CHICOPEE — The City Council will examine a proposal to start taxing land owned by the quasi-public Westover Metropolitan Development Corp. as part an effort to save land off Slate Road from industrial development.
City Councilor Derek Dobosz is proposing the corporation lose some of its tax-exempt status on property it owns.
“They purchased a lot of land that was never owned by Westover (Air Reserve Base) and that includes the Slate conservation area,” he said. “They are buying them and holding them for years and years ... and that is a lot of missed revenue.”
Westover Metropolitan Development was created in 1974 to help Chicopee, Ludlow and Granby develop about 2,500 acres of surplus property when the military base downsized. Over 40 years the corporation attracted about 50 businesses to the three communities. It also manages the Westover Metropolitan Airport.
Typically the corporation acquires property, builds infrastructure including roads and utilities, and then markets the lots as shovel-ready parcels. Communities benefit from the jobs created and tax money earned when a property is sold.
But Dobosz argued the corporation has gone beyond its original charter and is now purchasing additional land, including the 57 acres off Slate Road that borders Chicopee State Park.
The city sold the land to the corporation around 2008 as part of a plan to create a 110-acre industrial park. Those plans didn’t materialize at the time. But earlier this year the corporation sought to change the parcel’s zoning from residential to industrial, sparking an outcry from neighbors who say the land should be preserved for recreation.
The City Council has effectively blocked development of the property for two years by denying the zone change. Housing cannot be built on the land since it was purchased with Federal Aviation Administration money designed to mitigate negative impacts from airports by keeping housing away from areas that face noise from jets.
Since then neighbors, with the help of Dobosz and others, have been trying to save the land, which is widely used for walking and mountain biking. They have found some newspaper clippings and other documentation showing the property was once set aside for a nature preserve in 1969, leading many to argue it should have never been sold.
Dobosz said the issue pushed him to review and question the tax-exempt status to the Westover Metropolitan Development, especially as the corporation is now proposing to lease some of the property to businesses instead of selling it, leaving the city to receive less in taxes than it would if the property was sold and developed.
- Chicopee Planning Department zoning map detailing the 57 acres of the proposed Airpark South, located near Fuller and Slate roads. (Courtesy Chicopee Planning Department) Chicopee Planning DepartmentChicopee Planning Department
“It is definitely worth studying and I think Chicopee should get a fair deal,” he said.
In researching the tax-exempt status, Dobosz said he discovered a lawsuit filed by the town of Ludlow against the corporation that dates back to the 1980s. It ended with an agreement that continues to waive taxes on undeveloped land the corporation owns, but requires it to pay taxes retroactively once the land is developed and sold.
He argued Chicopee at a minimum should receive the same deal, especially since it is a less affluent community.
The City Council voted 12-0 to support Dobosz’s proposal and to study it more in its finance and ordinance committees. Corporation officials, members of its board of trustees and city officials including the assessors, treasurer and law department will be invited to attend to give expertise.
Michael Bolton, president of Westover Metropolitan Development, did not return calls for comment.
While he supported the proposal, Councilor Joel McAuliffe questioned if the plan was simply a distraction from the effort to save the property from being developed.
In early June the City Council unanimously endorsed a plan to try to reacquire the property, which it sold in 2008 for $1.45 million.
“We have well-intended people who want to preserve the land,” he said. “We have a lot of things that are making us lose focus.”
He reminded the City Council that the corporation has done a lot of good for the city by attracting taxpaying businesses and creating hundreds of jobs in the other industrial parks that surround the base.
The city can either negotiate with the corporation to buy back the 57 acres or take it by eminent domain. The mayor is the only person who can initiate a land taking.
So far Mayor John Vieau has not initiated efforts to reacquire the property. But in the spring he said it may be possible to reach a compromise with the corporation.
McAuliffe urged Dobosz to put a referendum question on the ballot asking voters if they wanted to preserve the Slate Road property, saying that would force the city’s hand if it was approved.
Dobosz disagreed with the idea of putting a referendum on the ballot, saying he believed Westover Metropolitan Development officials could pour a large amount of money into a political campaign.
“I don’t want to drag the neighborhood through that,” he said.
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