WESTFIELD – Thomas P. Smith, one of the litigants in the Ashley Street elementary school and Cross Street playground suit, said that the Springfield Court last week denied Westfield’s attempts to have another lawsuit dismissed. 
According to Smith, Westfield is required to substitute land taken from Cross St. Playground with new park land elsewhere in the city, under the city’s 1979 Land and Water Conservation Fund agreement with the National Park Service. In 2014-2015, he said the City of Westfield claimed it had successfully replaced land taken from Cross St. Playground with land on Ponders Hollow Road.
“We did not believe Westfield followed its own laws to accomplish this requirement,” Smith said. At the time, an unsuccessful petition drive was launched to question the city on the matter.
According to Smith, the lawsuit that was then filed claimed that the City Council improperly approved the transfer of land on Ponders Hollow Road to the Parks and Recreation Department prior to the Planning Board conducting a site plan review of the proposed park, which is required by zoning ordinance 13-27.
In early April, Smith said that Westfield filed a ‘motion to dismiss’ the claim that the City Council improperly approved the transfer of land on Ponders Hollow Road to the Parks and Recreation Department. Smith said the ruling by the court last week means their claim is eligible to move forward.
“The court’s denial of Westfield’s motion to dismiss signals to us that the court believes our claim is a worthy one, and that Westfield’s motion to dismiss was not sufficient to overcome our objections at this point. If we prevail, it’ll mean the City will have to come up with a recreational plan, with costs, to develop the Ponders site. Then, the Planning Board would be required to review the plans and approve them. Then the City Council would need to approve the plans by a 2/3rds majority,” Smith wrote.
Westfield’s City Solicitor Susan C. Phillips disagrees with Smith’s assessment.
“The City moved to dismiss the complaint. The Court denied the motion which means that there are issues of fact that need to go to trial. This does not mean that the Court determined anything on the merits of the case,” Phillips stated.
At the Mayor’s Coffee on Monday, Mayor Brian P. Sullivan said that the City has plans to work out regarding Ponders Hollow.
“We’re going to look at Ponders Hollow. We’ll be looking into what can be done,” Sullivan said. He added that there is potential to do something with the Columbia-Greenway Bike Trail, which runs adjacent to the property.
Asked whether this court case could hold up the Ashley Street Elementary School project, Sullivan said it won’t. Sullivan also said that in the other case, the litigants have 30 days to appeal the decision lifting the injunction regarding the Ashley Street elementary school, which was ruled in the City’s favor last month.
Smith said the litigants will file an appeal in the Ashley Street school ruling.
“Yes, we are filing an application to request a hearing at the State Supreme Judicial Court. There are several particulars involved in our case that have never been ruled upon by the SJC. We believe there is a good chance they will accept our request. But we shall see,” he said.
Meanwhile, the mayor is planning to meet with the Massachusetts School Building Authority on the school project at the end of the month “to sit down and catch up,” which will also coincide with the 30 day period to challenge the court’s ruling.
