Source: http://www.masslive.com, December 8, 2014
By: Mary Serreze
Parties in a long-simmering civil lawsuit over contaminated soil at the former Don Lia Honda site on King Street — the city’s primary highway business corridor — have reportedly agreed to settle instead of going to trial this month.
The case was “reported settled to the court by counsel” on Nov. 6, according to Hampshire Superior Court documents, which further state that any agreement for judgment must be filed with the court by January 6. No details on the specific terms of any settlement were contained in the court docket. Attempts to reach parties to the lawsuit over the weekend were not successful.
The case had been set for trial this month.
The civil suit, filed in July 2009, pit plaintiff Don T. Lia of Huntington, N.Y. against Environmental Compliance Services, Inc. (ECS) and the Massachusetts Electric Company. It alleged that ECS, hired by Lia to conduct an environmental site assessment on a 1.65 acre parcel owned by the electric company, failed to identify contaminants on the empty lot, which Lia purchased in 2001 for $710,000. The land acquisition expanded Lia’s holdings at 171-187 King Street to three parcels totaling 5.36 acres.
The suit also alleged that Mass. Electric was the source of the polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) discovered on the property in 2005, when an unnamed “potential purchaser or lessee” hired a second environmental consulting firm to conduct an independent assessment.
In his legal filings, Lia claimed that negligence and breach of contract on the part of ECS left him with a piece of property he couldn’t sell. The inches-thick court docket contains numerous motions, answers, filings, and amendments.
The complaint sought damages, to be determined at trial, for the costs of remediation, investigation, and environmental consultant services, as well as for loss of income and dimunition in the value of the property. Lia also sought a determination that the electric company contaminated the soil through its operation of an electrical substation adjacent to the parcel.
The site has been vacant since 2004, when Lia sold his business and inventory while holding on to the commercial real estate. For years, a sign in front of the lot advertised its availability.
Don Lia and his former Northampton Honda dealership have no business connection with Lia Honda at 293 King St., according to previously published reports.
In 2007, an 87,000 square-foot mixed-used development proposed for the site in 2006 by Berkshire-Noho LLC was declared dead by city officials, The Republican reported. The reasons for the project’s failure were never made public. City planning director Wayne Feiden suggested that restrictive zoning and a traffic-related lawsuit filed against Berkshire-Noho by the Florence Savings Bank were factors.
In 2013, the Department of Environmental Protection fined Lia $15,000 for failing to maintain the integrity of pavement at the former car lot to protect workers and the public from exposure. The asphalt was patched in November of 2013, bringing the property back into compliance, according to DEP records.
The former showroom and repair facility, vacant since 2004, was demolished this past summer after being condemned June 4 by the city.
Documents show the three parcels have seen heavy uses over the past century, and that a range of environmental problems remain ranging from hydrocarbons to heavy metals.
A “permanent solution” will be implemented at the time of property redevelopment, says a March 9 status report filed with the DEP by EnviroTrac Environmental Services.
City officials have said they would like to see the sprawling site, which is only a short walk from the city’s downtown, developed.
Northampton’s economic development director Terry Masterson said Friday he expected there would be a “lot of interest” in the five-acre site, assessed at around $1.3 million, with news that a settlement is pending. Masterson said his office has fielded numerous inquiries about the site over the years.
The property is a short walk from the city’s downtown and is the last large, undeveloped plot on King Street, which has seen a wave of revitalization under an improving economy and business-friendly zoning rules adopted by the city council in 2011.