to tighten size limits and add Board of Health review.

The assessor recommended keeping a single property tax rate of $13.84 per $1,000 for fiscal 2027, and the council referred the formal vote to its Nov. 5 meeting.

In the full story:

• Who Was There
• Organizations And Documents Referenced
• The complete report — 2,629 words

Source: the Select Board meeting of October 15, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.

Checked against the record: before publication this article was automatically compared with the meeting transcript. It was corrected where it differed.