WESTFIELD – The Planning Board Tuesday night voted to approve a special permit, site plan and stormwater management plan requested by the Pioneer Valley Transit Authority to construct a 2,700 square-foot transit pavilion on Arnold Street.
The board, which last night voted 5-1 to approve the permits, began a informal review of the project last January when the PVTA unveiled the concept design of a glass and steel building surrounded by a pedestrian-friendly plaza for the Westfield Transit Pavilion.
The proposed design was developed and presented to the Planning Board earlier this year by Reinhardt Associates of Agawam, the architectural and engineering firm retained by the PVTA.
The PVTA requested the permits at a formal presentation to the board in June seeking approval for construction of the facility in the city’s CORE district. The PVTA took possession of the Flahive property, which will be demolished this winter, in May.
The transit facility will have four bus berths along Arnold Street, which will not project into the roadway, while the building and bus facilities will have “elements” such as benches, lights and cobble stone consistent with those of the Gaslight District reconstruction plans now in its second year of construction by Gagliarducci Construction Inc. of Springfield.
A key focus of the Gaslight Project will be to improve and enhance pedestrian and vehicle movement, including PVTA buses, between the municipal parking facilities and the city’s downtown commercial and entertainment district.
City Advancement Officer Joseph Mitchell said the transit pavilion is a transition from the multi-use building which is planned for Elm Street to the utilitarian parking garage which will be constructed off Church Street.
Planning Board member Carl Vincent voted against both the motion to accept the findings and condition and against the motion to approve the permits.
“I have several concerns with the draft findings and the exceptions (to zoning requirements),” Vincent said. “This project does not bring one job to the city and does not increase foot traffic downtown.”
The project required a number of waivers from the zoning requirement of the CORE district, such as height, setback from the property line, density and the square footage of the building footprint. The waivers triggered the special permit review of the project.
The City Council also had to take action earlier this year to amend the CORE district ordinance which did not specifically allow nor prohibit a transit facility in the downtown district.
The Historical Commission also was required to vote to allow demolition of the Flahive Building based upon its finding that the structure was not historically or architecturally significant.
PVTA Manager of Capital Projects John Burke said in May that the timeline for the project is to demolish the building late this fall or early winter and to begin construction of the transit facility in the early spring of 2016, with construction completed by early 2017.
