WESTFIELD – The city’s Law Department received notice one week ago that the state Supreme Judicial Court will hear an appeal on the lifting of an injunction to build the Ashley Street Elementary School, filed by residents opposed to the project.
In August, the Appeals Court found in favor of the City of Westfield, confirming a Superior Court decision that the site for the school was not subject to the provisions of Article 97 of the Massachusetts Constitution, which requires a 2/3 vote of the state legislature to release certain parklands from protected status.
Certain improvements were made to Cross Street Playground and other local playgrounds in 1979, using federal grant funds from the Land & Water Conservation Fund. In exchange for this grant funding, the federal government placed a certain layer of protection on the playground.
The City worked with the National Park Service in 2014 and 2015 through its prescribed process to find suitable land on Ponders Hollow Road to replace the playground area that would be disturbed as a result of the construction of the elementary school on the Ashley Street-Cross Street property. The City has received approval from the National Park Service to convert a portion of the Cross Street site from playground to school property, according to a press release issued this week.
With the decision by the Supreme Judicial Court to hear the appeal, Mayor Brian P. Sullivan said on Thursday that the elementary school project is now on hold.
“We feel very confident that we’re going to win again. We’ve won at the lower court and the appeals court. Given due process, we’re going to have to wait. It’s unfortunate, and I’m disappointed,” Sullivan said.
While they were waiting to hear whether the court would accept the petition, Sullivan and Westfield Public Schools Superintendent Stefan Czaporowski met with the Massachusetts School Building Association (MSBA) to make sure the financial agreement promised four years ago to build the school is still intact. The price tag at that time for the project was $35 million.
Sullivan said the MSBA is still in favor of the project.
“They’re very supportive. They’ve been supportive of the project from the beginning, and are there when we need them,” Sullivan said. He added that no matter what happens in the court, because it’s been such a long time, the project will have to be rebid. He did say a lot of the engineering work has already been done.
One of the problems now is that there is no timeline for the appeal, and the city is at the will of the court. “It will be placed on their docket. We’re guessing months for them to take it up,” he said.
Sullivan said the case has been extremely expensive for the district.
“We’re renting space in Russell, and also maintaining buildings we were hoping to get offline – Abner Gibbs in particular,” Sullivan said. He said that school is over 100 years old and needs to retire, while adding that it is “a great building, and a great school.”
Another effect of the litigation has been to delay upgrades to Westfield High School and the Westfield Technical Academy, both of which are in need of new science labs. According to the Mayor, common practice has been that the MSBA will only finance one project in a city at a time.
