WESTFIELD – The City Council will consider the final approval of several ordinances, easement related to the Feeding Hills Road reconstruction and improvement project and two contractor yard permits requested by tree cutting companies.
The council is slated to approve the second reading and final passage of the temporary and permanent easements for Route 187 (Feeding Hills Road) project as well as an appropriation of $67,920 to finance those easement agreements; a conservation restriction at 1277 and 1295 Southampton Road; amendment of the city’s flood ordinance and map; and adoption of a new ordinance prohibiting sleeping and camping on city property or private property without the owner’s consent.
The Route 187 improvements, installation of four stormwater drainage systems along the hilly roadway, requires 23 temporary five-year easements and 10 permanent easements which will be funded through a $2.8 million design and engineering bond which included $200,000 for easements and land takings.
The current easements and funding are for the first phase of the road reconstruction and improvement project, which has been divided into three phases. The second phase will be improvements to Little River Road, while the final phase will entail replacement, through new construction, of the bridge over Great Brook several hundred feet north of the current bridge.
The conservation restrictions will be funded through the city’s Community Preservation Act accounts. The Community Preservation Commission approved a recommendation to the City Council to appropriate $45,000 to purchase the development rights, under a conservation restriction, on 20 acres of farm and woodlands at the northeast corner of the intersection of Southampton and North Road (routes 10 and 202 respectively).
Relatives Joan Corell and Robert Seher applied for the conservation restriction that will be held by the Winding River Land Conservancy. The siblings will continue to own the property at 1277 and 1295 Southampton Road, but are selling the right to develop it for commercial or residential use in the future.
The ordinance prohibiting sleeping and camping on municipal or on private property without the owner’s prior permission were requested by the Westfield Police Department’s Community Policing Division because of the number of new parks created through recently completed road improvement projects.
Existing ordinance control parks that have been accepted by the City Council and added to the list of city parks and playgrounds, which close at sunset, but that list has not been updated.
The proposed ordinance will bridge that while the list of parks and playgrounds, some of which no longer exist, is updated.
The flood-zone ordinance (Article III, Section 3-160) needs to be updated to bring the city into compliance with the new Federal Emergency Management Agency flood maps. The existing ordinance is based upon the FEMA maps released more than four decades ago.
City officials have to act to amend the existing Flood Zone District Ordinance by July 16, 2013 or risk losing low-cost flood insurance provided through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to residents and businesses located in a protected flood plain.
