WESTFIELD – The City Council has initiated a home rule petition process seeking authorization from the State Legislature to “consider Paper Mill Road to be a public way” to facilitate a road improvement project.
The Council sent the Home Rule petition, which will require a public hearing, to its Legislative & Ordinance Committee at its Nov. 7 session. The Law Department recommended that the city seek legislative approval for the “special procedure” to establish city ownership of the right of way for the street.
The L&O is slated to discuss the Home Rule petition at a committee meeting Thursday prior to the regular City Council Meeting. The issue is that the city cannot use Chapter 90 funding to improve unaccepted streets. Residents own to the middle of the pavement, so each resident has to agree to surrender their interest for the property under the roadway to the city.
Ward 6 Councilor Christopher Crean, at the Nov. 7 meeting, asked the council members to support the Home Rule petition.
“We tried to get the residents to turn their property rights (for the road right of way) over to the city,” Crean said. “Most did, one did not sign that release. These people have been waiting 20 years for this road improvement work.”
Legislative & Ordinance Chairman Christopher Keefe, the Ward 1 Councilor, said that the city “has tried everything we could” to secure the right of way and is now seeking the state Legislature action to declare the road as a public street.
“We tried to purchase the rights, but one guy didn’t want to sell,” Keefe said. “Nothing will ever get done (to improve the roadway) until we do this.
“There is a process in the Legislature where we can have it declared a public way and that legislative process will preempt all legal processes,” Keefe said. “It is a heavy-handed approach, but the Legislature passes hundreds of these things. It is not a controversial process.”
Susan Phillips, Law Department supervisor, said the city “has been trying to establish titles on those properties. It is problematic and incredibly expense.
“It’s a problem in many other communities in the Commonwealth,” Phillips said. “The Legislature creates a special act in that the city has to prove it has been used as a public way, a presumptive adverse possession after 20 years.”
Phillips said that the Engineering Department will have to present a street lay-out order to the City Council.
“Once that is done the City Council can proceed with the public hearing,” Phillips said.
