WESTFIELD – The City Council has slated a public hearing for Jan. 16 to present details of the Paper Mill Road improvement project and the city’s home rule petition to the state legislature to declare the road a legal public way.
The hearing was originally slated to be held Thursday, Dec 19, but was postponed to the January meeting to comply with state notification requirements.
Ward 6 Councilor Christopher Crean, who represents the residents and who has pushed for the road acceptance petition, said this morning that there was an oversight in the public notification process.
“We thought we just had to hold the hearing (Thursday),” Crean said. “But we didn’t do it because of a (legal) clause that we have to send letters (of notification) to all of the abuttors.”
“It was an oversight on our part,” Crean said. “The city clerk’s office is going through the process (of identifying abuttors) and will notify them by mail for the Jan. 16 meeting.”
“These people have been waiting patiently for almost 25 years,” Crean said. “We hit a little glitch, but we’ll have the hearing and send the petition to the state legislature. We’re a little closer to getting that road fixed.”
The City Council initiated a home rule petition process in November seeking authorization from the state legislature to “consider Paper Mill Road to be a public way” to facilitate a road improvement project.
The issue is that the city cannot use Chapter 90 funding from the state to improve unaccepted streets. Paper Mill Road residents own to the middle of the pavement, so each resident has to agree to surrender their property interest for the property under the roadway to the city, and expensive and time-consuming process.
The city has held a number of public information meetings at the Paper Mill Road Elementary School on that process. Many of the residents signed agreements surrendering their property right, but several have declined to participate in that process which would have required the city to take the property currently under the roadway through eminent domain. Residents could challenge that in court, further delaying road improvements.
Crean has pushed to find a quicker solution to improve the roadway used by residents, businesses and school buses. Crean said the legislative approval of the home-rule petition is needed to remove any final obstacles.
The Engineering Department has completed a street lay-out order, which will be shown to residents at the public hearing. That street layout has to be accepted by the City Council and submitted to the legislature as part of the petition package.
