WESTFIELD – The Planning Board approved a special permit last night to allow demolition of an existing structure and construction of a new single-family house.
The petition was filed under the infill ordinance which is intended to allow construction of a house on a lot that once, but no longer, complies with the city’s zoning requirements.
The Planning Board has dealt with several infill petitions since the ordinance was approved a year ago and those public hearings have drawn a number of neighbors expressing concern about the proposals.
Last night not one neighborhood resident spoke against the petition.
Robin Sheldon and Glenn Korostynski purchased a blighted Springdale Road property that has been vacant for near 20 years and planned to rehabilitate the small brick structure.
Sheldon said that plan was abandoned when they began to assess the structure and found that extensive damage had occurred to the building and its plumbing and electrical systems.
“We found that every system needs to be replaced,” Sheldon said. “But since it’s only 500 square feet, a lot of people have living rooms bigger than that. It’s just not economical to bring it up to standard.”
The building lot complies with all current city code requirements except frontage. The current standard for lot frontage in a residence A zone is 125 feet, while the lot has 100 feet of frontage, the requirement at the time it was constructed. The applicants provided documentation that many of the other houses in the area of 188 Springdale Road also have 100 feet of frontage.
Korostynski said the plan is to raze the house and construct a new two-story 1,600-square-foot residence with a two car garage. The front setback will be increased from 50 to 75 feet to allow the addition of a turn-around to the driveway to eliminate the need for the future residents to back into the heavily-traveled roadway.
Korostynski said that the new house will be constructed by a contractor who lives on that street and since the current building is already served by sanitary sewers and water, there will be no needed to dig into the street.
“Our proposal will do nothing except improve the neighborhood,” Sheldon said.
