LOWES PASSES!

Wednesday, January 07, 2009
By KEN ROSS
kross@repub.com
HOLYOKE - A proposal to build a Lowe's store in the city moved one step closer Tuesday after a vote by the City Council to rezone the property where developers want to build the store.

"I'm pleased," said Jay Fisher, development director for S.K. Properties, the West Hartford, Conn.-based company that agreed to buy the 18.2-acre parcel from Holyoke Gas & Electric for $3 million on Feb. 26 provided the land is rezoned.

The council voted 11-4 in favor of rezoning the land on Whiting Farms Road from industrial to business general. Councilors Rebecca Lisi, Diosdado Lopez, Elaine A. Pluta and John E. Whelihan cast the dissenting votes.

An official from Lowe's, Robert B. Jess, was at Tuesday's meeting but declined to comment on the vote. Jess serves as a senior site development manager at Lowe's Saratoga Springs, N.Y., office. At previous meetings, Jess has said the new store would create an estimated 80 full-time and 65 part-time jobs.

Construction of the new store will not begin immediately, Fisher said.

First, developers must go through the approval process, including creating a site plan for the project, Fisher said. Exactly how long the approval process will take has not been determined, Fisher said. As a result, he said he did not have a time line for when work would begin or be completed on the store.

The council was scheduled to vote on the zone change at its Dec. 16 session. But the vote was tabled because of several legal questions.

The main question the council wanted answered before Tuesday's meeting was whether condominium owners at a complex on Whiting Farms Road were considered abutters of the proposed project.

If they were so considered, City Council President Joseph M. McGiverin said there was some question about whether the condominium owners were properly notified about the public hearing.

In addition, if the condominium owners were considered abutters, they would have been able to sign a petition opposing rezoning the 18.2-acre parcel on Whiting Farms Road from industrial to business general.

On Dec. 18, the city's law department determined that only the condominium owners directly abutting the property are considered abutters.

How many people are considered abutters had a significant impact on the vote itself. That is because if 20 percent of abutters had signed a petition opposing the zone change, a "super majority" vote by the 15-member City Council would have been necessary.

Since some people removed their names from a petition submitted Dec. 12, less than 20 percent of abutters signed the document. As a result, only 10 councilors needed to vote for the zone change. A super majority would have required 12 votes.