Tornado recovery planning to get state boost

Date: 9/14/2011

Sept. 14, 2011

By Debbie Gardner

Assistant Editor

WEST SPRINGFIELD — The Planning Department may get a little help with zoning changes needed to stimulate the town’s tornado recovery efforts, thanks in part to grant monies recently made available through the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD).

Planning Department Director Richard Werbiskis told Reminder Publications his office is working with Jessica Allan, principal planner, Land Use and Zoning, for the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission (PVPC) to draft an application for a portion of the $230,000 the DHCD is offering communities affected by the June 1 disaster under a Tornado Recovery Assistance Planning Grant.

The applications are due by Sept. 14 and Werbiskis said the DHCD is expected to award the grants by the end of September.

Information on the DHCD Web site indicates the grants, which can be up to $150,000, will be made available to the communities of Agawam, Brimfield, Monson, Southbridge, Springfield, Sturbridge, Westfield, West Springfield, and Wilbraham.

The money can be used for planning activities such as community visioning; feasibility and site assessments; market studies; preparation of land use regulations and policies; streetscape and landscape studies; infrastructure analysis; traffic and pedestrian circulation analysis; housing and economic development strategies; and historic requirements

“We are working with the PVPC to apply for approximately $60,000 from the pool to create a mixed use zoning district along the east side of Union Street,” Werbiskis said.

Union Street is located in the heavily tornado damaged Merrick-Memorial neighborhoods of West Springfield.

Werbiskis said this type of post-tornado redevelopment of Union Street would “mirror the historic development of that street ... if you go down [it] it is currently a mixed use of residential and business properties.” However, he said current zoning of the area only allows for “heavy industrial, not residential” development in that portion of town.

“It’s historically been our low-income housing stock and there is a need [for it],” Werbiskis said, adding that the town did not want to “lose the opportunity to offer redevelopment of those properties” to owners because of zoning restrictions.

Allan said revising existing zoning ordinances for the district would also give the town the “opportunity to implement … changes identified in the recent Master Plan to encourage mixed use development” in both the Merrick and Memorial neighborhoods, allowing for the rebuilding of the areas into “walkable, mixed use neighborhoods.”

Werbiskis said the town has approached the PVPC for help with this work because their office has “the manpower and ability” to draft new zoning ordinances for that area and the DHCD has stipulated the grant money is to be used for “outside consulting, not inside staffing.”

Allan said PVPC’s work on this project would encompass three phases, the assessment of and visioning for the affected neighborhoods, the development of new zoning ordinances to accommodate the planned redevelopment, and the adoption of the new ordinances by the town.

Werbiskis said the completed zoning ordinances would be presented to the Planning Board for their approval prior to the changes being sent to the Town Council for final adoption.

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