RALPH FIGY
WESTFIELD – Ward 4 Councilor Mary O’Connell urged the City Council’s Legislative & Ordinance committee to present a version of the Water Resource Zoning Overlay District amendment that could have the best chance of gaining support at Monday night’s City Council meeting.
The committee has to submit a version of the ordinance change Monday because the clock is running out on the 90 days the council has to review a proposed ordinance change following its public hearing.
The problem is that there is the current ordinance which needs to be revised and given teeth. Then there is the original amendment, which expands the protective zone to include any parcel of property where even a small area of that land is actually over the aquifer recharge zone.
MARY ANN BABINSKI
Then the Planning Board voted to eliminate the escape clause contained in the original amendment, deleting a special permit review process for commercial parcels of less than two-acres. The original permit prohibits development of commercial property of less than two acres, except through a special permit by the Planning Board.
The proposed change has been discussed in committee and on the council floor where there has been criticism of the original amendment and even greater concern about the Planning Board’s version of the proposed ordinance change.
Ward 2 Councilor Ralph Figy, the L&O chairman, opened the committee’s meeting to a wide range of city officials and several residents, allowing a very broad discussion at the meeting which was moved to the City Council Chambers because of the number of people attending.
JOE MITCHELL
Two residents, Mary Ann Babinski of Rogers Avenue and Barbara Rokosz of Lockhouse Road, argued that the L&O should present the Planning Board version because it is the most restrictive. The two said they should adopt the version recommended by subject matter experts.
Babinski and Rokosz said the Planning Board is the city’s zoning experts and that the board’s version, which includes recommendations of the Barnes Aquifer Protection Advisory Board, provides the greatest level of protection for the aquifer in the city, including the Barnes Aquifer which provides drinking water for Westfield, Southampton, Easthampton and Holyoke.
City Advancement Officer Joseph Mitchell requested O’Connell to withdraw the zoning amendment to allow time to make it more development supportive in the protective zone, which will cover 8,153 acres of land in the city.
CHRISTOPHER M. CREAN
“There is quite a bit of commercial development which could occur one the Northside,” Mitchell said. “My job is to promote (commercial) growth and this (ordinance) is a deal killer. We can protect the aquifer without tying our hands for development on the Northside.”
Ward 6 Councilor Christopher Crean, in whose ward the aquifer is located, and Ward 5 Councilor Robert A. Paul Sr., took an even stronger position opposing the ordinance because of several concerns including the elimination of the special permit escape clause and the split zone which extends protection to an entire parcel if even a sliver is in the aquifer recharge area.
ROBERT PAUL
“There is a fine line between conservation (of natural resources) and business development,” Crean said. “Now development is evil and bad. You can discuss and debate the way this is written, and then put up a sign saying we’re going out of business. This ordinance goes too far. Let’s take another look at it because as it’s written now there is no way I could support it.”
O’Connell said she has been working to update the existing ordinance for 10 years.
“If I withdraw it, it could be another 10 years before something is passed,” she said.
“I’d rather see it amended on the floor than to see councilors say ‘No! No! No!,’” O’Connell said. “I’d like to see the (L&O) Committee bring out the ordinance as (originally) proposed and without the Planning Board’s recommendation. Can you live with that?”
The L&O then voted to bring out the original version Monday night and that debate of the Planniing Board’s version could take place with the entire City Council membership participating.
