Deerfield, Massachusetts, has given conditional approval to Tree House Brewing to more than triple its occupancy.
The brewery wants to host up 5,000 people at its Deerfield location for special events like concerts, instead of the current limit of 1,500.
Allison Masley, who works for Tree House, made the case to the Deerfield Selectboard recently.
"The larger event occupancy allows us the flexibility to draw in some different names, to see if we can get bigger acts to come to Deerfield, to drive people to Deerfield for tourism," she said.
Selectboard member Tim Hilchey explained that he and his colleagues were making the approval conditional on public safety officials signing off.
"The police and the fire and the EMS have to be certain that they can take care of any emergency that develops there," he said. "Part of that is capacity of the crowd and so until they're satisfied their concerns have been addressed then that's going to be a sticking point."
The board of health also needs to approve the increase before a larger event could take place.
