Ward 6 City Councilor William Onyski (THE WESTFIELD NEWS FILE PHOTO)
WESTFIELD – A years-long process to turn seven city streets from private ways to public roads is almost complete after a first reading by the City Council on May 21.
Ward 6 Councilor William Onyski said at the meeting that three votes were required from the Council. “The first part is for layout orders for the streets,” he said, which entailed petitions from city residents, the Department of Public Works and the Planning Board, both of which voiced approval, and signatures from each of the residents, essentially giving the city the land from the center of the streets to the border of their properties.
Onyski said the streets; Devon Terrace, Gloria Drive, Hillary Lane, Nancy Circle, Frank Circle, Rachael Terrace and Hillcrest Circle, are all fairly new. He said 158 households provided signatures transferring the deeds, which were all notarized.
Onyski said the second vote required is for a resolution to accept the deeds, and the third vote is $19,000 from Free Cash to record the deeds. “The mayor put this forward,” he said, adding that a public meeting is scheduled for June 4, after which he hopes for final votes from the Council at the same meeting. He said the process has taken a year and a half.
At-large Councilor Kristen Mello asked whether the stormwater for the properties “is where it needs to be.” Onyski said the city engineer approved it, as had the Planning Board and the DPW, all unanimously.
Ward 1 Councilor Nicholas J. Morganelli Jr. commented that the city was taking care of the roads anyway, sanding and salting them; and said the city gets more money from the state’s Chapter 90 based on the miles of roads, which are the most in Massachusetts.
Onyski said the extra funding is not significant, but what is significant is that one building lot could not be sold without it being on a public road. He said once sold, a new house there could mean another $7,000 in taxes. “It’s got less than a three-year payback for the money portion,” he said.
Ward 2 Councilor Ralph J. Figy gave credit to Onyski for pursuing the process. “We thought we had this all taken care of with a general order approved by the state legislature, which didn’t really work,” he said.
FIgy was referring to an Act signed by Governor Charles Baker in August of 2018, authorizing Westfield to accept 61 private ways as public ways, based on a Home Rule petition submitted by former Councilor Mary O’Connell and supported by the City Council.
Onyski said the Devon Manor Homeowners Association and neighbors on Hillcrest Circle all did a lot of the work. “It was a great team effort,” he added.
After the meeting, Onyski said part of the reason the process took so long was due to the closure, because the public hearing was originally scheduled in March.
He said the collection of signatures also took a long time. The Devon Manor Homeowners Association had to collect 118 notarized signatures from homeowners, and then he and his neighbors did the work for the 40 residents on Hillcrest Circle where he lives.
Onyski said he started with these streets because they were all relatively easy. He said the biggest part of the process is having the engineering done for metes and bound, and these streets being fairly new and all built around the same time, had the engineering work done for the subdivision.
As for whether he would be going forward with other private streets, Onyski said, ‘I will if requested.” He said a big impediment for other streets going through the process would be if the road did not meet city standards, and did not have metes and bounds.
“I’m very happy that we’re nearing the end of this process, thanks to all the residents of Devon Manor and Hillcrest Circle,” he said.
