Residents question proposed zoning overlay's impact
Date: 4/21/2010
April 21, 2010.By Mike Briotta
PRIME Editor
CHICOPEE -- When Chicopee residents first heard of an "overlay" re-zoning district earlier this month, they thought it would allow some 3,000 housing units to be developed across 81 acres -- which could eventually require building three new schools to accommodate all the new children coming to town.
Mayor Michael Bissonnette addressed some of those concerns last Tuesday night at a Ward 4 neighborhood meeting in the community room of the Chicopee Public Library.
The mayor presented a very different picture: only 227 one-bedroom or loft-style condominiums are proposed for the Cabotville Industrial Complex, which he claimed would have no net effect on the public school system.
Bissonnette quickly ran up against criticism from School Committee member Adam Lamontagne, who expressed dismay that the mayor had not brought this subject up with the school committee sooner, at one of its regular meetings.
"We heard about this at an MCAS task force meeting in late March," Lamontagne said. "This administration has not worked well with the schools. We need more checks and balances in government." Lamontagne added that an upcoming vote by the town zoning committee on April 28 should be pivotal.
He later added, "Once the city council approves this plan, the developer can do whatever he wants with it. Sure, it's one kid per unit and 227 planned right now, but more are coming in. That [Cabotville complex] is only a small part of the 40-R overlay district."
If the zoning district were approved, new housing development in that zone would include 20 percent affordable housing. There would be financial incentives paid to the city for every housing unit developed in the district. In this case, 20 percent of a planned 3,000 units would equate to 600 units of affordable housing.
The mayor denied that an influx of low-income residents would result from the plan, and went as far as to call his detractors racist.
"The idea that we're going to get the 'others' from Holyoke or Springfield is racist," he said. "We're not importing people from Cuba. We're not flying them in from Puerto Rico to Westover. They aren't running into our school system, and destroying America."
The mayor also repeatedly stated that the overlay plan also does not amount to "socialism," although no such charge was leveled during the meeting.
According to Bissonnette, the overlay zoning plan would allow 600 low-income housing units, but he anticipated much lower numbers based on statistics from other area communities that have adopted similar plans.
In Holyoke, for example, he said only 296 such units were built. Bissonnette asserted that the housing units in Chicopee would sell for between $175,000 and $225,000 overall.
"This has become much ado about very little," Bissonnette said. "I'm talking about knocking down abandoned factory buildings in Chicopee Falls that nobody wants. If we could get 200 to 300 more people in Chicopee, that would be 200 to 300 more people sharing your [tax] burden. All we're trying to do is jump-start this side of the river."
He continued, "People like to talk the talk, but I've got to walk the walk. I'm not able to say things that aren't true. That's part of my oath of office."
The mayor, however, said he was nonplussed by the alleged background of the Cabotville developer Joshua Guttman. "He has a checkered past, frankly, in New York and Connecticut," Bissonnette said of the developer of the former mill buildings. "But he has a briefcase full of cash."
Cabotville was a large textile mill complex. In 2004, Guttman bought the parcel, and is attempting to develop condominiums, with the intention of them being occupied alongside two buildings of commercial space.
The city hopes to lure first-time homebuyers with a program that offers between $5,000 and $7,500 of long-term debt forgiveness, which is above and beyond the federal first-time homebuyer stimulus program. "I want a 'floodgate' of young people coming here, and empty-nesters coming here," the mayor said.
MassHousing is providing planning grants statewide, aimed at helping communities develop strategies to expand housing development in and around downtowns. Under the so-called "smart growth" programs, the communities are encouraged to adopt zoning overlay districts, but the city is under no mandate to do so.
According to the Massachusetts government Web site, overlay districts co-exist with true zoning districts by delineating them on top of pre-existing districts. They are usually created to add specific regulations and restrictions based upon certain features or types of uses falling within their boundaries. Generally, overlay district regulations supercede the restrictions of any underlying districts, although this is not always the case.
Concerned residents questioned some of the specifics of the overlay zone. Mark Paul asked the mayor if an impact study was done and, if so, where the results of that study could be obtained. He was among a group in attendance wearing blue T-shirts that read: "No To The Overlay."
Paul added outside the meeting room that he believes the city is chasing $600,000 in state money rather than carefully considering the needs of current residents, and building more affordable housing would decrease existing property values.
Although the mayor initially confronted Paul about whether an impact study has "positive or negative" connotations, Bissonnette later conceded that residents would be able to view the completed study, courtesy of either the city council or mayor's office.
Regarding the impact on schools, the mayor said, "This will have no impact either way, if there are no students." He continued, "I'd be shocked if we got 30 kids out of this."
Paul, however, remained unconvinced. He cited a quote from Voltaire to voice his dissent about the plan: "Those who can make you believe absurdities," Paul said, "can make you commit atrocities."
