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Zoning rules stall site redevelopment

Date: 6/26/2012

June 27, 2012

By Debbie Gardner

debbieg@thereminder.com

WEST SPRINGFIELD — One business's site plan review raised a traffic flow question that could ripple through redevelopment projects across town.

John Nekitopoulos, owner of CPAN Corporation, withdrew his application for the installation of a 180-foot wide access drive on property he owns at 78 Kelso Ave., during a meeting of the Planning Board on June 20.

He cited the length of time it had taken to get the proposed changes to parking at the building through town channels — which had resulted in his prospective tenant withdrawing interest in the site — and the cost to make the required renovations, as reasons for withdrawing his application at this time.

He referred to his site problem as something that would continue to show up for other businesses "going down the road" as tenants change.

Planning Director Richard Werbiskis said traffic flow at 78 Kelso Ave. became a zoning issue when Nekitopoulos initiated plans to re-purpose the former warehouse for a new tenant.

Many of the properties in the Kelso Avenue area — in the past an industrial section of town — were built prior to 1980 and do not have defined curb cuts, parking areas or driveways as required under modern zoning. The traffic flow on many properties from that era do not, Werbiskis said, follow the current public safety zoning requirement that prohibits vehicles from backing out into the travel lane of a street.

The problem that surfaced at Nekitopoulos' property, he noted, is repeated across town at professional and retail businesses in addition to older industrial sites such as Kelso Avenue.

"We have that issue on certain portions of Riverdale Street, on Main Street and on Union Street," Werbiskis said. "As properties come in for redevelopment, we try to correct those deficiencies."

At the Kelso Avenue site, Werbiskis said the town's Director of Planning and Development, Douglas Mattoon, approved a site plan that recommended a "one-way traffic flow with two dedicated access drives and angled parking along the side of the building."

Nekitopoulos, who owns several properties in addition to the Kelso Avenue site, said that though he was involved with the site plan he realized that "if I agree with [these changes], I'm at risk of having other buildings and properties I own in jeopardy [and] not usable.

"I think there has to be a better plan [to handle this problem] going forward," he continued.

Planning Board Chair Frank Palange suggested Nekitopoulos get together with property owners in the Kelso Avenue area, develop a solution that better fits their needs and present it to the Planning Board for consideration.

Werbiskis said the issue raised in Nekitopoulos' site plan review is something "we are going to have to study locally — as the manufacturing and warehousing changes and declines, we will have to look at our code to allow for further development and reuse of those buildings."

He added "as always in zoning and planning, we try to balance the cost to the developer with public safety."



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