WESTFIELD—A commercial development has been proposed for 710 Southampton Road, creating the potential for multiple kinds of businesses to move into the development.
Rob Levesque of R Levesque and Associates proposed the multi-building commercial development to the Westfield Planning Board this past Tuesday, May 16. The proposal included the potential for three buildings, two of which would be retail and one would be an office building. In addition, one of the proposals could include a drive-thru restaurant with potential for 24-hour service.
“Decent amount of traffic, it’s a pretty good location,” Levesque said at the meeting Tuesday about the location. “It’s not East Main Street but it’s a nice secondary location in the city.”
According to Levesque, there were no confirmed tenants for the location.
ROB LEVESQUE
“The tenants are subject to change,” he said. “Our approach would be to gain approval from the planning board and pursue tenants based on approval.”
However, Levesque did mention the potential kinds of tenants, which included a possible bank and aforementioned restaurant with drive-thru capabilities. In addition, the lot’s owner, Todd Cellura of Sovereign Buildings, was likely to move his business into the location, as well.
According to Philip McEwan, chairperson to the planning board, the site is open to these uses and the hearing Tuesday was for a site review, not for special permitting.
“The use is allowed,” McEwan said.
Regarding the proposed drive-thru restaurant, Levesque said that there would be a potential for 24-hour service but that this was not definitive. When asked specifically, Levesque said that they are “not seeking a specific use…we are open to certain restrictions on that.”
The area was previously zoned business A, with a portion of the land developed under residential A. The particular residential zoning was a 50-foot buffer zone, which was developed by Levesque through discussions with ward one councilor Mary Ann Babinski, according to Levesque.
“As part of our proposal we requested a zone change from city council,” Levesque said.
The buffer would include two rows of white pines that will be planted, in addition to a six-foot stockade fence to help reduce sound and light trespass on neighboring properties. Levesque said that currently, light trespass does not exceed 15 feet onto the buffer zone.
Regarding traffic, Levesque said that he does not expect a significant impact to the traffic in the area, since he said the traffic is heightened in the area already. In addition, regarding tractor-trailer deliveries Levesque said that they utilized software to determine that deliveries and other tractor-trailer traffic would be able to occur at the site.
“As part of our site design process we have ‘AutoTURN’, so we can virtually drive a tractor-trailer through our site and it works,” he said. “To get in and out of the property it does work.”
