An overview drawing of the proposed Westfield Senior Center that will be located on Noble Street. (File photo by Frederick Gore)
WESTFIELD – The Planning Board voted unanimously Tuesday night to approve permits requested for the Council on Aging senior center project after a presentation to review changes requested in January by the board members.
The COA petitioned the Planning Board for a special permit, site plan approval and a stormwater management plan permit. The public hearing was initiated at the Jan. 21 board meeting, but the members raised issues of concern about vehicular and pedestrian safety and access, parking and landscaping to make the center more compatible with the surrounding residential neighborhood.
The board had requested a number of changes to the original plan presented by Peter Wells of the Berkshire Design Group, Inc. to improve pedestrian access within the site and to better buffer the surrounding neighborhood with plantings and fencing.
Wells said the “minor changes” requested by the board members in January were all included in the site plan revisions submitted Tuesday night.
“We address the issue regarding compact car parking and added four signs indication ‘compact car parking only’ over five to six spaces in that area of the parking lot,” Wells said. “We also changed the chain-link fence on the northern property line, which was going to be just metal, to a black vinyl-clad fence.
Wells said other modifications were made to the site plan design to address safety concerns, such as a “warning” or rumble strip in the access and egress driveways and where pedestrian crossing will pass through the travel lanes of the parking lot.
The original plan called for a raised sidewalk through the parking lot and to the front door of the senior center. That sidewalk, which connects Murphy Circle for increased pedestrian access to the facility, would require walkers to go up and down several times, a concern raised by board members because of the client population, some of whom are disabled, using the center.
Wells said the sidewalk will now be constructed at the same grade as the parking lot to eliminate those mobility challenges and that other barriers, such as tire stops, will also be eliminated.
Additional lighting was added to illuminate the U.S. flag and the senior center sign and that granite curbs will be a bid alternative.
Principal Planner Jay Vinskey said the Engineering Department has completed its review of the stormwater management plan and had signed off, a key requirement of the Planning Board to issue its approval of that system.
Ward 2 City Councilor Ralph Figy, in whose ward the center will be located, said “this is a valuable project that has been 20 years in the making. We have more senior citizens (8,000) in the city right now than we do students (6,100) in our schools.”
Madeline Nicoletti, a member of the city’s Commission for Citizens with Disabilities, said the senior center will facilitate services to the city’s senior citizens of all abilities.
“Seniors have a lot to give to Westfield, have been giving for years and have a lot more to give if they are allowed to,” Nicoletti said. “We need this for Westfield.”
The board attached a number of finding and conditions to the special permits and stormwater management plan, then voted 5-0 to approve the permits.
