Chicopee officials, residents react to approval of new truck stop, travel center

CHICOPEE, MA (WGGB/WSHM) – The Chicopee City Council has approved plans to place a truck stop and travel center on Burnett Road and, while some are for this project, there are also those who are against it. The main criticism is traffic, but after a 10-3 vote by the city council, a vacant area off Burnett Road, just off the Mass. Pike, will soon be home to this new facility. “We don’t really have one around here. I haven’t really seen one really near this area, so adding one around this area would definitely make it useful for truckers if they need that,” said Nate Alvarez of Chicopee.

After hearing about a new Pilot truck stop and travel center coming to the area, Alvarez believes it will benefit those who drive tractor-trailers. We will see what happens in the months ahead after the city council approved the plans for the Pilot center. “This is a win-win for the city,” said Chicopee Ward 2 City Councilor Shane Brooks.

The center will include a gas station, a refueling area for tractor trailers, a restaurant, and other amenities for truck drivers. We should note the area would not be a stop for drivers to stay overnight and there would not be showers. Officials said it is a project that will cost $8 million to $12 million and the Massachusetts Department of Transportation has already invested $1.3 million to help with traffic control and adding additional signals in the intersection with the Mass. Pike. Two years ago, the city council rejected applications for a service station at the site from the same Tennessee-based company. The vote was later upheld by a Hampden Superior Court judge in June. Brooks said he believes the current plan for Pilot is going to happen. “They withdrew their appeal and created a new application that, as evidenced by our vote last night 10-3, it was much more appealing to the full city council that this would bring a tax benefit and needed services to the city of Chicopee,” Brooks explained.

However, not everyone is pleased. Seth Wilson is an attorney representing those who oppose this project. He said his clients have traffic concerns and they are not buying the council’s narrative. “They said, in open meeting, that there was no change to the project at all and that’s the critical thing that’s been lost here,” he said. “The real issue here is that the intersection behind me forces trucks to take a double lane turn and it was designed to support a hotel that promised no trucks at all and so adding 500-plus trucks on a daily basis to the already heavy truck traffic going through here is a real significant problem.”

Wilson also took issue with the city of Chicopee and alleged he and others did not have the proper amount of time to share their views on this matter. “I filed a formal complaint after the licensing committee meeting about the unequal treatment and discrimination that my clients faced based on their position, which is unfortunate,” he explained.

In response to Wilson’s claims, Brooks said everyone who spoke at Monday’s subcommittee meeting each had three minutes to say what they wanted to say.

If all goes according to plan, Pilot hopes to break ground in spring 2025.

Wilson’s full statement, on behalf of his clients, appears below:

“My clients are disappointed with the City of Chicopee’s improper licensing process that discriminated against opponents of the Pilot Truck Stop (over 300 signed a petition in 2022) and prevented them from fully informing the Council about the huge City and regional impact of the public safety problems with this project. The First Amendment, Massachusetts Constitution, and Public Meeting law require equal time in public meetings to applicants and opponents. That didn’t happen here. This license skipped planning and ignored the equal time required by law to enable thoughtful councilors to make a fully informed decision. It also denied the full City Council enough time to hear for themselves the full story from both sides. Three minutes doesn’t come close to the time needed to educate a councilor about the huge impact of their decision. This is in stark contrast to 2022 when both sides had equal time at licensing and much more time at the full City Council. The Council denied that license in 2022 unanimously, which the Courts upheld. Even though nothing changed about the plans, the Council flip flopped this time.

It appears to my clients this time that this license was fast-tracked during the Holidays so the residents and region wouldn’t have time to properly organize and to fully appreciate the massive traffic impact a second truck stop would add to an already dangerous new intersection.

The new configuration of the Mass Pike, Route 291, and Burnett Road interchange was designed and built (at huge cost to taxpayers) to handle a proposed hotel that promised it would add no trucks to that intersection. So, that new design requires trucks to take up both lanes when turning. It wasn’t designed for, never considered, and wasn’t built for the new truck traffic that Pilot’s proposed project will add to an already very dangerous and compressed group of intersections. Pilot’s own traffic report estimates this project will add an average of 7,271 new vehicle trips through these intersections every day, with at least 534 of those trips to be 70-80′ tractor trailer trucks.

My clients are very concerned that people bought into the divisive and misleading cards mailed to Chicopee residents claiming this project would lower taxes and help traffic, without fully appreciating the offsetting cost to Chicopee taxpayers of correcting the built-in design flaws of the new intersection. Or the public service cost to respond to the tragic accidents that will follow from the volume increase if this project is ever built. Not to mention the personal risk and cost to life and limb of anyone of the millions of Chicopee and regional residents and businesses who use the Mass Pike/291/Burnett Road interchange every day. Whatever minimal taxes Pilot might pay are not worth the lives that will be lost as a result.

This Pilot Truck Stop is not a Burnett Road resident inconvenience. It is a risk to all of Chicopee and the region. My clients encourage everyone to look further into this and pay attention. They are considering all of their options, including appeal. Please see Burnett Rd Residents of Chicopee on Facebook for updated information and how to get involved.”

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