WESTFIELD – The Legislative & Ordinance Committee of the City Council will request the Law Department for an opinion on a special permit application to operate a contractor’s yard at 1006 Southampton Road.
The L&O was discussing its recommendation to refer the special permit petition, requested by Robert Wagner, to either the License Committee or to the Zoning, Planning & Development Committee when another issue was raised by Ward 4 Councilor Mary O’Connell.
O’Connell said the public hearing, held at the City Council’s last meeting on Sept. 17, was apparently improperly advertised and should have been published under the city ordinance recently established to protection of the city’s aquifers.
“It was inadvertently advertised as only a public hearing for a contractor’s yard and it should have been advertised under the aquifer protection ordinance,” O’Connell said at the L&O meeting which was held earlier this week. “It seems that a Planning Board review of the project is needed.”
The improper advertising to notify city residents of the purpose of the public hearing “opens an opportunity for someone to object” and appeal any decision made by the City Council on the special permit.
O’Connell suggested that the L&O request a legal opinion from the Law Department ‘to properly post the public hearing” and to determine if the issue should be referred to the License Committee or the ZP&D Committee.
L&O Chairman Ralph Figy suggested that the issue be kept in committee “until the law department provides an opinion on how we can remedy this situation.
“I was also told we need to put findings and condition with the City Council’s decision, but do those have to come out of committee with a recommendation on the special permit application,” Figy said.
Assistant City Solicitor Shanna Reed said that the Planning Department staff will assist the City Council in writing the finding and conditions.
“The City Council, as a whole, does that (vote to approve findings and conditions), not the committee,” Reed said. “The committee can suggest conditions as part of its recommendation to the City Council.”
O’Connell said the City Council has a limited period of time to act on the issue “after the gavel bangs to end the public hearing.”
O’Connell said that the applicant never appeared at the Banes Aquifer Protection Advisory Committee to discuss the operation of the contractor’s yard. The BAPAC often suggests conditions for a project based upon what materials will be used by the business and if those materials are a threat to the Barnes Aquifer which provides drinking water to Westfield, Holyoke, Southampton and Easthampton.
“The Wagners never showed up at the BAPAC meeting to discuss their plans,” O’Connell said.
