WESTFIELD – The Finance Committee voted last night to give positive recommendations to the City Council Thursday night for the $78,500 in the funding of two land takings and a permanent easement related to an airport industrial park road project.
The city has been qualified for the grant of $2 million through the Executive Office of Development & Housing to reconstruct the exterior access road, Airport Industrial Park Road, in the northeast corner of Barnes Regional Airport,.
City Advancement Officer Jeff Daley, who is managing that project, said that the city has to control those properties to gain release of a $2 million state grant to reconstruct that road.
“The city needs to own outright or have a permanent easement to qualify for release of the $2 million grant,” Daley said. “These takings open the door to a $2 million state (economic development) grant,” Daley said. “Everything is ready to go and we will engage the second phase after we get that state grant funding.”
The project is being funded through the Massworks Infrastructure Program. Daley said that project is still in the engineering stage, but that he anticipates the design and permitting stage will be completed this summer, with reconstruction projected to begin by early fall and be completed next spring.
The current access road between North Road and Elise Street, where there are a number of industrial and aviation-related tenants including Gulfstream, is currently a hodge-podge of street fragments, including two segments of Apremont Way, and a segment of Old Stage Way. Daley said the current road does not conform to the city’s zoning requirements for an industrial park road.
The City Council’s Legislative & Ordinance Committee voted on June 14 to give a positive recommendation for orders of taking for two properties and an order of a permanent easement for a third property.
Tuesday night the Finance Committee discussed the financial aspect of the orders of taking, with total $41,500 for the two purchases and $35,000 for the permanent easement. The properties were appraised and the value of the portion being taken by the city given a value by Crowley & Associated, a Springfield real estate and appraisal firm.
Daley said one purchase is a $1,500 expenditure to obtain a small strip of land from Cloot’s Auto Body at 825 North Road, right on the corner of the airport road.
“I have talked personally with all of the property owners who are excited about this project,” he said.
“We need to straighten out that intersection and it will fix a water problem because Cloot’s is located in a bowl,” Daley said. “When the intersection is reconstructed that water will be captured and directed to the drainage system.”
Another purchase of land, appraised at $40,000, is currently owned by the Firtion-Adams Funeral Services. The former owner died without heirs and left a number of bills, Firtion-Adams paid medical bills, back taxes and the funeral expenses of the deceased resident to clear the title of the property located in a triangle of land between two sections of the street.
Daley said the third parcel is a preexisting, non-conforming property is the location of Froggy’s Saloon of 846 Airport Industrial Park Road. Daley said that purchase of the land needed for the road project would make the remaining property more non-conforming and eliminate its value because it would be unsalable.
“There are no money makers in any of these,” Daley said of the takings.
