The city is requesting proposals from business owners who want to develop the second 25-acre parcel.
Chicopee Mayor Michael D. Bissonnette speaks during a ceremony last year marking the city's acquisition of five homes abutting Westover Air Reserve Base on Fredette Street that used to be Navy housing. On the left are U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal and Col. Robert R. Swain Jr., commander of the Air Force Reserve's 439th Airlift Wing at Westover,CHICOPEE – The City Council approved the sale of five colonial homes formerly owned by the U.S. Navy after years of negotiating the deal.
The City Council voted 8-0 Thursday to sell the property on Fredette Street to Wayne Bessette, owner of Waycon Inc., who successfully bid to purchase the homes to renovate them. Bessette will buy the houses and about four acres of land for $250,000.
The homes, known as General’s Row, were once part of Westover Air Reserve Base but have been vacant for at least 15 years. The city has been working with the U.S. Navy, which owned the land, to acquire that four-acre parcel and a second about 25-acre parcel off Kelly Drive, for more than a decade.
In April of 2011 the property was finally conveyed to the city. It requested proposals from developers who wanted to renovate the five homes by the summer and in December of 2011 the city selected Bessette, who was the highest bidder that submitted an acceptable project.
Officials are now requesting proposals for developers interested in developing the more complicated 25-acre parcel which has 128 homes that are mostly duplexes.
“From the city’s standpoint we wanted to get it right. It was not done right 20 years ago,” when other military property was sold to create condominiums, Mayor Michael D. Bissonnette said.
To have the property conveyed properly, the city had to accept Fredette Street as a public way. Since it was former military property, issues such as a right-of-way for utilities and tree belts had never been established.
Also on Thursday, the Planning Board voted to set proper boundries for Fredette Street and properly set up curb cuts and other things. That vote was 6-0.
Bessette will have to return to the City Council to have the parcel, which currently is unzoned, to be declared in a single-family zone. He will also have to get permission from the Planning Board to subdivide the four acres into five individual lots, City Planner Catherine L. Brown said.
Despite the bureaucratic problems with the land, City Councilors said they are happy that the work was done and the homes will be used again.
“I think this is in the best interest of the city to get this land back on the tax rolls,” Councilor James K. Tillotson said.
Councilors were assured that the proposal calls for single-family homes and cannot be redeveloped in a different way.
Several spoke highly of Bessette and his company.
“I’m glad to see Waycon will do this. He has done a number of projects in the city and he lives in the city,” Councilor Donald G. Demers said.