The city will request the Planning Board to continue the public hearing for the proposed Ashley Street elementary school project.
The Planning Board was slated to hear the city’s petition for a special permit, site plan review and stormwater management plan tonight, but the city has requested that the hearing be continued to May 1, 2012.
The city is proposing to construct a $36 million, two-story 96,000-square-foot structure at the intersection of Ashley and Cross streets. The Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) has approved a “model school” project and will provide reimbursements of up to $23 million for the project.
Kevin Sullivan, vice-chairman of both the School Committee and School Building Committee, said this morning that the continuance is being requested because of a conflict created by the school calendar.
“The city is requesting that the hearing be continued because it is school vacation week and some of the people involved will not be around,” Sullivan said. “We didn’t want to give the appearance that the city was trying to jam this through when everybody was not present.”
City Advancement Officer Jeff Daley said that another reason for the decision to seek a continuance is that many residents, taking advantage of the school vacation week, will not be in the city.
“We are proceeding forward with the project, but felt that it was best not to have a public hearing tonight because a couple of (Planning) Board members will be absent and because a lot of people, who might want to attend the hearing, are out of town,” Daley said.
The Zoning Board of Appeals issued an approved dimensional special permit for a reduction of side-yard set backs at its Nov. 16 session. That special permit was approved because two wings of the elementary school building will be less than the 15 feet side-yard setback required by city ordinance code.
A section of the south wing, facing Ashley Street, will be within eight (8) feet of the St. Peter/St. Casimir Church property line, while the middle wing will be within 12 feet of the church property. The 90-space parking lot will be leased by the city for staff parking.
The ZBA is the only city agency with the authority to waive dimensional requirements of the city’s zoning ordinance codes. The board’s action created a”legal” building lot for the 600-student school construction project. The present Ashley Street building, which is more than 100 years old, will be demolished to create the building site.
A Northampton law firm has filed an appeal with Hampden Superior Court challenging a special permit issued by the Zoning Board of Appeals for the proposed elementary school project.
Attorney Mark A. Tanner of Bacon Wilson filed the superior court appeal on behalf of Cross Street residents Ernest L. and Elizabeth Simmons of 32 1/2 Cross Street, and Holyoke resident Thomas P. Smith, who has an ownership interest in his family’s house at 36 Cross Street.
The suit charged that the ZBA acted in an “arbitrary and capricious” manner when it granted a dimensional special permit to provide side-yard relief for the school project.
“There was no basis in fact or law for the grant of the dimensional special permit,” Tanner charges in the suit. “Any such grant was arbitrary and capricious, rest on legally untenable grounds, and was in violation of the law.”
The suit requests the court to take one of several actions; remand the issue back to the ZBA; find that the city “is not entitled to the permit it seeks in this issue as a matter of law and enter an order to that effect; or award such other relief (to the residents) as the court deems just.”
The suit is still pending.
The ZBA was granted the ability to issue dimensional special permits by an ordinance approved by the City Council nearly two decades ago. Prior to approval of that ordinance, the ZBA had authority to grant only a variance, under very restrictive state regulations, or to make findings.
Only three bodies in city government are authorized to issue special permits, the ZBA, City Council and Planning Board.
