Good evening. It is seven o'clock and we are calling the September 2nd, 2025 planning board meeting to order first on the agendas public participation. Clearly there's nobody here. Um, next on the agendas route, uh, review and approval of previous minutes 8 19 25. They are on our share drive. I'll make a motion to accept August 19th, minutes. Second. All those in favor? Aye. Next on the agenda, um, review of plans, not requiring approval under subdivision control
law, we have two of them. 91 dash one 17 Squaw Hill Road slash Burke is the first. So this, I mean, if you look at the GIS now, there's already some lots, lots, mostly all owned by the same person here. It's kind of rearranges the ownership or ranges the property lines. Um, pretty straightforward as an a and RI guess. Plenty of adequate frontage along Squaw Field Road, Um, For the zoning requirement. Um, At some point, if they're separated,
there may be, you know, you'll need to have frontage across your own lot and not crossing through another lot as this kind of would show. But, um, it's not really an a and r issue. Is the shed moving where that line is? That's where the shift is gonna be. But is that shed moving too? I don't think any buildings are moving. Huh? I don't think any buildings are moving. Okay. That's not, what do, oh, wait a minute. We're on squad. Yeah, we're, oh, sorry. My, my fault.
Any questions? Do I hear a motion? I'll make a motion to approve the a and r as presented. Second. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. Okay. Next on the agenda is 25 Carol Lane. Shannon. So that, um, kind of pie shaped triangle that comes to a point at the street, uh, is the subject of this. It's a land swap or transfer between neighbors. Um, no change to the frontage on either property. So that's basically as far
as you have to look for an a and r. Um, but incidentally, it, it needed zoning relief because it was making that, uh, lot on the right, smaller than zoning would normally permit. So I think there's a copy of the variance on your share drive that, um, would support this from a zoning perspective. But strictly as an A and r, you're just looking at frontage. Now this question I have, because I was on the wrong one. The shed up there on The Yes. So the property line right now goes through the shed. It would shift
To the left, To the right, to the right, or to the right, um, to give that, that's the one I looked, I guess result in the shed in the fence, Um, Landing on the proper property. Any other questions? Do I hear a motion? I, Anybody? I'll make a motion to approve the a and r as presented. Second. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. That concludes our a and r on to other Business Street Acceptant petitions referral from City Council. We have two Cardinal Lane and Wake Maplewood Avenue.
Start with Cardinal Lane. So Cardinal Lane was developed in a couple phases, I think late eighties. Um, so it's relatively contemporary subdivision design. Um, and I did find a bond that was left over from, I think we dealt with it in 2013, um, that the city had been holding for, well, 20 years plus, um, for some street trees that were never planted. We did take that bond
and I believe the funds were earmarked for DPW to install the trees. I don't know if that ever happened, but, um, that effectively closed it out of subdivision control. When you say take the bond, does that mean we took it from them or we're holding it? We took it from them. We were holding it, um, for incompleted work, which apparently was just the trees. I mean, it's not a lot of money or maybe it was more back then, but, um, so the trees weren't planted and really the only way to close out
the subdivision would be to Plant The trees. And if they weren't willing to do it, the city should do it or should have, uh, I guess that's neither here nor there for the street acceptance is just to kind of add a little more interest to it. So I, I drive down Cardinal Lane all the time. I don't have any reason to not accept it. If they're looking for a recommendation, I recommend we, uh, make it a public way. Second, Clear motion. I make a motion to accept Cardinal Lane as a public way. Are we making a referral to the city council? No, they referred it to you. Okay. So,
So you're recommending We have a second. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. We need a head count. A actual vote. Vote. That was a vote. What? That was a vote. Okay. Um, do you want me to mention the trees and the bond issue? Yes. For their records? Yes. Okay. I'll include that with the report. Next is Maplewood Avenue. This is not a contemporary subdivision. Uh, I think it was from the early 19 hundreds. So, You know, It wouldn't meet modern Design, but nonetheless has effectively been used as a, well I want, I don't wanna say public street, but private way,
but been used for decades. Is that paved, Jay? What's that? Is it paved? I believe it is paved. Yeah, it is Paved. It looks like it. I looked at the Google Street view. So Now the, uh, city engineer or assistant engineer. Now, I dunno if you know, the city engineers left. Um, board of Public Works. We'll also be looking at this and making recommendations.
So usually they deal with things like pavement condition and any improvements that would be needed to be made, uh, to make it more acceptable. But I, I think your perspective is really the planning I aspect, whether it should be a public way or not. So did they have no input or they didn't? Well, it was referred to them as it was referred to you. So they'll, I'll report back to the city council and they'll weigh all those concerns. 1, 2, 3, 4, 6. I'm, I'm actually, uh, reluctant to approve this one
'cause I don't know anything engineering wise about it. I mean, is the sewer lines correct? Is the water line, you know, Well again, that's the engineer. Our board of public works will be looking at or should be looking at those things as part of their report. Um, you know, you're not expected to be a engineer, you're a planner. So from a kind of big picture perspective, does this make sense as a city way? Should we be looking at it from a perspective of there's no turnaround for fire trucks or anything? Yeah, that's a valid concern. Planning concern.
Is Dewey private? Is it public? Dewey I think is private. I can look it up. April. There only one axis in And out. Huh? Only one in and out. It's a dead end and it just stops. Yep. Down in here, right? Yeah, pictures. It just stops. So that doesn't look like there's a lot of houses on that street either. Well, three or four. Six of them. Six of them. Six, Yeah. And uh, and the land up above snow. And so like, Um, the 0.67 acres looks like it was a family, um, plot
because one one's owned by Jeffrey, the other one's owned by John Merrill. Is that the end of the street you're Talking about? That's at the very end of the street. It kind of looks landlocked, but I think it was, it sounds like it was split by the family public, But I don't know that J is Floral Avenue, um, pub, um, public. Do we know, has that been approved? I'm just looking up the list now. Better. Okay. Alright. I think floral is public. Lemme see. Floral is public. Let me just confirm here.
Yeah, so Edward Merrill owns everything there. He owns a lot behind his house, A lot of, um, above it and a lot across the street. His brother Jeffrey Merrill owns, I guess at the end of the day, I have no, no, um, reservations against it other than as long as the fire department is okay with getting their trucks down there and being able to turn around. So Floral and Dewey are both public? They're both public, Yeah. And, and the thing about this is it's already developed and settled. Mm-hmm. So it's not like a road out in the woods
where you're saying, you know, maybe it's not suitable for development. Probably nothing much more is gonna happen here than how it's existed for quite a while. So. Okay. I am looking for a motion or more discussion. Just for Curiosity, Jay, can you tell me if Dewey Street is, um, public too? Okay. Dewey have is public. So yeah, if floral is public, Dewey's public, you know, maple Maplewood is just very similar to both of them. Mm-hmm. I will make a motion to recommend, uh, Maplewood Ave
as a public way. I'll second it. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Anybody opposed? Okay. Next on the agenda, zoning compliance concerns 32 Birch Road. I think Ray wanted To add this. I just wanted to bring it up. Jay had put on, uh, the email if there was anything that anybody wanted to talk about. You made it very clear to me that we're in, it's not in our purview for zoning enforcement. So I understand that. But I also understand if we don't put anything on the record ourself, then we're the only people that think this and nobody hears what we're thinking.
So that being said, this particular property sits in mine and Cheryl's neighborhood and it sits by looking at the GIS. It's sitting on an aquifer next to a wetland with a stream that runs right through their property into Hamden ponds when, when we have rain, um, all those things being said, it has 11 vehicles on the property. Um, 10 of them are not in, uh, registered with license plates or anything to that nature. Some are completely smashed up
and, um, there's multiple people staying in RVs in a school bus on that piece of property. I spoke with Justin Cobb. Justin's hands are kind of tied a because he is a part-time guy and b because I don't think the city wants to pay the money to fight things, but I guess I have to be the voice of it to be heard publicly. I do have pictures over here. You wanna send those to that side of the set property so you guys get an idea? I show sure of what I'm talking about.
This is a lot of those vehicles have been there. This is what it looks like today for a long time. And if you, if you look on the, um, the shared drive, there's a piece of paper in there from, what is the, the Springfield Court systems? Yeah. Court settlement of sorts. Yeah. Yeah. It's sort of a settlement, allowing them to have a certain purpose and the purpose being a hobby shop. And right in it, it states that vehicles aren't supposed to be left kind of unattended outside. Especially what you'll see in the photos over there. Uh, we're starting to get, I would call them vagrants
that are staying in these vehicles that are creeping around the neighborhood at certain times of the night was brought to my attention by people that live in the neighborhood that caught them on ring cameras, kind of peeping over the fences at hours that we're all sleeping. 3:00 AM 2:00 AM things like that. So I know it's not, we're not zoning enforcement, but I know that it needs to be brought up. I I know for a fact the police will go out there and cite them for unregistered vehicles 'cause they've done it when I've contacted them before. So Justin's been out there with, uh, Johnny Blache.
'cause Justin didn't feel comfortable being out there alone. The individual that owns the property, he's, he's hard to deal with, to say the least. And Justin said one of the things he has an issue with is that he has to serve these individuals with paperwork, but they don't have an address that they can give it to him at. Um, I don't know. I just wanted to bring it up. I wanted to kind of get out on air as well so that I know that things like this don't happen all over the city because they're not allowed and they're happening.
Um, I could bring you through my neighborhood and we could collect unregistered cars all day. So I don't know, does anybody have any questions? The only thing on that lot is the garage. Yes. There's no house There. No. And they have, right now, you see in the photos, I don't know if you still have 'em on that outside, but they're brought in a porta potty so that they can, I don't know, use that in the daytime. Um, they do have their little campfires and, and throw their trash out in the middle of the yard. But a lot of those vehicles is what my point is,
they probably still have fuel on 'em. I know they probably still have oil in them. I know that when it rains it's all getting rinsed and then it's just getting put into hand and pots it is sitting on top of the aquifer. Mary and Lavin probably have a heart attack if she went down that way. But, um, I just wanted to bring it up tonight Just to back him up. The purpose of this particular place was only for, um, hobbies, like antique cars, um, for them to work on inside the garage. But they could not, according to this document here, they cannot have vehicles outside of the building.
And right now it's looking more and more like a junkyard. Uh, it's, It's really, you had said something like 30 days maximum. Yeah, it's, it's really, really sad to see what's going on here. And the other part is too, is we don't know who these people are that are rocking around the neighborhood. I've actually seen him, seen a few of 'em and, um, didn't know where they came from until they told me. You know, in the middle of the night when I'm looking for my cats and they're out wandering around the streets, I don't know who these people are. I don't know what the laws are if for people to be
living on a different piece of property that's not made for this particular usage. Especially we're dealing with, we are part of the aquifer. Um, there's, there's a lot of stuff going on. There's a lot of trash sitting out there, left out there. It's, it's just, it's a mess. Is there anyone besides the police that couldn't enforce that document? I know you had a lot living concerns, but the only you can see is that they're over 30 day amount of vehicles. Who could enforce that as the police? Well, I know Justin's been there several times. I've also talked to Justin last year
and um, it's, it's been a little bit of a trial down there. Uh, but it's, it's, this gentleman is not easy like he was saying to deal with and it, and it's just getting out of control. And there are parts of it where they don't allow people to go down that street. It's a private road, it's a dirt road. Uh, does, do you have any idea how many people are living there staying there? I can tell you that motor home just came in there probably a couple weeks ago. Couple weeks ago? Yeah. Okay. And it brought in two people and
before that there was the one individual with two German shepherds that was staying in the school bus that was out there. I think I've spoken about that before here. Um, it, it's decked out. I guess it's got a fireplace inside as, as, as an RV I guess. But I mean the paperwork that they got at the court states what it can be and what it is is completely something different. It's not what it can be. Yeah. It's become a, I dunno, an RV part for hobo. I believe. I find it interesting for the fact
that when I looked up the zoning in here and it's zoned ra but yet the paperwork on here states that this hobby shop, you might read this better because you have glasses right down here on this. By here it's kind of dark Hobby shop will not be operated or com open for commercial automotive repairmen to conduct business, automotive hobby actively or interest and to pursue for pleasure or relaxation and is not, and is not as a main occupation will be that.
So it's saying that it won't allow the hobby shop to be a business. Um, I don't believe it's being a business. I believe it's a, a catchall from, for somebody that has a thing for vehicles but dumping it. But they're dump like there's a van in that one of those photos you could see it looked like it was rolled. It's been there for a couple years. Um, that flatbeds been there for at least 10 years and it just keeps getting more things stacked on top of it. It's never gonna leave. That's all I have. Jay. Is there anything as a, as a, as a board that we can assist Justin
besides just voicing it to get the ball rolling to get more, um, I don't know, Keith, what's that? Keith more, yeah, I guess more teeth in it. Mm-hmm. Um, not particularly. I mean, you can as a board ask for enforcement or something. Obviously he's aware of things going on. Um, so I don't know if you need to, I mean, maybe you want to, Well I know that this gentleman decided to park his bus up across the street from Stanley Park. We wouldn't be there long. And, and,
and it just happens to be on the north side of town. It's kind of, I don't know. It's tucked Away. Yeah, it's tucked away and we're onto other things and, and I don't know if he needs a little assistance from us putting it out or what, but nothing has been done in several years. Yeah. Well if the board wants to take a position as a board, you can, I mean, I guess you could talk to your city counselor and kind of put it more in the political realm. Exactly. Um, but I'm not sure, I don't know what you can really under this particular
zoning that what the laws, I mean we still got probably digging to do that. They are allowed to, you know, live there, but use the outside as a junkyard. I don't know what's going on in the inside. Is there a possibility to request a health department to take a look at something like this? Yeah, you can refer it or request anything you want. Should we request The, I I would guess they're aware of it. Um, obviously if Justin's aware and I'm, I'm assuming at some point there was an enforcement against
it and then it ended up in court with us this kind of settlement. So. Well that was back in 2002. 6 0 4. Yeah. Along. Yeah, but it shouldn't, 20 years ago It shouldn't go away. Well, I don't think it would time out. Um, So, alright, let me ask you this then. So if it didn't go away and it didn't time out, but they're completely not doing anything that it's, it's required and enforcement, it's kind of, they've got their hands tied. I don't know what, What's going on? Yeah, I mean
What synex I suppose there would be legal steps involved in bringing it back to court saying they're violating this agreement or order or whatever it was. Um, I mean I'm, I'm sure Justin says his hands are tied. If, if you don't, no one's gonna pursue it further. But I don't really have an answer. Like I said, you can kick it up to or kick it around to other boards or councils or entities to put Some, I I don't understand how they get away
with this when you have things leaking on the ground that just, it's a mess down there. And I've seen oil things all over the place and yet they sit on an aquifer. But any other business, we'd be on top of them. And here we have something really happening and it's piling up and piling up and piling up. It, it just seems it's getting out of control and he's got the upper hand in. So I don't know what the laws would be that where you can keep allowing more and more people. I don't know what you'd call. Well I think ultimately the city has the upper hand. It's just a matter of how much will is behind pursuing it.
I bet Kristen me would be interested in hearing about this. Yeah. 'cause I guarantee this would not happen in a lot of other neighborhoods in Westfield. It won't. And this is something we've been working with for what, over a year. Alright, well I, I will bring it up with, um, I did call Justin today and let him know that it was on the agenda and if he wanted to gimme a call he could, but I didn't receive anything from him. I don't know if he was in the field. Um, but I'll, I'll, I'll send an email to um, bill Orlowski
as well as, uh, I'll cc Kristen Meow on it. That's a good idea. I mean, if you want to do something as a board, you could have that Rather Than Would conservation have anything to do with this? I mean, we are talking, it's literally one parcel away from Hamden Pond is in the aquifer. Yeah, they're not, they don't oversee the aquifer per se. I mean, if it is within near resource area, conceivably Conservation's typically streams or moving water. Like
Well, any, anything wet, basically. But I think it may be outside of, um, their jurisdiction. I, I'm a little surprised for that fact because there's two houses across the street from there and one was built, new built and they had such a, an, um, certain area of land that they could not touch because it's, um, more of the wetlands. Then you have another house where they, he was rebuilding and um, he had to bring his house back and the one that does electrical, um,
you had to set it back a little further because of the, uh, the conservation. So, and I mean you're just talking like a stone throw away from where this property is and I'd be surprised that they wouldn't get involved in this seeing what's going on. If You pull the GIS and, and I'm looking at it now under the conservation or, or water or you see a stream that goes directly through his, actually underneath one corner of the building on the GIS and it feeds right into a wetland. It goes right across the street. Yep. So, So I don't get it.
I I think a good start is to get Christie meow involved and, and let that run from there. Ju Justin's a part-time or is he I I thought he was full-time. No, for since the beginning. Has he been? Believe so. Yeah. I didn't know If there's a string Anna of conservation. You'd be happy to look at It and shoot. Yeah, I I mean it's on the GAS, uh, I don't know exactly which I clicked and uh, it, it shows a stream that goes in the wetlands. I just clicked on it. The wetland over there. Yeah, because the wetlands are right across the street. Yeah, because it's a wetlands that runs right into the, and it runs underneath.
So that'll be three emails. And then I don't know if what we can do as a board suggest, Oh, I mean if you want to refer that as a board that the board has it asked for To conservation Investigation. Well, whoever you want. Well, even the health department Too. Can, can we refer as a board? Can we ask conservation, ask the police department to take a look at this property as it, it's not in compliance with whatever zoning is supposed to be or whatever.
And to see if Yeah. To have someone else put their eyes on it other than us just to kind of get the ball rolling or Just request compliance. Like request A request Request. I mean, asked to, asked to investigate, I guess. Yeah, I think that would be good if we can, you know, I mean we have no authority, but we can request that. I mean if our goal is the big broad picture, we don't want the junkyard in the middle of the neighborhood. Okay. Who do you want to send this request to? So you mentioned conservation director.
Yeah, Fe Chief Police Department. Health Department. The health department chief. I, I mean people are living there and Health director. Mm-hmm. Um, counselor. Meow. Yes. Yes. Yeah. Cc I don't know where they're getting their water source from. You know, if they're living in I Know. Cc, Justin or Carissa. Yes. Another concern, uh, just thinking about that is every one of those houses that's around there is, is well fed. So whatever's sitting over there, if it's, if it's leaking
or not, is feeding everybody's well Groundwater. Yeah, I don't think they, I don't think they got a well there on that garage. Alright, do you want to vote on that, um, proposal motion? Yes, it was. Do I have a motion to, So I'll make a motion to request assistance from what's the list? Police, police, conservation, health counselors, Ms. Oniskey, Melo and, uh, building health Building. Just, uh, What I said As Jay refer J to Jays. Uh, yes. That I make a, I make a motion.
Wait a second. Second. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Anybody Your opposed? Thank Thank you board for listening. Next is draft clean energy project regulation and permitting. So they couldn't put a best in here, so they going an end around, if I'm reading this correctly. So someone from the state came to talk with me about this kind of state proposal. Um, so this would relate to something like the battery energy storage project that was, you know, much discussed this summer.
Um, so the state is going through a kind of process to establish, to facilitate permitting of these types of things. Not just that, but solar and wind. You have to go through this whole presentation. But, Um, Essentially, essentially they're dividing it up into really big projects, which would go through the state for approval. And smaller ones, which would have a local aspect that would result in some kind of comprehensive permit that's has to be given in a certain amount of time. Um, it's still will go through the zoning approvals
and conservation approvals, but then there ends up being one big permit that's granted. I'm not quite sure how that works with appeals and, and all that. Um, but anyway, they're looking to structure this, this new permitting path. Um, so there'll be the timeline, um, over the winter, fall into the winter looking at some draft regulations for how this actually materializes. So when these projects are proposed there, there'll be a clearer path for permit,
Um, The board or anyone, you know, there'll be public comments periods. Ultimately we will probably have a zoning ordinance to adopt that kind of comports with this new process and how we regulate it locally. It seemed to me that there would be an ability to prohibit them on the aquifer water resource district that, that at least the person of the state I talked to didn't think that would be an unreasonable type of thing. So on the smaller scale stuff, we apparently would have some,
we still have some local controls, So it sounds like the big one, they wouldn't, we wouldn't have, The big one would have a state process, which I mean I'm sure there would be involvement in whatever would be like a formal permitting path, but I'm sure there would be public involvement in some respects. I don't wanna get ahead of my skis on this. I haven't really studied it. I just wanna let you know this is in the works and uh, at some point we'll probably be coming forward with, uh, some zoning changes to John. You say something, I swallowed it,
nothing good's gonna come up. What I gonna say, This is going to, this is, uh, the way I look at this is, um, kinda like ADUs, it's gonna get rammed down our throat and they didn't like, they state didn't like the fact that towns were, everybody posted it. Everywhere you go, everybody posts no best in my town. Okay. Agawam said we'll accept it. Citizens said no, it won't. Um, Hardwick no best. I mean they're everywhere. So I think this is the state's way of turning, doing exactly
what they did with adu. Yeah, I mean it kind of is that way now. Is that what I Gonna say? That's exactly Oh, Okay. Just shut. I had some other words in there, but They kind of have that ability now to kind of supersede the zoning. I think this just makes it clearer that they can, um, that they would be in charge of some of these bigger projects. This all gets approved. We really won't have a lake to stand on. No talent, But I mean, we'll see what comes out of it. Again, I don't really understand the point of having these zoning permits, wetland permits, and then you issue some single permit.
I don't see the, how those steps all come together in a logical way, but we will see what they come up with. Do you think the state will listen to us if we were to turn around and say, Hey, we have a national security entity up on the north side that is, you know, protecting the whole East coast and we can't take a chance of having them grounded because of any sort of issue with these things and you know, if you're going to do it, okay, you gotta have a certain, you know, maybe the, maybe Barnes has to sign off on this.
I think there is some leverage there. Okay. I mean that, that's always been my biggest issue is, is you've got the F 30 fives coming in here and that's a huge financial boom to Westfield, you know, like the plains or not. It's a huge financial boom to Westfield and you can't take a chance and it's a major security. We're the, we're the, we're the security point for the east coast, for the Northeast. Um, and you can't take a chance that something like this. And you think the state will listen to us. I, I think whatever process they develop at the state
level will have, would be pretty extensive in factors they would consider. And I can't imagine there wouldn't be some type of local outreach, uh, whatever hearing through the state to collect local input. Anybody else have any comments? I, all right. Announcement to future agenda items. I will just say again, we have no hearings for the next meeting. No hearings for the next meeting either. No hearings. Well I think originally we had a election date election scheduled for that date. So
Do we wanna meet or meet in October? Well we can, you know, if something comes up we can, I mean we can do wait And see. Tell Rob it's open. He'll come up with something. What's That? If we tell Rob it's open, he'll come up with something. Well, it's too late for that hearing, but, So No, I mean if something comes up, you know, we can be in touch if Okay. If you wanna meet or not. So The uh, well we could Do a workshop kind Of thing. I guess the data center's back on the books. I don't know if what has to happen for us to talk about that or can we, if we schedule it for the next meeting?
Yeah, I would just need to be on the agenda. Can we do that? And, and if that's the only thing and I bump it to the next one, I don't wanna have the meeting just about that. But you know, I think, I think the article in the paper is contrary to my recollection of what we passed. There's a lot of noise around it, but I have not, I'm not aware of anything progressive. Can I ask another question unrelated to what we're talking about? Um, there's, maybe we have to get it as an agenda item, but, um, I planting, uh,
bushes in a front yard that blocks traffic. Is there a regulation that can address that On a corner lot? There is. Okay. That's a corner lot. Like a street intersection? Yeah. Hmm. If you're on a street intersection, there's a zoning provision that, how far Back do the bushes have to Be? I think it's 25 feet. Mm-hmm. Fair enough. Like a 25 foot triangle. I think that's what it Said. I'm on a corner lot and I have trees that are set back 25 feet. That Would apply for fences as well, right? Like a fence, Vision obstructions.
So yeah, like a chain link fence would be all right. But I remember years Ago, I'm owner of Springdale, they put up people that just bought the house, put that fence up month. Okay. So right now no meeting unless something comes up There will, there will be no hearings at the next meeting. No hearings. No hearings. But there will be a meeting. No hearings. There will be a meeting. So do I hear a motion to adjourn? Motion to adjourn. I'll make a motion to adjourn. I know you're ready. Bernie. Motion to adjourn? Yes or no? Just uh, yes.
John second. No. I'll Make a motion to adjourn. We already have that Second. We already have that too. All right. I Wasn't paying attention. Yes, yes. There we go. Jane. Think we had To vote for that. I thought this was just an I. So just being official. Jane? Yes. Ray? Yes. Cheryl? Yes. Rich? Yes. And I'm a yes. See wall.