45-058 (3) ward three neighborhood association
Northampton, MA
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-great neighbors visit us at www.wardthree.coin great neighborhoods
Date: September 21, 2009
To: Anthony Patillo, Building Commissioner
From: The Board of Directors of the Ward 3 Neighborhood Assoc.
CC: Mathias Duda, Northampton Soccer Club, Western United
Football Club, Wayne Feiden - Office of Planning and
Development, David Bloomberg -ZBA, Mayor Clare
Higgins, Jennifer Remillard
RE: Concerning the Enforcement of the Special Permit granted
to Western United Football Club and Northampton Soccer
Club
Dear Mr. Patillo,
The Ward Three Neighborhood Association has been following the
problems on Island Road closely. Some of us attended the ZBA
hearing on the Ms. Remillard's appeal. We have also had extensive
conversations with the neighbors, representatives of both soccer
leagues and OPD. We are a non - partisan organization devoted to
facilitating dialogue within the city and working to resolve issues within
our ward.
The Zoning Board of Appeals held on August 6, 2009 (Hearing ZBA -
2009 -0012) that "enforcement of the requirement to use the auxiliary
parking lot as requested by the appellant and as required by the
special permit was appropriate ". We observe that the Special Permit
(PLN- 2007 -062) was granted on the condition that the applicants shall
use an "off -site parking area" for 60 cars. Further, in August 2008 the
Planning Board asked your office for enforcement of the condition and
offered guidance relative to the use of the off -site parking area by
stating that "at least 50% of the cars should be parking in the satellite
parking lot."
We now petition your office to enforce the above condition. We
understand that issuing an order barring all use of the fields would be
excessive. We therefore request that your office devise an alternate
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method of enforcement for the condition. Perhaps a monetary fine for
every date of non - compliance, or some other creative solution, would
coax compliance with the condition without resorting to barring all use
of the fields.
We appreciate that your office has limited time and resources and that
monitoring the dates, times, and extent of non - compliance may be
beyond the capacity of your department. We therefore ask that you
specify what evidence your office would accept relative to this matter.
For example, we believe that many of the neighbors of Island Road
could provide sworn affidavits regarding usage at specific dates and
times.
The soccer leagues provide a valuable service to the children of our
City and nearby communities. However, we believe that the neighbors
of Island Road have been saddled with increased traffic.
We ask you to determine what criteria you will use to determine
compliance with the ZBA decision, to explain clearly to the residents
and the soccer leagues how you plan to monitor compliance and to
spell out what the consequences of non - compliance will be.
O behalf of the Board of Directors,
Gerald Budgar, Pre 'dent