Gulfstream flies through permit hearing
By DAN MORIARTY
Staff Writer
WESTFIELD The Planning Board voted Tuesday night to approve a special permit, site plan and stormwater management plan for the $20 million Gulfstream Aerospace Corp. expansion at Barnes Regional Airport.
Gulfstream is seeking to construct a service facility at the airport to service two new corporate airframes, the G-650 and the G-280, that are currently entering production.
Gulfstream Aerospace Service Corporation signed a 50-year lease, with an option for a second 50 years, for about 10 acres of city-owned land at the airport and will invest $20 million in infrastructure and machinery at Barnes Regional Airport.
The facility, with construction to begin in May, will have a 75,000-square-foot hanger to service the corporate jets, with a 23,000-square-foot, two story administrative space wrapped around the north and east faces of the hanger. Initially the office area will be located on the first floor of that area, with the second floor reserved for future expansion.
The corporation requested the Planning Board to approve a waiver for parking associated with the new building. City ordinance requires 208 parking spaces based on the formula for the two different uses of the building. Under that formula the office area would require 181 spaces, with the service area would be supported with 27 spaces. The corporation proposed to include 150 spaces, in addition to the parking already existing at the facility.
Much of the discussion Tuesday night pertained to the proposed stormwater management plan, a key element of the project which is located directly over the Barnes Aquifer which provides drinking water to about 60,000 residents in Westfield, Holyoke, Southampton and Easthampton.
The airport is also located within the city’s Barnes Aquifer Protection overlay zone.
The Barnes Aquifer Protection Advisory Committee (BAPAC), composed of members from the four communities drawing water for the aquifer, requested that the Planning Board adopt a number of conditions to protect that source of public drinking water and to ensure that water continues infiltrates through the soil to the aquifer.
The project will create 8.9 acres of impervious surfaces, buildings, parking area for both motor vehicles and aircraft being serviced.
The storm water plan calls for several methods of dealing with rain water. Unpolluted water, collected from roof tops, will be channeled into dry wells for direct infiltration into the aquifer.
Water from the parking areas and aircraft aprons will be collected and “processed” through a system of oil-water separators and sediment bays before being discharged into a large, two-level detention basin system.
Other BAPAC recommendations currently meet or exceed best-management practices put in place by Gulfstream. Those practices include an emergency spill response plan, an automated valve shut-off system which is regularly tested and employee training through practice drills.
The use of salt for road and parking lot maintenance is prohibited, as well as the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides for lawn and green-space maintenance.
The only BAPAC recommendation not directly addressed by the corporation, all of which were written into the minutes of the public hearing, was the installation of a monitoring well(s) between the on-site infiltration basin and the city’s water wells, #7 and #8, which are located about 4,500 feet from the building site.
City Advancement Officer Jeff Daley said that there are currently monitoring wells in the area. The city, through the Water Resource Department, is assessing that issue with Gulfstream to determine if additional monitoring wells are needed.
Daley said that the city has a $3 million state grant to move an access road and underground utilities, such as water lines, which are now in the construction site.
“We have to move that road before (Gulfstream) can put a shovel in the ground,” Daley said. “”We hope to begin moving that road by April 15.”
Daley said that the city has also been awarded a separate $2 million state grant to reconfigure Airport Industrial Road, the access to Char Drive where Gulfstream and other businesses are located.
The board voted unanimously to grant the parking wavier as part of its findings and conditions attached to the special permit and site plan.
Dan Moriarty can be reached at danmoriarty@the westfieldnews.com
