Chicopee license committee hears hours of testimony on proposed Pilot travel center at 357 Burnett Road; committee votes deadlock, sends report to full council

The Chicopee License Committee on Dec. 16 heard more than two hours of public testimony and a detailed presentation from the applicant about a proposed Pilot travel center at 357 Burnett Road, then produced a tie at the subcommittee level that will send the matter to the full City Council.

The proposal would re-develop the 357 Burnett Road site with a travel center that the applicant and supporters characterized as a gasoline service and travel center, not a large truck stop. Attorney Tom Murphy, representing owner Dinesh Patel, said the plan received planning-board approval in July 2022 and included traffic and queueing measures intended to keep trucks off Burnett Road. Murphy told the committee that site design provides approximately 100 parking spaces overall, with 25'26 truck spaces and about 75 car spaces, and that a recent traffic impact assessment (late November) found fewer daily trips than a previously proposed mixed-use plan.

"This is not a truck stop, it's a gas station," Murphy said during the applicant presentation, asserting the site would accommodate on-site queueing so trucks would not back onto Burnett Road.

Why it matters: residents who live near the Burnett Road/Mass Pike interchange said the area already copes with heavy tractor-trailer traffic, several recent crashes and two recent fatalities mentioned in testimony. Neighbors and attorneys for opponents argued the project would worsen safety problems and that mailers touting tax savings were misleading.

Opponents: dozens of residents who live near Burnett Road described traffic backups, a history of crashes and neighborhood quality-of-life concerns. Laura Dos Santos, who read a decade of personal property-tax history, told the committee that "approving this truck stop will not lower our taxes" and criticized mailings that claimed tax relief. Several speakers, including a retired police chief's email entered into the record, urged a new traffic study because of recent reconstruction in the area.

Supporters: business owners and some nearby merchants and hoteliers told the committee the travel center would create roughly 70 jobs, capture spending that now flows out of Chicopee, and provide safe rest and fueling options for long-haul drivers. Rebecca Wark, a fifth-generation resident, urged the committee to "keep an open mind" and said the Department of Transportation has identified truck parking shortfalls nationally.

Committee action and votes: after applicant and consultant presentations and department memos read into the record (engineering site-plan approval 7/14/22; fire review coordinated with the State Fire Marshal; planning memo approving definitive site plans), Councilor Krampitz moved to approve Item 1 (the fuel-storage/amended license) with departmental restrictions. The roll call recorded Brooks Yes; Krampitz No; Balacare No; Goff Yes; Penney Acastello Abstain, yielding a 2-2 split and one abstention. The committee chair said the motion failed at the subcommittee level and that the committee report would go to the full City Council for final action.

For Item 2 (a separate but related application for a service-station license filed by Pilot Travel Centers LLC), the committee followed an identical process and recorded the same roll-call pattern and abstention, resulting in an unfavorable/tied committee recommendation to the full council.

Clarifying technical details in the record: the applicant stated tank and storage configurations during questioning: four above-ground tanks for diesel (described as 12,000 gallons each) and additional tanks for gasoline; the applicant also asserted a new traffic-impact assessment conducted at the end of November shows reduced daily trips compared with an earlier mixed-use plan and included on-site queueing capacity to avoid trucks backing onto Burnett Road. The planning department and building commissioner classified the proposed use as an automobile service station permitted under Chapter 275 zoning provisions provided site plans and code compliance are met.

What happens next: because the committee-level motions failed/tied and the committee recorded an unfavorable recommendation, both Item 1 and Item 2 will be placed on the full City Council agenda for a final vote the following evening. The committee emphasized that final approval would require compliance with all departmental and state fire-code reviews.

Quotes that illustrate competing views:

"Approving this truck stop will not lower our taxes," said Laura Dos Santos, who provided a decade of her property-tax history to the committee and criticized promotional mailings.

"This is not a truck stop, it's a gas station," attorney Tom Murphy said, describing the project as a travel center with on-site queueing and 25 truck spaces.

"Keep an open mind," Rebecca Wark told the committee, citing the U.S. Department of Transportation's reported truck-parking shortfall and saying the pilot could create jobs and safety benefits.

Next step: the City Council will receive the committee's report and take up the two applications at its next meeting; the committee record and departmental memos will be part of the council packet.