WESTFIELD – The Community Preservation Committee voted last night to seek City Council approval of an appropriation of Community Preservation Act funding to purchase 13.2 acres of land off Northwest Road.
The property, owned by John Liptak, is currently under Chapter 61-A that provides property tax reduction for open space. The state law gives the city the right of first refusal or purchase when that property is being sold.
The City Council was notified Monday that Pitoniak property, which abuts the municipal well #5, is being offered to a neighboring property owner for $130,000. Part of the Chapter 61-A release process requires the owner to submit a purchase and sale agreement as part of the documentation considered by the City Council when assessing the possible purchase.
City Planner Jay Vinskey said the 61-A releases “come up fairly often” but that the city seldom exercises its right to purchase those parcels. The Pitoniak parcel may be an exception.
“The land abuts well #5 and is across the street from farm land under a permanent conservation restriction and down the street from the land that the city just purchased,” Vinskey said. “Purchasing the land would serve to protect the (Little River) aquifer. It’s valuable property that the city should consider exercising its option to buy.”
Vinskey said that several departments are evaluating that option including the Water Resource Department, and various funding sources for the purchase are being assessed.
“The fallback position, if all of the other funding options are not available, is to use CPA funding,” Vinskey said. “We’d need to place a conservation restriction on it if the CPC purchases the property.”
Vinskey said both the Conservation Commission and the Planning Board would also review the purchase. The City Council has 120 days to act on the Chapter 61-A release petition and voted last night to send the petition to the Law Department, Water Resource Department and the council’s Legislative & Ordinance Committee for further review.
Community Development Director Peter J. Miller Jr., said earlier this week that the council action gives city agencies an opportunity to assess the possible purchase.
“I’m glad the City Council sent it to committee so we can run it past a few people to see if it’s a worthwhile purchase,” Miller said. “It’s definitely something that we should check out.”
Vinskey requested the CPC to approve the $130,000, plus another $27,500 for contingencies, such as conducting a survey of the property that would be attached to the deed. That additional funding would also pay legal and filing fees, as well as a conservancy fee for the agency holding the conservation restriction.
The CPC members debated the funding and the possibility that other city funds could be available and how to structure their motion.
Vince Olinski said the purchase would “be a great use of open space funds. The purchase would serve many purposes and meet a lot of open space funding criterion,” but also suggested that the motion be structured to address the possibility of other city funds being used.
Olinski’s motion was to “support the project up to $157,500, contingent upon other sources of funding from the Water Department or the mayor’s office.”
That motion was approved by a unanimous 5-0 vote of the committee.
Vinskey said the committee’s vote gives the City Council a funding source “so if the (City) Council wants to pursue this, the money will be there.”
