WESTFIELD – The City Council voted to conduct a second public hearing on a zoning change petition submitted by developers seeking to construct duplex apartments on Russell Road.
The City Council voted to conduct a second public hearing on the zoning change requested by Dave Briggs and Chad Hedges because the Law Department issued an opinion that the zone change has been substantially altered by the Planning Board.
The City Council, as the city’s legislative branch, has the authority to change zoning classification. Both the council and the Planning Board conduct public hearings on zoning amendments. The Planning Board then makes a recommendation to the City Council on a final course of action and frequently seeks to amend the original petition.
Briggs and Hedges, the owners of Big Buck Builders, LLC, are seeking to change the property at 419 and 431 Russell Road, two continuous parcels, to allow construction of the two duplex buildings on each lot.
The developers originally submitted a petition to change the existing Rural Residential (RR) classification to Business A (BA). The Planning Board, concerned that the BA classification would allow uses not compatible with the surrounding neighborhood, voted to change the zoning amendment at its Dec. 16, 2014 meeting.
The Planning Board had reservations about allowing the change to Business A because of the uses allowed in that zoning and suggested that the change be to Residence B (RB) instead and sent that recommendation to the City Council.
The City Council conducted its public hearing on Dec. 18. The problem identified by the Law Department is that the advertising for two public hearings was published as a single notification with the change from RR to BA, not the course of action recommended by the Planning Board to change the property to a Residence B classification.
The Council’s Legislative & Ordinance Committee said the Law Department suggested that the council hold a new public hearing to reflect the Planning Board recommendation to change the property to RB which will allow the developers to construct the two duplex buildings, but would prohibit uses allowed in Business A districts.
L&O Chairman Ralph Figy said the Planning Board will not be required to conduct a second public hearing and that the council’s hearing will be to make the change consistent with the Planning Board’s zoning change recommendation.
This marks the second zoning change requested by Big Buck Builders. Originally the property was a spilt zone with the front of the property zoned as BA and a RR classification in the rear. That zoning was changed to RR to facilitate the boarding house project, but that zone would limit the number of duplex residential units which could be constructed.
The company had initially proposed constructing a boarding home and was issued a special permit by the City Council last year, but said they abandoned that approach because of the high construction cost. Big Buck Properties is now planning to build two duplex houses on each of the two parcels as an alternative to the 7,200-square-foot, 30-bed boarding house project.
