Plans to build a truck stop next to a truck stop approved

Plans to build a truck stop next to a truck stop approved

By Jonathan Gerhardson on December 20, 2024.


A failed lawsuit, years of protests by residents, a death threat. These are just some of the challenges which failed to stymie plans to build a Pilot Travel Center on Burnett Road in Chicopee, in a vacant lot wedged between the Massachusetts Turnpike, a Pride gas station, and the longest runway in the state.


Plans to build the truck stop at 357 Burnett Road can now move forward, after the city council voted 10-3 to approve the necessary licenses on Dec. 17.


The station will have a capacity of 16 pumps, store 68,000 gallons of fuel, and operate 24 hours a day. Additional amenities will include a convenience store, food service, retail sales, and "shows," according to the license application submitted to the city.


The decision is seemingly a win for Dinesh Patel, who has owned the property since 2000. In 2021 Patel was named Top Entrepreneur by Business West, and is the owner of the iconic Tower Square building in Springfield, as well as an investor in the Springfield Thunderbirds AHL hockey team, according to his LinkedIn profile. He did not immediately return a request for comment.


Patel lived in and ran a hotel on the Burnett Road property until it had to be demolished in 2015 because it had fallen into disrepair. Patel had initially proposed a mixed-use development including a hotel, restaurant, coffee shop, and gas station to replace the old hotel, but this proposal fell apart after COVID lock-downs caused investors to pull out of the deal.


In 2022 Patel's company Chicopee Inn Inc. was given approval for preliminary plans submitted to the planning board to open a Pilot Travel Center on the property, but was later denied a fuel storage license by the City Council after vocal opposition to the project by residents.


“When you integrate that truck stop up there with a current truck stop which has created a lot of issues for us over the years - prostitution, drug activity, murders, rapes, you name it, it has occurred up there - you are putting another element up there that will invite the same clients," said former police chief William Jebb in 2022.


In 2015, five men were arrested for solicitation during a two week sting conducted by the Chicopee Police, Massachusetts State Police, and the Department of Homeland Security.


In 2021 Pilot Travel Centers LLC was fined $121,000 by the EPA for violating the Clean Water Act at locations in three states.


Following the 2022 denial, Pilot filed a suit in Superior Court seeking to vacate the city council's decision.


"Residents complained that Pilot Travel had threatened litigation against the City if the City Council denied the license applications, and viewed Pilot Travel as a bully," reads the Memorandum of Decision issued in the case.


The suit was dismissed in Oct. 2024, with Superior Court Judge Jeremy Bucci finding that the council's decisions were "not arbitrary or capricious."


The following month, on Nov. 19, the city council was again presented with an application for a fuel storage license and a service station license for 357 Burnett Road, and sent the applications to the License Committee for further review.


On Nov. 25, Councilor Samuel Shumsky posted on Facebook and Instagram that he had received "threats of severe injury and and even death," and that someone had tampered with the wheels of his car according to reporting by Namu Sampath for The Republican. The social media posts appear to have since been deleted, and Shumsky did not file a police report about the threats. Shumsky did not immediately respond to an email asking who he believed made the threats.


A total of 58 comments were made during the public input sections of the Dec. 16 License Committee meeting and the Dec. 17 City Council meeting, with the majority of residents speaking in opposition to the Pilot station.


Councilors Gerry Roy, Sam Shumsky, and Fred Krampits voted against approving the licenses.