CARL VINCENT
WESTFIELD – The Planning Board voted unanimously last night to approve a site plan and a special permit requested by a property owner for reuse of a commercial building at the corner of Main and Mechanic Streets.
The application was presented to the Planning Board at its Oct. 7, 2014 session and has gone through a number of modifications to address concerns raised by residents and board members.
Land-use consultant Rob Levesque of R. Levesque Associates, presented the plan for reuse of a vacant building located at 64-68 Main Street, which is at the intersection of Mechanic Street, owned by Rocco J. Falcone Sr., through FRP Holdings.
The Planning Board closed the public hearing last night, a review process complicated by the fact that a residential building at 10 Mechanic Street, which has been demolished, was included in the special permit application for additional parking needed by the tenant of 64 Main Street, identified last night as the owner of Aaron’s appliance and furniture rental store now located at 330 East Main Street.
Levesque said that his client had agreed to a number of site plan changes, such as landscaping, erection of a stockade fence to buffer the residential property on Mechanic Street next to the 15-car parking lot and plantings of eight-foot tall arborvitaes along that fence line.
A 50-foot black ornamental aluminum fence will be installed in the rear parking lot along Mechanic Street between the lot entrance and exit.
The plan also incorporates a subsurface stormwater infiltration system approved by the city’s Engineering Department, which includes a Stormceptor system to filter the water before it is released to the infiltration unit.
Levesque said the project was reviewed by the Police Department’s Traffic Bureau which raised no objections to the traffic movement pattern associated with the rental business.
The most extended discussion among Planning Board members occurred after the hearing was closed and while the members were reviewing the conditions which are attached to the special permit and site plan.
Planning Board member Carl Vincent suggested that the board may want to consider requirements for inclusion of bicycle racks because the business abuts the Columbia Greenway.
Levesque said that while that condition “seems logical” there is no direct access from the elevated rail trail to his client’s commercial property.
Board vice-chairman William Onyski said that it is premature to begin requiring businesses in the CORE district and suggested that the board wait until its ad hoc Bicycle and Pedestrian Planning Advisory Committee sends a report to the board.
“I’m not comfortable asking people to put in bike racks until we do it as a whole,” Onyski said. “I suggest that we discuss it, do it where it is conceivable that there will be bike traffic, such as an ice cream shop.
Board Chairman Philip McEwan agreed that requirements to install a bicycle rack should be driven by the type of businesses people will access on bicycles.
Vincent countered that the Columbia Greenway extension, planned for the 2015 construction season and terminating on the south side of Main Street, in the area of the Stop & Shop supermarket, will create additional bicycle traffic.
“The city is encouraging people to get out of their cars and come downtown to do their business by bicycle, cutting down on vehicular congestion,” Vincent said.
Onyski said that business owners will respond to a need when they perceive it.
“If a business owner feels that it is advantageous (to accommodate bicyclists with rack), he can put them in,” Onyski said. “I don’t feel that we should force (businessowners) to put them in.”
McEwan said that “once there is a steady flow of bicyclists, businesses will put in bike racks.”
Member Peter Fiordalice said the board wants to encourage bicycle racks to accommodate bicyclists, “but we don’t need one at every business. Racks should be encouraged but not required.”
