JAY VINSKEY
WESTFIELD – The Planning Board will submit a proposed change to the City Council after a preliminary review of the Pioneer Valley Transit Authority plan to construct a Transit Pavilion on Arnold Street.
The board is making that recommendation to the City Council, at its Feb. 5th session, because of the ambiguity of the language of the Commercial Office Retail Commercial (CORE) District zoning ordinance.
Principal Planner Jay Vinskey said the issue is that the current language neither specifically allows nor prohibits a transit facility in the district.
“The transit center may not be an allowed use, the zoning is not explicit,” Vinskey said. “The (Planning) Board decided that the best course of action is to have a transit center be an allowed use. Only the City Council has the authority to made changes to the zoning codes to make a transit facility an allowed use.”
Article III, Section 3-100, which established the CORE District, states that the intent of the district is to: “accommodate high intensity business uses appropriate for downtown locations and to set design standards commensurate with this special area of the City. Uses and structures should be consistent and complimentary with the existing character and scale of the downtown, maintaining its historic architectural style and continuity of its streetscape design.”
The zoning codes are cascading documents in that the sections refer to earlier sections and the codes which, over time, have been amended. The CORE zone allows “any use permitted in Business A District (Article III, Section-110), not requiring a Special Permit.” And the Business A General Business District allows “any use allowed in Commercial A Neighborhood Commercial District (Article III, Section 3-90),” not requiring a Special Permit, except for multifamily dwellings.” The Commercial A codes defaults to allowed uses found in the Residence C and so forth.
The PVTA, and its design team, Reinhardt Associates of Agawam, will also have to seek a number of permits for the 2,700 square-foot facility to be constructed on a three-quarter-acre lot because of the Area and Height Requirements of Section 3-100.4 of the CORE District code.
That section states that the minimum front yard setback is zero (0) feet, and the maximum front yard setback is five (5) feet. The PVTA plans to have berthing spaces to accommodate in buses along Arnold Street, but on the PVTA property , which will require a much deeper front setback than the 5 feet allowed.
The section also states that maximum height of buildings is 75 feet and that the minimum height of buildings in the CORE District is 35 feet. The Transit facility will be a single story structure, but with the height of a two story building which is still less than the 35-foot requirement.
The section states that: “The Planning Board may issue a Special Permit permitting heights higher or lower, and setbacks in excess of the maximum permitted, where they specifically find that such changes would result in a better project and still be consistent with and maintain the Intent of the CORE District.”
Section 3-100.3 set a limit on the area of the ground floor and requires the Planning Board to issue a special permit for: “Buildings used for commercial and business purposes with a total ground floor area larger than fifteen hundred (1,500) square feet.” The proposed building is 2,700-square-feet.
The PVTA will also petition the Planning Board for approval of its site plan and stormwater management plan as part of the project review.
