WEST SPRINGFIELD — To bring tenants back to downtown West Springfield, something’s got to be done about the parking, say the owners the former United Bank building on Elm Street.
It’s not that there isn’t enough parking — there are 250 spaces just a short walk away, at the municipal parking lot on Central Street. It’s that West Springfield’s zoning ordinances require a certain number of parking spaces at each individual property, and the dense retail and office buildings on Elm Street don’t have enough room or street frontage to satisfy the law. That saddles potential developers with the delay, expense and uncertainty of applying for a special permit.
Tyler Saremi, one of the owners of the bank building at 95 Elm St., told the Town Council on April 20 that he’s spoken with “a couple” of national companies about occupying the third floor, but “when they see the parking requirements in downtown West Springfield, and notice that our 30,000-square foot building has five [on-street] parking spaces, they’ve shied away.”