Hearings continued on zoning updates

Date: 8/23/2011

Aug. 24, 2011

By Debbie Gardner

Assistant Editor

WEST SPRINGFIELD — Residents will have one more opportunity to comment on proposed changes to zoning ordinances pertaining to the development of the town’s older vacant lots and potential mixed use of some multi-family buildings when the Town Council meets on Sept. 6.

No residents stepped forward to comment on these and other proposed zoning ordinance changes during public hearings on the matters conducted during the council’s Aug. 15 meting.

At the request of At Large Councilor George Kelly, Town Council President Kathleen Bourque asked the council to vote to keep the public hearings on two proposed zoning ordinances open through one more meeting. The first hearing pertains to fire districts, river protection districts, heliports, non-conforming structures, multi-family dwellings and Town Council permitting authority. The second hearing is in regards to the development of vacant residential lots that no longer conform to zoning requirements.

The vote was 9-0 in favor of continuing the public hearings.

Kelly said he wanted to keep the public hearings open, particularly the one pertaining to multi-family structures and mixed uses, because “it will affect a lot of property owners” in older sections of town.

West Springfield Planning Department Director Richard Werbiskis explained to Reminder Publications that “the current zoning ordinance pertaining to multi-family dwellings indicates there are no other uses permitted for such dwellings unless [that use] is shown on the building’s original plans.” As the building plans for some multi-family dwellings — particularly those in the Merrick section — are more than 100 years old, they show no use for the structure other than residential.

The proposed zoning ordinance change, Werbiskis said, “eliminates restrictions that binds [owners] to the original building permit when current [zoning] may allow for uses not envisioned over 100 years ago.”

He said examples of new zoning uses include business and residences mixed use in one building.

Werbiskis said the proposed zoning ordinance change pertaining to the development of vacant lots entails “grandfathering of existing lots that hare currently vacant but are owned under common ownership with an already built lot.”

He explained that many of these smaller lots were purchased in the 1940s and 50s by homeowners who intended to develop the property later as a source of retirement income.

These lots, Werbiskis said, now no longer conform to current zoning requirements for development.

At the meeting, Werbiskis explained to the council that during the last major zoning ordinance revision, which took place in 1963, the required size of a building lot was increased from 10,000 square feet to 15,000 square feet.

Werbiskis said that at its Aug. 3 meeting, the Planning Board voted to accept 7,500 square-foot lots with 75 feet of frontage as the minimum lot size for development, provided an assessment by the Planning Board deems the lot meets “the general standards of the neighborhood.”

Development of these lots, as outlined in the zoning ordinance amendment, would be by special permit issued by the Planning Board.

Werbiskis said other proposed zoning ordinance changes up for public discussion include the rescinding of the power of the Town Council to issue special permits because “as a legislative body [it] does not have the authority,” the elimination of fire code language in ordinances because that language — added to comply with state building codes in the 1970s — is no longer in state codes, removal of an ordinance regarding heliports — this is regulated by the state — and the addition of the word “appraised” to an ordinance regarding non-conforming structures and buildings.

The Sept. 6 meeting of the Town Council will take place at 7 p.m. in second floor auditorium of the J. Edward Christian Municipal Office Building, located at 26 Central St.

Debbie Gardner can be reached by e-mail at debbieg@thereminder.com