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Date: 5/17/2023
WESTFIELD — A group of residents are appealing plans for a self-storage business in the Lozierville neighborhood.
The appeal in Land Court, filed by 14 residents who live near the proposed Cycle Street development, seeks to overturn the site plan and stormwater permit granted by the city Planning Board. Many of the plaintiffs had been vocal in opposition to the plans during public hearings.
They say in their lawsuit that an existing environmental restriction easement, related to groundwater contamination, prohibits this development, and that the Planning Board erred when it found that “no sensitive environmental features [are being] impacted” in “this well-documented waste site.”
The appeal also states that new information has come to light since the closing of the public hearing and Planning Board vote on April 4. According to the complaint, after the decision, the Environmental Protection Agency issued a document titled “Site Information and EPA Role, Columbia Manufacturing, 1 Cycle St. Westfield: Resource Conservation and Recovery Act Corrective Action Site.”
That document links to 14 new documents recently uploaded with testing results on perimeter wells at the site showing above-standard concentrations for tetrachloroethene, trichloroethene and vinyl chloride chemicals, according to the appeal. The EPA memo also says that one of the semiannual groundwater monitoring periods was the weeks of April 17 and 24.
According to the appeal, prior to the Planning Board’s decision, residents in the abutting neighborhood sent Secretary Rebecca Tepper of the state Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs a request that a petition be filed for review of the project under the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act.
Rob Levesque, of R. Levesque Associates, who represented the developer in presentations to the Planning Board, said anytime a Planning Board decision is rendered, residents or other parties have the right to appeal.
“I see it a lot all over Western Mass. It might slow it down, but I have never seen it overturn a project,” he said, even though he is seeing more appeals in recent years.
In this particular case, Levesque said the Cycle Street self-storage project is a use allowed by right in the Industrial A zone, which covers that parcel, and that the project has met every standard required for a site permit. Levesque said his job is done once the project is approved and until construction starts.
According to Hampden County Superior Court, once the plaintiffs have served the complaint to the defendants, the defendants have until August of 2024 to file their answers and set a pretrial conference.