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Date: 11/21/2023
WEST SPRINGFIELD — Following an outcry of opposition, Mayor William Reichelt has dropped his plan to build a DPW yard on 31 acres to be acquired by eminent domain on Brush Hill Avenue.
Instead, he told the Town Council that he wants to “create a committee made up of councilors, city employees and interested members of the public to jointly examine available land in our town for the ideal location or new public facilities.”
At the Nov. 6 council meeting, neighbors of the Brush Hill Avenue property said the town needs to look elsewhere.
“I’m so upset I’m shaking about this,” said Donna Buoniconti, a resident of the nearby Brush Hill manufactured home community. She told town councilors to visit the parcel, which she called “the most beautiful pastoral scene in West Springfield,” an open field where hay is harvested twice a year.
“This is one of the last unspoiled, beautiful meadows we have here in West Springfield,” agreed Brush Hill resident Robert MacDonald.
The parcel is across the street from the Lower Pioneer Valley Educational Collaborative campus, and next door to the Dominican Monastery of the Mother of God, a cloistered community of nuns. It is currently owned by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield.
“I was deeply insulted when I read that the mayor tried to do this with eminent domain,” said Tim Herlihy, another Brush Hill resident. “I don’t know why he’s playing hardball with the nuns to get this piece of property. There’s other places in this town more suited to the DPW.”
Other neighbors suggested that a public works yard would fit better in an industrial zone, such as the neighborhood around the rail yard off Union Street, or between Memorial Avenue and Bondi’s Island.
Some neighbors said they objected to the DPW yard’s impact on their own quality of life. They said they didn’t want the truck traffic or the nighttime noise and lights.
“With piles of sand and salt and gravel come huge clouds of dust,” added Ed White, a Beech Hill Road resident. “I’m asthmatic and I live approximately a block from where that site would be. I would worry about the increase in dust. … I don’t see a DPW adding to the property value of the area.”
Beech Hill Road resident Valerie O’Connell said her neighborhood already suffers from water pressure problems, and worried that public works operations would add to the strain.
Although many neighbors said they opposed a DPW yard and police station in part because it would disturb the nuns at 1430 Riverdale St., Bishop William Byrne had said on Nov. 6 that he was open to friendly discussions on town use of the land, and how the nuns’ privacy and right to quiet could be respected.
Judy Labelle, of Overlook Drive, said she has a friend who lives next door to the current DPW yard, and it’s inevitable that a DPW yard on Brush Hill Avenue would disturb the nuns.
“There’s no way to soften that blow,” she said. “Somebody should speak up for the sisters. They have a lifestyle that’s exceptionally quiet. They pray for everyone. There are so many places you can put something like this — this isn’t the property.”
Reichelt had asked for an eminent domain order because negotiations with the bishop to sell the land reached an impasse. The mayor said the bishop was asking $2.55 million for the land, based on a September 2021 appraisal of its value. Reichelt proposed a land taking of $1.2 million, based on a January 2023 appraisal. Another appraisal, in July 2022, named the land value at $650,000.
In a letter dated Nov. 13, the mayor said he’s no longer interested in the Brush Hill Avenue parcel for the DPW, but “would like the opportunity to continue negotiations for the land with the Diocese of Springfield, but for a different purpose.”
Labelle said she’d like to see the land remain open.
“Every time we have a survey in town, it says people want more open space,” she told the Town Council. “This is open space. Why would you put things on it when you’ll never, ever get that land back?”
This is the second time Reichelt has withdrawn a DPW relocation plan in the face of neighbor complaints. In spring 2022, he had proposed building a new DPW yard on Piper Cross Road. That land is instead being developed as a townhouse complex.
Reichelt said the town sorely needs new homes for its DPW and Police Department. Public works operations are currently split between a 4-acre parcel at 430 Westfield St., downtown, and a Water Division property of 1.45 acres at 135 Piper Rd. In addition to cramped conditions, Reichelt said the buildings on both sites are not adequate for modern needs.
The Police Department occupies portions of the Town Hall building at 26 Central St., downtown. Reichelt said if the DPW were to move out of Westfield Street, a new police station could be built there. He had also considered building a police station on the Brush Hill Avenue land and selling the Westfield Street yard for commercial development.
In his Nov. 13 letter, Reichelt described the DPW and police buildings as “in disrepair, especially compared to state-of-the-art facilities in neighboring communities.”
After hearing from Brush Hill neighbors, the Town Council initially had voted on Nov. 6 to ask for more information from the mayor and table its vote on the eminent domain proposal to a special meeting on Nov. 13. That meeting was canceled when the mayor withdrew his proposal.