Private transformer in Congress Park poses dilemma

The city may need to go to the state Legislature for retroactive permission to allow a private utility transformer that is located in a corner of historic city-owned Congress Park.

The National Grid electric transformer serves the Park Place condominiums on Broadway. The City Council approved an easement allowing its installation in 2007, despite the land being in a public park. It isn’t clear whether officials realized at the time that it was on park land.

It was “suggested this was a standard agreement. It was anything but . . .,” City Attorney Vince DeLeonardis told the City Council on Tuesday.

None of the current City Council members was in office then.

The situation came to light last year as city officials looked into whether the condominium building built by Bonacio Construction on the former YMCA site encroached on the adjoining park.

After an engineering review raised questions last year about whether Park Place encroached, Public Works Commissioner Anthony “Skip” Scirocco commissioned a survey of the park boundary that found the National Grid issue.

DeLeonardis said the park boundary in that area hadn’t been clear — the historic boundary of the park is determined by a wrought-iron fence, but the fence at the back of the Broadway properties was removed, possibly during or following the 1965 Conventional Hall fire.

“There is no fence on the Broadway portion, which makes it difficult to determine what is the actual boundary of Congress Park,” DeLeonardis said.

The Park Place condos, which are advertised for their “spectacular” views of the park, may have made minor encroachments, he said.

“These encroachments do not relate in any way to the building that is Park Place but rather are a small portion of sidewalk behind that building,” DeLeonardis said.

Bonacio Construction has cooperated with the city’s probe and officials believe the issue will be resolved.

But in the case of the transformer, it sits on a 7-foot-long concrete slab that is almost entirely within the park property.

Under state law, park land is set aside for public benefit and only the state Legislature can make an exception. That means the Legislature either must take action to allow the transformer to remain or it must be moved, city officials said.

“We’ve got an easement to deal with in Congress Park that we shouldn’t have had to deal with,” said Scirocco.

“I think we’ll have to maybe consider going to the Legislature to get an easement to make this all work, otherwise they’ll have to move that transformer, and that would be a big major undertaking,” Scirocco said.

The transformer is behind the Park Place building, atop a slope above the main part of the park. While it’s not a heavily used part of the park, “any limitation on park land requires approval at the state level,” DeLeonardis said.

He said the city may be able to argue that the impact of the transformer on the park is minimal, given its location on the park’s periphery.

No decision on how the city should proceed has been made.

Congress Park contains 21 acres, and has National Historic Landmark status due to its mineral springs and the presence of the Canfield Casino, a 19th-century gambling venue. It became a park in 1913, though public use of its mineral springs goes back a century earlier.

Reach Gazette reporter Stephen Williams at 395-3086, [email protected] or @gazettesteve on Twitter.

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