Downtown plan includes new housing, traffic patterns

Date: 1/17/2012

Jan. 18, 2012

By Patrick Kelley

Intern

CHICOPEE — Last week at the Chicopee Public Library, the first comprehensive draft of the West End Brownfield plan was presented to the public, detailing plans to revitalize the area.

The plan calls for developing the “gateway” area where Interstate 391 flows into Center Street and utilizing the empty space in the Cabotville Mill complex area.

The region under discussion, the West End, is roughly defined as the area northwest of Center Street. Prime development sites discussed were the riverfront section, the mill properties, the former steam plant/Delta Park and the Department of Public Works (DPW) garage.

Among the 30 or so people attending were City Councilor James Tillotson, Frank Gardener of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Carl Dietz of the Chicopee Office of Community Development (OCD), and Ken Buckland, president of The Cecil Group Inc.

To pay for this effort, the West End region of Chicopee won one of 23 nation-wide grants from the EPA. A brownfield property, according to the grant, is a property with perceived or actual pollution. The goal of the grant is to assess these properties, identify their problems, and make them usable once more for development.

The Brownfield Plan is a two-year grant, yet Buckland and Gardener emphasized that the project would be long-term in scope. Chicopee, in fact, is the furthest along of all the grants awarded, and is under scrutiny from other projects around the nation.

Described by Buckland as “the 800 pound gorilla in the room,” the Cabotville Mill complex is front and center for future development. Highlighting the mill area’s flexible industrial space, Buckland presented a plan to turn the area into housing for a target demographic age of under 35 and 55-plus. Included would be a park and extension of the canal path to run through the Cabotville complex.

The Cabotville reuse project will begin first, with $600,000 forwarded by the city to develop the mill complex area as a whole. The owner of Cabotville Mill, Joshua Guttman, has had several conversations with the OCD, Deitz explained. At this early point in the project’s development, solid details between Guttman and the OCD have yet to be hashed out.

Dietz added that Guttman has already invested in permits to develop the top floor of Cabotville Mill into an apartment complex, similar to that of Ames Privilege, across the street.

Key to attracting visitors and business is the Gateway area, once dominated by the old Mobil station, where Interstate 391 connects directly into the West End region. Buckland pointed out that the area is what most people see when traveling through the West End, and is therefore critical to develop. The plan is to turn the area into a public park with retail, commercial, and transportation facilities.

The plans for the remaining three areas, the riverfront, DPW garage, and former steam plant/Delta Park, were discussed as well. The riverfront, located on the banks of the Connecticut River, is tagged for a suggested riverboat excursion site and housing area.

The DPW garage, chosen due to its ownership by the city and therefore potential for the city to directly impact the neighborhood, could potentially become the following: housing area, community garden, or commercial office, of which the commercial office, according to Buckland, makes the most sense.

The former steam plant/Delta park area, due to access difficulties, would be host to low-access developments, such as tree farming or other agricultural use, or energy farming such as solar, geothermal or hydro power.

Potential traffic and circulation changes were also discussed. Of benefit would be greater exposure for businesses, slower travel speeds, and easier patron access. Of concern are delays associated with left turns, conformance to state and federal design standards, loss of parking, and significant construction costs at intersections, Buckland explained.

He added that the first steps put forth in the presentation are advancing the Cabotville to phase 1, improve water services to the mill complex, begin phase 1 of the Canalway, new brownfield assessments to reduce restrictions on properties and identify their problems, marketing partnerships, promoting Gateway redevelopment, and temporary brownfield improvements and cleanup.

Phase 1 of the Cabotville project consists of presenting the owner, Gutman, with market research pointing toward rapid development of Cabotville into a residential complex; determine if the existing special permit for the building needs modification; present the owner and developers with options for a partnership with the city; notify the possibility of tax credit if 25 percent of the housing is affordable housing; and if the owner is unable to proceed alone in the project, support or create a partnership with the city or private entities as a development team for the project.

Phase 1 of the Canalway will begin with improving the city property between the canal and Front Street at the Davitt Bridge.

The steps taken are as follows: prepare a project design and review with the public and adjacent property owners; coordinate the design with the Davitt Bridge reconstruction project; complete the permit review process with the Conservation Commission; and use DPW crews to make improvements for beautification.

Along with this improvement is a request for a legal opinion on the rights of adjacent property owners to cross and re-cross the city-owned land on Front Street. After this is complete, negotiations would begin with the adjacent property owners on obtaining public access for the canal walkway.

Mid-term targets would be continuation of design and implementation of the Canalway project, determine use and complete study for a railroad underpass to increase access to the former steam plant and Delta park; improve the DPW garage; enhance riverfront access; business improvement district; building and sanitary code review, and land use planning.

Dietz told Reminder Publications that city officials and the public can review the plan over the next two to three weeks. It will be available at the library and on the city’s website (www.chicopeema.gov). Comments from the public are encouraged.

He said a final version would be completed in four to six weeks and then presented to the mayor and the City Council to start discussions on implementation and funding.

Dietz has doubts concerning the suggestions in the report on traffic patterns and wouldn’t want to see parking spaces eliminated because of alterations.

He agreed that downtown housing is important and said of the draft, “overall, I like the concept.”

G. Michael Dobbs also contributed to this story.