WESTFIELD — An application to create a 24-spot parking lot at the Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church is drawing criticism from Boulevard residents who say the addition could lead to flooding challenges and disrupt the neighborhood’s natural surroundings.
The project, which was initially presented to the Westfield Board of Adjustment (BOA) in November of last year, was scaled back from 48 spaces to 24 over the course of several meetings after the town’sTree Preservation Commission recommended that fewer trees be removed to accommodate the parking lot.
On Monday, during a regular meeting oftheBOA,attorneyGaryGoodman said 19 trees — down from an initial projection of 50 — will still need to come down.
The church, which currently does not offer any on-site parking, was allowed to subdivide its property into three separate lots in 2016. Two of those lots were sold off to single-family homeowners shortly thereafter.
Since then, the Reverend Dr. Timothy Ferguson said, the needs of the church have changed.
“When I first joined the church, we had a small congregation of about 18 people, and we really didn’t think we would need a parking lot. That number has now grown to about 115 people,” said Rev. Ferguson, who has served as the church’s pastor since 2015. “Our demographics have changed. We now have about 15 or 16 elderly members who find it very difficult to park on the street.”
Reverend Ferguson added that only “two or three” Westfield households currently attend Grace Church. Most of the church’s members, he said, drive in from other parts of the state to attend services.
“I have lived near the church for 17 years, and I have never heard any of my neighbors complain about the on-street parking,” resident Adrian Pastore said. “This just feels like a lot of disruption and inconvenience for us as residents for a project that is largely going to benefit people from out of town.”
The 9,564-square-foot lot, planner Christian Ceto said, will include a “course pavement system” near the lower end of the parking area that should help to manage storm water and prevent flooding.
“I think I’m just trying to figure out what the benefit of this would be to the surrounding community,” Board Vice Chair Matt Sontz said. “The church, for better or for worse, made a decision seven or eight years ago to subdivide its lot, which is fine, but now they’re saying that it’s not enough and they want to add parking in addition to everything else. I feel like they’re trying to have their cake and eat it too.”
According to the town’s Land Use Ordinance, the church would need to build a lot big enough to support 113 spaces in order to be in compliance with local regulations. In addition to the conditional usage (D3) variance that the property owners will need to build a smaller lot, three other requests — one which pertains to front- and sideyard parking restrictions, another which reduces the dimensions of each proposed parking space from 9 feet by 20 feet to 9 feet by 18 feet, and one that relates to parking lot lighting — also will need to be considered by the board before the project can move forward.
Several residents also requested that the board consider adding conditions that would mitigate light pollution and potential flooding from the parking lot.
Mr. Sontz, who works as an attorney, ultimately recused himself from the vote due to the fact that one of the residents who spoke out against the project is a former client of his.
The board, which has a busy summer schedule, is expected to vote on the project in early September. Due to the conditional usage variance, at least five out of the board’s seven voting members — one of whom will be pulled from the alternate pool to replace Mr. Sontz — will need to approve the application in order for it to proceed.
