The Westfield Planning Board will discuss a proposal for the Country Court Motel to be converted into efficiency apartments. (File photo by Frederick Gore)
WESTFIELD – The Planning Board will conduct a public hearing on the proposed medical marijuana zoning and will continue the hearings on two commercial projects tonight.
The City Council conducted its hearing on the proposed medical marijuana zoning regulations that would restrict dispensaries to industrial and commercial zones. The Planning Board, which developed the proposed medical marijuana zoning regulations, will conduct its own hearing.
Following the hearing, the board could make amendments and vote on its recommendation to the City Council. The proposed zoning amendment places a number of restrictions on the location of marijuana facilities and where they could be sited in the city.
Under the proposal, those medical marijuana facilities can be located in the Industrial A zone through a site plan review and in the Business B district through a special permit issued by the Planning Board
The zoning ordinance will replace the existing ordinance, Section 4-90 which now prohibits the sale of drug paraphernalia, with a revised ordinance, including definitions, regulated zoning for dispensaries and marijuana processing facilities, as well as other requirements and provisions to protect the health and safety of city residents.
The proposed zoning would limit dispensaries and processing facilities to the Industrial A Zone through site approval process and in the Business B district by special permit if the applicant can provide adequate and appropriate security measures and if the facility is designed to minimize “any adverse or inconsistent visual or olfactory impacts on the immediate neighborhood.”
The Planning Board can approve the special permit for Business B districts only if the “project is compatible with, and will not have an adverse economic effect, on surrounding uses.”
The Planning Board will also continue its review of a proposal to convert a former motel into efficiency apartments on Southampton Road.
Rui Baltazar submitted a special permit application to convert the motel at 480 Southampton Road into a 14-unit efficiency apartment complex. Typically, conversion petitions only involve the Planning Board’s review of the parking requirement of two spaces per unit.
The motel has not be in operation for five years but the questions and concerns raised during the last public hearing may initiate a more detailed Planning Board review of the project. Property owners around the motel site raised a number of concerns and issues during the initial hearing conducted on Feb. 18.
Several Planning Board members said that a “more defined plan” is needed to allow review of the special permit application and that the board needs information from the Health and Building departments on the definition and requirements needed for the conversion into efficiency apartments.
The board will also begin its review of a commercial development at 99 Springfield Road. Julie and Nabil Hannoush of 99 Springfield Road are seeking the approval of a special permit, site plan and stormwater management plan from the Planning Board and will also need approval from the City Council and Conservation Commission.
The proposal is to convert the former Balise dealership into a retail complex by renovating the existing 26,450-square foot building and to constructing three new buildings to yield an additional 32,480 square feet of retail space on the 11.36-acre site.
