WESTFIELD – The Planning Board voted to continue the public hearing now underway for consideration of a project submitted by Pride Limited Partnership across Southampton Road from the Massachusetts Turnpike Exchange #3. The Planning Board voted to keep the public hearing open for further comment at its June 2 session.
Robert L. Bolduc, the founder of Pride and engineering consultant John Furman of Springfield office of VHB, have been presenting details of the complicated project which involves two separate property cites, one for commercial vehicles and the other for privately-owned vehicles (POVs). Both parcels have frontage on Owen District Road and Friendly Way.
Pride is seeking a special permit, site plan approval and a stormwater management plan to construct two fueling facilities, one for commercial trucks behind the Friendly’s Restaurant and the other in the jug-handle turnabout used by northbound motorists on Routes 10 7 202 (North Elm Street/Southampton Road) to enter the turnpike.
The commercial truck facility will primarily provide diesel fuel for commercial trucks, but will also have a compressed natural gas (CNG) pumping station which will be operated in conjunction with the Westfield Gas &Electric (WG&E) Department pending a public-private partnership agreement. The commercial fueling station is designed to fill the saddle tanks of truck from both sides of the vehicle.
The passenger car fueling station across Friendly Way from the commercial facility will also have an alternative fueling station proposed in conjunction with the WG&E Department, Bolduc said. The plan is to put a recharging station at the front of the passenger vehicle facility.
The passenger vehicle fueling facility would have two one-way entrances, one form Owen District Road (the jug handle) and the other From Friendly Way. There would be a second entrance and exit onto Owen District Road and a second entrance and exit, with a right turn only onto Friendly Way near the intersection with Owen District Road.
Tuesday night the board members continued their discussion of options for an independent review of the impact on traffic in the area of Pride’s proposed fueling station and in general along the Routes 10 & 202 corridor. The board had been considering a engineering firm to conduct a third party review of the date submitted by Pride, a review which Bolduc has agreed to finance.
Last night the board took a different approach to request an opinion from the Massachusetts Department of Transportation on the date generated by VHB for its client.
Principal Planner Jay Vinskey said that City Engineer Mark Cressotti said, at a joint Planning/Engineering meeting with Bolduc, that the DOT has the information sought by the Planning Board.
“Unless the DOT reopens the MEPA (Massachusetts Environmental Protection Agency review) process, a peer review is not going to tell you much,” Cressotti said this morning. “And trying to reopen the MEPA review is a long, six month at least, endeavor.”
Cressotti said the impact is directly to traffic movement along a state highway corridor and the signalization required, keeping heavy volumes of traffic moving in different directions.
Furman suggested that the DOT be requested to allow traffic counters along that corridor and around the proposed fueling facility site, but Cressotti said that the data would be influenced by the fact that Westfield State University recently completed its academic year and that the city’s public schools will be closing within a couple of weeks.
