WESTFIELD – Filipe Cravo of R. Levesque Associates came before a virtual meeting of the Flood Control Commission last week seeking approval of a compensatory storage plan for a proposed ALDI Market at 231 East Main St. in the Westgate Plaza, which is in the floodplain.
The proposal recently received a special permit and site plan from the Planning Board, and is currently before the Conservation Commission, where concerns have been expressed by abutters on Main Line Drive about the impact on the path of floodwaters from the Little River should the ALDI end cap building be constructed next to T.J. Maxx.
R. Levesque Assoc. is preparing responses to those concerns, Cravo said. He then went over the comp storage plan, which will direct water into a farm field with a hydraulic connection to the plaza. He said there would be a positive surplus of storage at every elevation.
FCC Chairman Albert G. Giguere,, Jr. asked about the flow-through question for flooding, and whether there would be items stored outdoors. Cravo said they took into consideration being in floodplain, and have designed the trash enclosure in a steel frame enclosure embedded in a concrete pad. He said everything else is concrete, steel and asphalt.
Cravo said the question raised by abutters was when you put a building in the floodplain, how does that building impact how flood waters navigate through the floodplain. He said he had a good discussion with the Department of Environmental Protection, who said when they develop models in a flood plain, they don’t take buildings into consideration. Cravo said that this kind of modeling is also not required by the Wetlands Protection Act; instead, what is required is compensatory storage within the same flood plain.
“We’re adding onto an existing building. We’re not in the floodway, we’re in the floodplain. We’re not in the high velocity zones,” Cravo said, adding, “Whether there’s a building there or not, water is going to rise.”
Giguere agreed that modeling every specific building would cripple anything from being built.
Commissioner Jack Leary asked who validated the compensatory storage figures, and was told the City Engineering Department reviewed the plan. He then made a motion to accept the plan as presented, which passed unanimously.
