City Council and Planning Board review zoning changes for ‘higher and better use'
WESTFIELD — The City Council and Planning Board are reviewing zoning change requests to allow property owners more options for use of their properties in Westfield. The requests will be reviewed in the Zoning, Planning and Development Committee chaired by Karen Fanion.
Rob Levesque of R. Levesque Associates presented a request by Alice Wielgus to the City Council on May 15 to amend the zoning map at 14 and 170 Main St. from Rural Residence and Residence B to Residence C for a portion of the property. Levesque said the family is requesting that approximately 8 acres on Main Street, where they sell roses for Mother's Day, be rezoned to Residence C, and leave the approximately 30 acres in the rear, which is in the floodplain, as Rural Residential.
Levesque said the family understands there has been interest over the years in the rear portion of the property for ball fields, and they generally like the idea. He said the Main Street portion of the property abuts a townhouse style condominium community that is zoned Residence C, and they would like to be able to utilize the front in similar way for condo development of multi-family townhouses, which he said would also be meeting the need for housing in the state.
Levesque said the change in zoning would help them to think about what they would like to do with the property in the future.
During the discussion in the City Council, there were questions of where the access to the property would be, both the front and the rear. Levesque said the corner of Noble Street which leads into a farm road would be the most logical place.
Councilor Kristen Mello raised floodplain concerns, and said the GIS plan shows it coming up into the building area in the front. Levesque said the stormwater infrastructure would get into a bit of the flood zone. The hearing at the City Council was continued for a review by the city engineer.
At the Planning Board on May 20, Levesque said the zoning change to Residence C would be for someone, likely not the family, to turn into housing similar to the adjacent condominium project in the front ten percent of the property, and leave the 50-plus acres in the rear property as Rural Residential.
He said after the discussion at the City Council, they pulled the front portion further away from the flood zone, and made a sketch of a potential townhouse style residential project that could go there.
Asked whether the access on Noble Street would be for both the rear property and for the housing development, Levesque said that would be preferable, but if not, there would be plenty of access points to the housing development on Main Street.
Planning Board chair William Carellas said he was happy that they were not requesting spot zoning, as there is plenty of Residence C in the area, before the Planning Board made a unanimous positive recommendation to the City Council for the project.
The Planning Board also positively recommended three other zoning change requests that came before the City Council, and were referred to the Zoning, Planning and Development Committee.
The second zoning change request was by Mike Ventrice, owner of TV Realty & Development to change his 17-acre property on Lockhouse Road from Industrial A to Residence C, for future housing development of 25 duplexes.
Ventrice said his property is 75 feet from Arch Road, with frontage on Lockhouse where the road is one-way with the one-lane railroad bridge. He said he has a meeting on June 3 with the Traffic Commission to discuss reverting the road back to two-way.
Robert McKay of 27 Ridgeway Ave., an abutter on the other side of the railroad tracks, said many years ago, that section of Lockhouse that is one-way used to be two-ways, but he said it was changed for safety reasons to one-way. 'It was nice when it was two-way, but there were a lot of accidents at that bridge.'
'His property is a lot farther away from the bridge. I guess that becomes a traffic issue,' said Carellas after the unanimous positive recommendation from the Planning Board.
Also recommended was a petition of Michael Sajewicz, the owner of Arrow Pharmacy to amend the zoning map at 66 Holyoke Rd. from Residence B to Business B (portion).
Levesque, also representing Sajewicz, said the purpose of the zoning change would be to extend Business B from the pharmacy on a contiguous piece of property, to allow them to utilize the property for a similar or related use.
The house on Holyoke Road, which is part of the property being requested for a zoning change, would remain as residential, and in the future be separated as a residential lot. Sajewicz owns the three contiguous lots.
Asked what the plans are for the rear lot, Levesque said the first stop is to get the back rezoned, but there is no specific project at this point. 'In a perfect world … symbiotic uses that would work well with the pharmacy. Looking at it, it made sense to try to revamp the back of the property,' Levesque said.
He said right now, they are separate parcels, and the idea would be making it one contiguous property, that would allow for 'higher and better use than what we could do on the property there now.'
Also under discussion in both bodies is to amend the zoning ordinance to expand uses allowed in the Industrial A district.
City Planner Jay Vinskey spoke at the Planning Board meeting on behalf of Councilor Brent Bean. He said during the last discussion, the board recommended some uses to be added to Industrial A, and that list was proposed to the City Council.
He said the only change the Planning Board recommended that didn't make it through the committee was to only allow Commercial A uses in existing buildings in Industrial A, in order to avoid new shopping centers being built.
'I would agree — only for uses in existing buildings,' said Carellas.
Planning Board member Richard Salois said one of the biggest concerns he had was that they build a strip mall. 'There is a reason for the use of existing buildings there,' he said.
'I believe back in April, that was not the intention, but to use empty warehouses that could go in a Commercial A district, or conversion or expansion of a building or a portion thereof for the new uses,' said board member Cheryl Crowe.
Among the Commercial A uses that would be permitted by-right in Industrial A are neighborhood retail store not in excess of 750 feet; service-oriented stores such as a barber shop or beautician, but not laundry or dry-cleaning; retail service or custom stores, but no booth or restaurant facilities; branch bank, medical or dental clinic.
Read the original article on MassLive.
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