WESTFIELD – The City Council voted, with reservation, to extend a special permit for an indoor place of amusement for one more year to allow a city man to pursue reopening a bowling alley on Church Street.
License Committee Chairman Christopher Crean said that the committee members discussed the special permit with Ron Cappa, who is attempting to reopen a bowling alley at 11-13 Church Street, formerly the Romani candle pin bowling facility, at a Sept. 22 committee session.
Crean said that Cappa has been working to reopen that business since 2011, but has encountered a number of setbacks including oil contamination of the soil beneath the building located at 11-13 Church Street which requires mitigation by state and federal environmental regulators.
“The (Federal) EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) still has not signed off on the mitigation project,” Crean said.
Cappa’s effort to reopen the candle pin bowling facility are also complicated by the fact that the city’s Westfield Redevelopment Authority is seeking to acquire the bowling alley property, and other adjacent property belonging to members of the Romani family as part of the Elm Street Urban Renewal Plan.
The renewal plan includes construction of a mixed-use commercial building on the corner of Elm and Arnold Street, construction of a Pioneer Valley Transit Authority transit pavilion on Arnold Street and construction of a multi-story parking garage on Church Street which would incorporate much of the Romani property.
The WRA was poised to take the property, including the bowling alley, by eminent domain with Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding. Congress included language in the authorizing legislation which prohibits the use of CDBG land acquisition by eminent domain.
The CDBG funds can be used for a “friendly” purchase of property but the Romani family, 12 members who have a financial interest, could not agree on a price for the property. The city is now using the $200,000, intended to purchase the bowling alley, to purchase a building on Center Street from Berkshire Bank. The building on that property will be demolished and an off-street parking lot will be constructed.
Several members of the City Council questioned if it would be kinder to Cappa to deny the special permit and end his effort, at considerable personal expense, to reopen the bowling alley. Cappa at the Sept. License Committee session said he has invested $100,000 into his project and holds a lease for the building through 2021.
“I feel sorry for him,” At-large Council David A Flaherty said, “but it may be better to deny this special permit and shut it down.”
Crean said that the License Committee approved the one-year extension of the special permit, which expired on Dec. 4, 2014, but would not recommend further extension of the special permit.
“It’s for one year,” Crean said. “If he gets his business going, so be it. If he doesn’t get it going, that’s it, there will be no further extensions.”
