WESTFIELD – The Planning Board will conduct a public hearing tonight to hear the details of a petition to rezone a convenience store at 397 Little River Road, formerly known as Carmel Farms.
The zone change is being sponsored by Ward 5 City Councilor Richard E. Onofrey Jr., on behalf of the current owner who is seeking to reorganize the store.
“Right now the front of the store is zoned RA (Residential A), but the rear of the store is zoned RR (Rural Residential),” Onofrey said. “All of the equipment, coolers and other machines have to be in the RA part of the store because that is prohibited in RR. The owner wants to make it all Commercial A.”
Onofrey said that City Council has already conducted its public hearing on the zone change petition and referred the issue to its Zoning, Planning & Development Committee.
“Right now the council can’t do anything until we get a recommendation from the Planning Board,” Onofrey said.
The Planning Board opened the public hearing, without taking any testimony, at its June 6 meeting which Onofrey could not attend as the amendment sponsor because of obligations related to his role as the Finance Committee chairman. That committee was reviewing the proposed budget department by department looking for money that could be cut from the city’s operating budget.
“I couldn’t get to the Planning Board hearing because everything was going on with the city budget,” Onofrey said. “I’m hoping that the Planning Board will vote on a recommendation tonight and I will speak with Councilor (Agma) Sweeney (who is the chairwoman of the Z,P&D Committee) to see if her committee can bring it out at the council’s August meeting.”
