WESTFIELD – The City Council unanimously approved two pieces of legislation Thursday sending the home rule petition to accept Paper Mill Road as a public way to the state Legislature for further action.
The City Council initiated a home rule petition process in November seeking authorization from the state legislature to “consider Paper Mill Road to be a public way” to facilitate a road improvement project.
Ward 6 Councilor Christopher Crean sponsored petition to the state Senate and House to accept Paper Mill Road as a public way, action needed to qualify using Chapter 90 funds for road and drainage improvements.
The council also approved an order accepting and laying out the road as an existing city way. Crean said the layout is of the roadway as it current exists and that residents will not lose property rights with the exception of property now under the road.
“Our vote Thursday was a formality to get the Legislature to accept it as a city way to allow us to apply Chapter 90 so we can fix and repair the road,” Crean said this morning.
“I’m hoping to get it on the (legislative) agenda as soon as possible,” Crean said. “My next job will be to request the Engineering Department to come up with a cost estimate for reconstructing the roadway and improving drainage, then to find the money to do that work.”
The issue is that the city cannot use Chapter 90 funding from the state to improve unaccepted streets. Paper Mill Road residents own to the middle of the pavement, so each resident has to agree to surrender their property interest for the property under the roadway to the city, an expensive and time-consuming process.
The city has held a number of public information meetings at the Paper Mill Road Elementary School on that process. Many of the residents signed agreements surrendering their property right, but several declined to participate in that process.
Crean said that the Legislature’s approval of the home rule petition to accept Papermill Road as a public way is the only viable path to improving the heavily-traveled road.
The City Council conducted a January 16 public hearing on the Home Rule petition to the state Legislature for acceptance of Paper Mill Road as a pubic way at which residents and council members spoke in support of the home-rule process. Nobody spoke in opposition.
The Law Department recommended that the city seek legislative approval for the “special procedure” to establish city ownership of the right of way for the street, making it eligible for state road-improvement funding under Chapter 90.
“We tried to repave the road and discovered that the city does not own it, so we’d have to use funds from the city, not the state,” Crean said as the Jan. 16 hearing was opened by the City Council. “The road needs to be reconstructed. My immediate goal is to get it accepted.”
“We held a public meeting two years ago at the (Paper Mill Elementary) School and asked residents to sign over their land rights (for the road right of way) to the city,” Crean said. “We did not get the 100 percent compliance we needed.”
“The next option the city considered was taking the land under the road through eminent domain, but that option is both expensive and time consuming,” Crean said.
Crean said this morning that he hopes for quick action by the State Legislation to initially fund repairs, and then begin planning for a road reconstruction project which will include major improvements for stormwater drainage, as well.
