SOUTHWICK — When representatives of the Friends of the Southwick Dog Park announced it had a site just off Hudson Drive, they acknowledged that the property would bisect the proposed route of the Sam West/Hudson Drive connector, which one Select Board member said he has reservations about.
“I have one additional reservation about this whole project, two, actually,” said board member Doug Moglin during the board’s meeting two weeks ago.
Agreeing that the proposal is an “excellent idea,” Moglin, however, had two questions he believes need answering, both about the 32-acre property the Friends say Tilcon Mineral gifted them for the park.
He wants to know how the special permit that Tilcon Minerals operates under might be affected by the gift, and could it hamper efforts to build the proposed connector between Sam West and Hudson Drive.
“One is the fact that this was land that was part of a special permit that is still running because it’s still under active excavation, and under the special permit. I believe even when this was approved back in whenever, it required [that Tilcon Minerals] under that special permit come back with a redevelopment plan,” Moglin said.
And it could be a subdivision plan or a plan to donate the property, he said.
“That needs to be done, and it wasn’t done; they just doled out a piece of the land to another entity,” Moglin said about the company’s property gift.
“That may or may not have dramatic implications for the redevelopment of the surrounding parcels,” he added.
For example, what if Tilcon decided to create a residential or even commercial development project on the property?
“People may or may not want to be near a dog park. I don’t know. It’s just not up to me, but it may mess with the rest of it,” he said.
“I would have thought that as part of the redevelopment plan, Tilcon was going to come back in front of the Planning Board — or someone from this board, or myself, would have been front and center to say, ‘hey, make sure on your redevelopment plan you’re showing that Hudson Drive to Sam West Connector as part of your redevelopment plan’ … because that needs to get done,” he said.
That concern led him to his second question — could it hamper the town’s long-term goal of connecting Sam West to Hudson Drive?
“[Tilcon] gave away the land that we’ve been working on and working with them and the state to design the connector of Sam West to Hudson, [and] suddenly it’s a piece of private property,” Moglin said.
When the Friends announced its proposal to the Select Board in February, it made clear that the plan was to gift the dog park to the town when completed, including the route of the connector, “saving taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars in future legal fees, easements and administrative costs,” Friends’ representative Keith Deyo said at the board meeting.
“And this is a big one — roadway completion,” Deyo said at the meeting. “An unencumbered track of property gifted to the town of Southwick to complete the future connection of Sam West Road to Hudson Drive.”
Moglin didn’t dispute that promise but said the town has been planning for the connector for over a decade.
“We’ve been doing the layout, we already have gotten significant grants and other funding for that project,” Moglin said.
He wanted to know if the dog park proposal might jeopardize the Sam West-Hudson Drive connector project.
“To me, [the connector] is very, very important to the future development in the town of Southwick for that industrial park,” he said, adding that the idea behind the connector was to allow the park to expand and attract “good, clean businesses that employ a lot of people.”
The discussion was motivated by a request from the Friends to have a warrant article included at May’s Town Meeting, allowing the town to accept the donation when the park is complete.
“It seems premature,” Moglin said.
The Friends are seeking to build Dillinger’s Park. They said the park will be a community-minded, intergenerational dog park.
It will have multiple parks, including a park for senior dogs and senior folks, and provide parking for northern access to the Rail Trail, which will be covered and lit. The parking roof will have solar panels installed.
There will also be a 22-acre area that will be called The Wilds, which will feature a natural preserved forest, riverfront, wetlands, and animal habitats for community exploration and enjoyment.
