Neffinger opposes zoning change for Lyons Plaza

Date: 5/23/2012

May 23, 2012

By Debbie Gardner

debbie@thereminder.com

Editor's Note: The Town Council overturned the mayor's veto of the zoning change for 1399 Westfield St. at its May 21 meeting. See the May 30 edition of The Reminder MetroWest Edition for more details.

WEST SPRINGFIELD — Mayor Gregory Neffinger announced on May 14 that he intended to veto a recent zoning change that has been approved by both the Planning Board and the Town Council.

Neffinger stated he was drafting a letter to the council stating his reasons for rejecting the amendment, which would have altered the zoning classification for 1399 Westfield St. — the plaza containing the Lyons Package Store — from Neighborhood Business to Business A.

"I understand why the Town Council passed that amendment," Neffinger said. "Right now it is the only method [under which] a property owner can develop [his] property without going through a lengthy zoning appeal — with an uncertain outcome."

Neffinger said he would prefer for the council to wait until a current study of the zoning in the Merrick area of town — which has Industrial, Neighborhood Business and Residential zoned parcels abutting each other — is completed.

He added that his veto represents "the only way the mayor can weigh in on the zoning for that site and for the area."

Referencing the zoning situation currently under study in the Merrick area, where Neffinger said "nearly 100 percent of the zoning falls into the non-conforming category," he made a case for approaching both the Merrick area and the Lyons case under the guidelines of something called form-based zoning.

According to information contained in the Form-Based Zoning Institute's website, www.formbasedcodes.org, this type of zoning allows a city or town to adopt the following: a plan or map designating the locations where "different building form standards apply, based on specific community intentions regarding the physical character of the area being coded; specify the elements within the public areas (e.g., sidewalks, travel lanes, on-street parking, street trees, street furniture, etc.); create regulations that control the configuration, features and functions of buildings that frame the public areas of the neighborhood; and create a specific application and project review process."

Such zoning regulations allow a municipality to specify such elements as building heights, the types of parking lot screenings, landscape designs, signage and other aesthetic aspects of a project to be sited in a neighborhood.

Neffinger said he had recently attended a meeting at the Boys & Girls Club where six different form-based zoning models were put forth for various parts of the Merrick neighborhood as part of the ongoing study.

He added that consultations with Town Counsel Simon Brighenti indicated that what might appear to be spot zoning in some of these cases — an act that is illegal under Massachusetts zoning laws — could be allowed if the act of singling out a parcel for different treatment than neighboring parcels benefits not just the landowner in question, but also the public good.

He noted that the zoning amendment change for the western side of Union Street requesting a change from Industrial to Business B zoning under consideration by the Town Council, in his opinion, "based on information given by the town's attorney … seems to fall under spot zoning" as defined under the town's current zoning provisions.

"We have all kinds of property owners around town who have properties that can't be used as originally intended [under the zoning laws]. That is why we need form-based zoning," Neffinger said.

He said that in situations such as 1399 Westfield St. and the Union Street request, "there has to be a logical, well thought out, scientific analysis based on [urban] planning principals in order to make a change like this."

He added that two architects, two engineers and three urban planners currently work in the Municipal building, and any and all of them could and should be consulted to give advice to the Planning Board and Town Council on zoning issues such as the Westfield and Union Street questions until more flexible zoning can be adopted by the town.