CHICOPEE — With business thriving, FedEx is expanding its warehouse and distribution center here and planning to add more jobs.
FedEx Ground Package System Inc., which runs the facility at 140 Lonczak Drive, received planning board approvals last week to add a new parking lot for tractor-trailer trucks.
“Business is booming,” said Kim Masiuk, senior project manager for BL Companies, which represents FedEx. “They think they will add about 50 employees so they need more van parking.”
The biggest change is the company will lease long-vacant land across the street owned by Westover Metropolitan Development Corp. to create an overflow parking lot for 47 tractor-trailer trucks, Masiuk said.
The property once held airplane hangars for Westover Air Reserve Base when it was a much larger Strategic Air Command base. There is still a concrete slab, an old loading dock and other infrastructure left on the property that will be removed. Several curb cuts will also be taken out and replaced with ones for the new lot, she said.
The entrance will be widened and there will be changes to the existing gates. The company will also improve the stormwater system and add landscaping that will be similar to what FedEx has at its facility across the street, she said.
The property is zoned for “Industrial Planned Unit Development,” meaning no more than 70% of the land can include buildings or be paved, city planner Lee Pouliot said.
In this case, the new parking lot will cover about 62% of the parcel, so it is well within the requirements. Once the work is complete there will be less pavement on the land than there is now, Masiuk said.
In 6-0 votes, the planning board approved the proposal and some small changes to the current parking lot. Those include adding a canopy near the loading dock to protect workers from the weather when they are loading trucks and vans, and some restriping to add van parking.
“It is fabulous they are adding more jobs,” said planning board member Melissa St. Germain. She added that she understands concerns aired by one resident about the increase in truck traffic.
“We already have traffic problems. ... If you grow distribution centers you add traffic,” said Mary Hayner, who noted it is often difficult for her neighbors to pull out of Slate Road onto Sheridan Street because of the number of warehouses and distribution centers in the area.
Masiuk estimated the expansion would generate 20-30 additional tractor-trailer truck trips a day.
City Councilor Derek Dobosz, who represents Ward 6 where the business is located, said he is concerned that Westover Metropolitan Development Corp. is leasing the land instead of selling it, especially since the nonprofit agency does not pay taxes on its properties.
Pouliot said the corporation was created to find ways to reuse surplus Westover property, and the planning board has no control over whether a company leases or sells property.
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