The Chelmsford Board of Selectmen is appealing a controversial agreement between Westford town officials and Newport Materials, LLC.
The agreement grants a special permit for the operation of an asphalt plant in Westford near the Chelmsford border. The Chelmsford selectmen filed the appeal Dec. 2 in Lowell Superior Court.
An ongoing legal battle between Richard DeFelice, owner of Nashua-based Newport and 540 Groton Road. LLC, and Westford and Chelmsford residents has now spilled over to Chelmsford town government. The Chelmsford board is seeking to unravel a settlement that took seven years to reach.
DeFelice filed an application to build and operate an asphalt plant at 540 Groton Road in 2009. Over the next seven years, the Planning Board voted to deny DeFelice a special permit twice. DeFelice appealed both decisions in Land Court. But in early October, Westford’s Board of Selectmen and Planning Board announced an agreement with DeFelice that would yield $8.5 million in concessions to the town over 20 years.
The settlement enraged residents of both towns and sparked demonstrations on Westford’s town Common and an effort by Chelmsford resident Larry Sweeney to stop Westford from granting the special permit to Newport. Sweeney filed a restraining order against Westford in Lowell Superior Court. But on Nov. 29, Justice John T. Lu denied the injunction and also denied a request for the release of behind-closed-doors minutes recorded by Westford’s Board of Selectmen. Sweeney had argued that Westford selectmen had violated the state’s Open Meeting Law by not properly posting notice of meetings.
Naming Newport, Groton Road, three Westford Planning Board members and members of the Westford Board of Selectmen as defendants, the complaint asks the court to do the following:
- Rule the agreement between Newport and Westford is invalid because it was not supported by a super-majority of the Planning Board. Out of five members, two declined to sign the settlement agreement.
- Rule the agreement invalid because the proposed asphalt plant does not qualify as “light manufacturing” as defined in Westford’s bylaws. (According to Westford’s bylaw,light manufacturing is defined as “fabrication, assembly, processing or packaging operations employing only electric or other substantially noiseless and inoffensive motor power, utilizing hand labor or quiet machinery and processes.”)
- Declare the provisions of the agreement do not relieve the defendants from “the obligation of obtaining a variance authorizing the asphalt plant use as an additional principal use on the property.” Principal use is defined in Westford’s bylaws as “the primary purpose for which a structure or lot is designed, arranged or intended or for which it may be used, occupied, or maintained under this zoning bylaw.”
DeFelice wants to build the plant on about 3 acres of a 115-acre parcel, on which he currently operates a rock crushing business. There is also a solar panel farm on the property. According to court documents, the production of asphalt, otherwise known as bituminous concrete, requires a hot mix asphalt drum, a fuel oil storage tank, a hot oil heater, various storage tanks and silos, a 68-foot venting smokestack, and conveyors.
Follow Joyce Pellino Crane on Twitter @joypellinocrane.
