WESTFIELD — Two property owners are seeking to extend an existing sewer line up to the intersection of North and Southampton roads to serve an existing business and for development of a vacant parcel. They have petitioned the City Council for approval of that work.
City Engineer Mark Cressotti, who submitted that sanitary sewer application to the City Council for its session tomorrow, said a sewer line was installed as part of the Armbrook Village project, which provides independent and assist living facilities for senior citizens, and was proposed to be extended to serve other commercial land.
“Armbrook Village is already connected to city sewers at the back of the property, but the original concept was to bring that sewer service to the front of that property on Southampton Road,” Cressotti said this morning. “There was a joint participation (shared-cost element) of that proposal between the owner of the parcel in front of Armbrook Village and the owner of the Purple Onion property.
“The project went through the permitting process, then the owner of the Purple Onion, at that time, pulled out of the agreement,” Cressotti said.
The Purple Onion is now under new ownership and has been renamed at the 7B’s, and there is a renewed interest in connecting to the city’s sewers.
Cressotti said that city water has been extended to serve the two sites as well as Armbrook Village and that the only piece of the sewer permitting process left to complete is gaining City Council approval of projected capacity.
“The sewers and treatment plan has limited capacity,” Cressotti said. “So the City Council voted to reserve some of the remaining capacity for future residential connections and some of that capacity, a small portion, for future commercial and industrial expansion.”
The council adopted a strategic plan for allocating that reserved capacity, drawing a map targeting residential sewer expansion, but assesses commercial and industrial sewer service petitions on an individual basis.
“The City Council makes that call as to who gets that capacity,” Cressotti said.
The petition will be referred tomorrow to a council committee for further review.
