These two businesses are located on property currently zoned as Industral A . The City Council will conduct a public hearing Thursday on a petition to change the zoning of land at the intersection of Apremont Way and Airport Drive to Business A. (Photo by chief photographer Frederick Gore)
WESTFIELD – The City Council will conduct a public hearing Thursday on a petition to change the zoning of land at the intersection of Apremont Way and Airport Drive.
The Planning Board, which conducted its public hearing on Tuesday, Aug. 7, voted to send the City Council a negative recommendation on the petition submitted by Mark and Bette Staruk of 11 Lenora St., Worcester.
The couple owns a triangular shaped parcel of land, with a single-family residence at the point of the parcel with an address of 67 Apremont Way, and a commercial building, which houses two businesses, at 11 Airport Drive. The two businesses are Westfield Equipment, which sells and services yard equipment such as lawnmowers, snow blowers, chain saws, as well as other equipment, and R.J.M. Landscaping, Inc. a Southampton-based firm which services western Massachusetts.
The property is currently zoned as Industrial A and the couple is seeking to change that to a Business A zone to be more compatible with the current residential and commercial use.
The parcel would be subdivided to create separate parcels for the house and commercial building. The remaining property, 2.55 acres, has frontage on both Apremont Way and Airport Drive.
The board members expressed several concerns about the current and possible future use of the property if the zoning was changed as petitioned.
Board Chairman Philip McEwan said that the zoning was changed from Business A to Industrial A “five or six years ago” and questioned the reason for the petition.
Steve Salvini of Salvini Associates, representing the petitioners, said that prior change was requested to allow industrial development of the property, but that the anticipated interest failed to materialize because of the current weak economy.
McEwan said that he inspected the site and saw activity at one of the tenants of the commercial building that is incompatible with the Business A zoning requirements.
“It doesn’t seem to me that what is going on belongs in that zone,” McEwan said. “It’s a contractor’s yard. It seems that 20 percent of the activity is retail sales and 80 percent of the activity is a contractor’s yard which needs City Council approval for a special permit. A contractor’s yard is not an allowed use without a special permit.”
Board members were also concerned that the zone change would allow subdivision of the property for three residential lots, a type of development which is not desirable next to Barnes Regional Airport.
The board defeated a motion to give a positive recommendation to the City Council by a 3-4 vote.
