RALPH FIGY
WESTFIELD – The Legislative & Ordinance Committee will bring out two motions to the City Council tonight with positive recommendations, but are keeping some of the more controversial issues in committee for further review.
The committee voted Tuesday night to bring out a zone change for property at 353 Root Road to the entire council with a recommendation that it be approved. The zone change would allow the establishment of a farm brewery.
DAVID FLAHERTY
Ralph, Joseph and Nicholas Cocchi are requesting the zone change to support operation of a farm brewery at that location. The business would not only involve small scale brewery operation, but also retail sales and serving of alcohol on premises.
The zone change is being made because a farm brewery business does not fit neatly into any of the current zoning classifications. The motion under consideration by the City Council would change the current Commercial A zoning to Business A, which is more compatible with the proposed farm brewery use.
MARK CRESSOTTI
If the City Council approves the zone change, the petitioners will still have to seek a special permit from the Planning Board because the property falls within the city’s Water Resource overlay district. The special permit is required to ensure groundwater, which includes the city’s aquifers, protection. The petitioners would also have to obtain state and city alcohol-related licenses.
The L&O will also give a positive recommendation to property takings related to the North Elm and Notre Dame Streets intersection improvements which include dedicated turning lanes to reduce traffic congestion at the intersection.
The addition of the dedicated left-turn lanes require that the pavement be widened and the installation of a new sidewalk on the west side of Elm Street mean that the city will have to take land abutting the work site before construction can begin.
The Finance Committee, slated to meet tonight at 6 p.m. also has to approve an appropriation of $86,575 for the eminent domain takings related to the intersection reconfiguration work.
City Engineer Mark Cressotti said this recently that the North Elm/Notre Dame intersection construction bids have been opened, but that work cannot proceed until the City Council has acted to secure permanent and temporary easements.
The $4 million North Elm Street and Notre Dame Street improvement projects is being funded through a $10 million bond already approved by the City Council for improvements to the North Elm Street and Southampton Road corridor. That work includes installation of new drainage, deep-sump basins to capture sediment, reconstruction of the road bed, and widening of the pavement to accommodate dedicated turning lanes.
New sidewalks will be constructed on the west side of North Elm Street and both the upper and lower sections of Notre Dame Street. Crosswalks are also included in the project, one on upper Notre Dame Street and two on North Elm Street.
The L&O votes to keep several items in committee, motions pertaining to political signs, establishment of a fracking ordinance and transfer of city land on Ponders Hollow Road to the Parks & Recreation Commission.
The land transfer is pending to meet the National Park Service playground conversion requirement for the 1.3 acres of the Cross Street Playground which is being used for construction of a new elementary school. Construction of the 96,000-square-foot school is opposed by some residents of that neighborhood and several members of the city council
A heated debate between L&O Chairman Ralph Figy, the Ward 2 Councilor, and At-large Councilor David A. Flaherty, who resides in Ward 5, occurred Tuesday night during discussion of the motion in which Figy charges Flaherty, and other councils, with attempting to defeat the land transfer to kill the school project.
Figy charged Flaherty of trying to deny inner-city children of having the opportunity to attend the same type of school that children in Ward 5 attend. Flaherty rebutted that comment by stating that the MCAS scores of children attending the inner city schools is not that much different from those of students in suburban schools in the city.
“It all boils down to the school,” Figy said Wednesday. “They want to stop it.”
