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Council hears plan to shift Park and Popular bond to developer-backed financing, allowing future land transfer

Westfield Common Council · April 13, 2026
AI-Generated Content: All content on this page was generated by AI to highlight key points from the meeting. For complete details and context, we recommend watching the full video. so we can fix them.

Summary

Westfield staff presented ordinance 26-21 to replace city-backed bonds with developer-backed financing for the Park and Popular project, enabling a land transfer of a parking garage at closing; staff said the structure reduces taxpayer risk and preserves the city's bonded capacity.

City staff on April 13 outlined a financing change for the Park and Popular development that would replace a previously authorized city-backed tax-increment-financing (TIF) bond with a developer-backed bond and allow a future land transfer for a privately owned parking garage.

Janelle Fehrman, executive chief of economic and community development, said the developer requested the change to enable the transfer of the parking-garage land at closing. "This would be a change from a city-backed bond which is a risk to the taxpayers so it is using the city's credit to a developer…

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