WESTFIELD – The City Council voted unanimously Monday to approve two special permits for contractor’s yards on North and Southampton Roads, both dealing with tree removal businesses.
The License Committee gave a 3-0 positive recommendation to the petition submitted by Carl W. Delp III, the owner of Undercutter’s Landscaping and Tree service, seeking to establish a contractor’s yard at 988-C Southampton Road.
Delp is planning to bring logs to the facility and cut and split it for sale as firewood.
The Council attached a list of findings and nine conditions because that location is in the Water Resource District.
Conditions prohibit storing the cord wood in the parking lot, but do require that all vehicles and associated equipment used by the business be secured indoors on an impervious surface to prevent soil and groundwater contamination by leaking fluids.
The condition also prohibits vehicle maintenance on the site, as well as the storage of fuel, oils, fertilizers, herbicides or pesticides. The use of de-icing rock salt is also prohibited on the parcel.
Delp is also responsible to ensure that debris from the bulk storage of tree materials does not enter the stormwater management system and to ensure that his business does not create “objectionable noise, exceeding 65 dB beyond the property line in compliance with Chapter 10, Article 11 of the city’s Code of Ordinances.
Other conditions require that the work and storage site be screened, either by a solid fence of landscaping trees.
The second special permit, recommended by a 3-0 vote of the Zoning, Planning and Development Committee, was also unanimously approved for 785 North Road, LLC, which is also a tree removal business. That business is managed by Kevin and Jeremy Labrie of Southampton.
The special permit will allow the company to bring tree debris to the site to be converted into mulch for landscaping use and for storage of vehicles associated with both tree removal and the landscaping mulch operation and retail sale of bark mulch and landscaping stone.
The council also approved a stormwater management permit for that location.
The council attached its finding and 11 conditions to the special permit because of the site’s close proximity to the Barnes Aquifer.
The condition prohibit activities would could have a negative impact on the aquifer, the source of drinking water for Westfield, Southampton, Holyoke and Easthampton.
No vehicle maintenance, vehicle washing, bulk storage of fuel, oil, fertilizers, herbicides or pesticides is permitted on the site.
The company is required to file both a hazardous material and spill response plan with the Fire Department, Water Resource Department, and City Council, as well as posting those documents on site. The spill response plan shall describe ‘measures to be taken to ensure that no polluted flow enters the stormwater management system’ which recharges water into the aquifer soil.
The permit also prohibits with use of rock salt on the site as well as limiting noise to 65 dB at the property line.
The company is required to maintain the stormwater management system which must be inspected and cleaned annually, with reports of those activities made to the city’s Stormwater Coordinator.
