JEFF DALEY
WESTFIELD – The City Council voted Thursday night to accept a state grant for environmental mitigation of soil pollution under an Elm Street tract of land being assembled by the city for a commercial project.
The Massachusetts Development Finance Agency notified the city last summer that it would receive $480,200 for environmental mitigation of the soil contaminated with petroleum and lead in an area next to the Arnold Street municipal parking lot, land that will be incorporated into a a mixed-use transportation, commercial, retail and residential property development project at the corner of Elm and Arnold streets.
The brownfield grant is being issued to the city through MassDevelopment, a quasi-independent agency, created in 1998 under M.G.L. Chapter 23G, that was established to work with businesses, nonprofits, and local, state, and federal officials and agencies to strengthen the Massachusetts economy.
MassDevelopment supports economic growth, development, and investment across all sectors of the Massachusetts economy: public and private; commercial, industrial, and residential in collaboration with private- and public-sector developers, businesses, and banks to identify investors and leverage public and private funds to support economic growth.
The council vote was 9-0 to accept the state funding, but several council members questioned the need for immediate consideration of the acceptance request submitted by Mayor Daniel M. Knapik, and other questioned the scope of the transportation element. Typically, executive requests are sent to committee for further review and consideration.
City Advancement Officer Jeff Daley, who was recognized Wednesday night by the Greater Westfield Chamber of Commerce for his economic development efforts in expanding and retaining existing business as well as bringing new investment into Westfield, presented details of the grant Thursday night.
At-large Councilor David A. Flaherty said that review of municipal financial matters is a primary function of the City Council, one that cannot be executed when issues are presented for immediate consideration.
“I’m disappointed that we keep seeing the same thing over and over. It’s not fine for us to keep getting these immediate consideration requests,” Flaherty said. “We don’t want to be trapped into having a bus station there.”
Daley said that while the city was notified in early July by the state that the brownfield grant funding was being made available, he continued to negotiate with that agency about what expenses could be included as part of the scope of remediation.
“The reason for immediate consideration is that while the grant was approved last summer, we continued to talk with the agency to amend that grant to include the (building) demolition costs,” Daley said. “The agency extended the deadline to accept the grant to Nov. 30.”
“I don’t like doing this at the last minute, but my hands are tied,” Daley said. “It’s a grant that they already extended 60 days to accept to enable us to get a ($175,000) reimbursement.”
The City Council approved the use of $125,000 from the city’s stabilization funds, under an emergency immediate consideration funding request to demolish the city-owned, two-story “Block” building at the corner of Elm and Arnold streets after bricks began to fall onto sidewalks and into Arnold street, endangering pedestrians and motorists.
The city also committed $50,000 from in Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) revenue stream for removal of blighted buildings in the urban renewal target area.
Daley said that money will be recouped by the city because demolition of the Block building and the adjoining Hampden Bank buildings will be included as part of the scope of environmental remediation.
Daley said the grant includes language that pertains to an intermodal center as an element of the larger commercial project, but that the focus of the brownfield grant is to begin to assemble property for private development.
“We’re taking down dilapidated buildings and cleaning a dirty, very contaminated site for future development,” Daley said. “The transportation element is about 1,900 square feet, while the commercial development will be about 130,000 square feet, with a parking garage for up to 500 cars. This grant opens the door to that process, but we need to clean the site because no developer will touch it as it is now.”
Daley said that the total project will be the subject of a public informational meeting slated for Dec. 12, at 6:30 p.m. in the auditorium of the South Middle School.
“That informational meeting is about future development of that site. There will be multiple drafts of what could go there,” he said.
At-large Councilor John J. Beltrandi III, said the grant does not require a local funding match.
“We should just accept it,” he said.
Ward 6 Councilor Christopher Crean, an executive of a local bus company, said that his fellow councilors should put the “concept of a rotted bus station out of your mind. That’s not what this will be. The focus of this (grant) is the clean a dirty lot to get it ready for development.”
Daley said the transportation element will be basically a bus stop where commuters can get out of the weather and that buses will be on tight schedules servicing local routes.
To view the city council meeting, click here.
